As the cornerstone of the franchise, Malevolence was a winner at several Film Festivals, including Best Feature at the Long Island International Film Expo, and Best Feature at the NYC Horror Film Festival. It was awarded Best Screenplay at the 2004 Internet Choice Awards.
Malevolence was so well received that Anchor Bay Entertainment, known as a leader for horror in the home video market, decided to make Malevolence its first-ever theatrical release. After a successful limited run in theaters, Malevolence was released on DVD in April 2005. It quickly sold out across the country, with Target and Wal-Mart reporting complete sellouts within hours of the street date.
Tom Bambard, chief of marketing at Anchor Bay, heralded Malevolence their single most successful DVD release ever, out of 3500 titles, which include such genre classics as John Carpenter’s Halloween, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, and George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Malevolence hit #6 on the top 20 Best Seller list at Best Buy, and charted at #3 on video scan’s street week report – a stunning achievement considering it was going up against top studio releases with multi million dollar budgets. It also quickly became on of the top horror rentals at Blockbuster, and Netflix reported a backlog wait to their customers of up to 30 days, and promptly ordered 3,000 more copies to satisfy customer demand.
MovieWeb.com
"Malevolence is a such a well constructed, thickly layered movie and you can tell that it’s creators have nothing but reverence for the genre."
The New York Times "Malevolence will lead Halloween-inspired viewers into this dark place for some palpitations."
Variety "Builds a grim atmosphere, every moment tingles with dread."
JoBlo.com
"If this is what Stevan Mena can pull off with $200k on a first feature, I’m
croaking to see what he’ll wing with more dough and added experience in tow!"
Kickasshorrorreviews.com
"Holy Sh**!!, that scared the crap out of me! The most intense and bone chilling directorial debut since Sam Raimi and Evil Dead! Best Horror Film of the New Millenium!"
DVDTalk.com "No-budget Malevolence has a lot more going for it than many of the
big budget horror coming out of Hollywood"
Moviesonline.ca
"...shames other cult classics that can not even touch what this film offers.
Top notch, kick ass, take it to the bank and CASH it!"
TV GUIDE
"a straightforward throwback to old-school slasher movies that wears its influences on its bloody sleeve and delivers a solid ratio of suspense to shocks. "
Creature-Corner.com
"3 out of 4 stars. Malevolence represents a very promising debut for Stevan Mena."
HorrorReview.com
"Malevolence is an instant horror classic joining the likes of such greats as "The Evil Dead", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Halloween". Horror films from first time directors don't get any better than this. You'd only be cheating yourself by not going to see this film. By far the best horror film I've seen this year."
The Epoch Times
"the whole time I was thinking “Oh gosh, is this really happening!”
Horrortalk.com
"Not since the original Halloween have I felt so uneasy sitting in my seat at a theater! I predict we'll see some of the best horror films of the decade from Stevan Mena."
Entertainment Insiders
"Mena’s one objective is to get audience members to jump, yell, and grab each other, and he does it. Again and again. He manages to make you jump out of your chair left and right."
