While Evil's theme of bullying at school may be commonplace, its setting of a Swedish boarding school in the 1950s lends the topic a wider scope of interest. As much as Andreas Wilson's young individualist, Erik, is assailed from all sides by the powers-that-be, whether his sadistic father at home or the tyrannical class-system enforcing council of head boys at the school, we're determinedly spared the likes of either Bergman's philosophical resignation to the brutality or Von Trier's typical redoubling of the torment. Håfström is uninterested in victims, and more in Hollywood-friendly revenge, and this is what Erik methodically carries out, with righteous fury. This might be cloying if Wilson's performance wasn't so singular in its brooding, isolated intensity, and despite the script scampering a little too frantically to right all wrongs at the end, it's difficult to feel cheated.
6/10
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