By David Dent
Interestingly the original title of this Spanish family trauma cum possession movie is ‘El vestido’, translated as ‘The Dress’, and it’s more honest than the titularly inaccurate UK version; there isn’t much that’s ‘evil’ here. Let me explain.
Alicia (Belén Rueda) is a recently divorced mother of 10 year old Carla (Vera Centenera); an odd bit of casting in that Rueda’s in her early 60s. Anyway they’ve just moved to an old fixer upper house, with Alicia trying to rekindle her talent for painting; via her friend Paulina (Belén Écija) she’s received a commission to paint someone’s dog, but one senses this isn’t really how she wishes to develop her craft.
Meanwhile Carla faces the first day in a new school, where she sticks out because mum hasn’t got it together to buy her a school uniform (she instead wears a sweat that reads ‘Fuck You All’ although none of the teachers seem to pick up on it) and as ‘top of the class’ in her last school she draws the attention of the school bully, Ramiro (Samuel Sánchez).
Things are not easy at home, exacerbated by Alicia’s ex who is exerting pressure for custody of their daughter, so it’s not surprising that Carla acts a bit odd. But we’ve already seen a prologue in which their new house, back in 1970, was the scene of some murderous ghostly goings on, so the young girl’s acquisition of an old dress from the attic (which she is obsessively unable to get into) and increasingly isolated behaviour could be either naturally or supernaturally directed.
Director Jacob Santana’s casting of Rueda was clearly influenced by her previous roles in torrid spook dramas like The Orphanage and Julia’s Eyes from 2007 and 2010 respectively, and indeed she can be relied upon to emote when, to be honest, not much is happening.
Things come to a head when Alicia finds out the history of the house – as the title gives away, the dress is key – and the resultant psychic storm in a teacup resolves itself into an ending that mercifully doesn’t promise a sequel but does get Alicia to reflect on her mothering skills.
Evil Dress is pretty pedestrian stuff, hinging on a bit of history borrowed from any number of J (or K) horror movies preoccupied with dynastic revenge. Possibly the best thing in this is Centenera, who remains enigmatic and believably troubled whether it’s the spooks or her mum twisting her melon.
Evil Dress screened as part of Grimmfest 2026.
