Director Stevan Mena’s 2003 film Malevolence was an effective low budget chiller which paid homage to both Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre by having a group of bank robbers and their hostages encounter a masked killer at an abandoned slaughter house in rural Pennsylvania. Right out of the gate, Mena showed promise as an up-and-coming director, proving that he learned a lot from his main influences.

Seven years later, Mena followed the film up with Bereavement, a disturbing prequel which told the story of how Malevolence‘s killer, Martin Bristol, came to be; we learn that Bristol was kidnapped as a young boy and used as an heir apparent by another serial killer, Graham Sutter. Bereavement was one of the best horrors of 2010 and reminded that Mena was a talent to watch in the horror genre. Fans were excited about his statement that he had a planned third and final film in the Malevolence trilogy, which would complete Martin Bristol’s story.

In 2012, Mena directed a few episodes of the show School Spirits, but in 2013 he started his path back to killer Martin Bristol and began a Kickstarter campaign to finance Malevolence 3 on his own. The third film would feature Bristol returning to the home town that he was taken from as a boy, leaving a trail of bodies behind. When filming finally commenced, Jay Cohen was returning as Martin Bristol, with the legendary Adrienne Barbeau also on board! Early indications were that this would be a worthy finale and another effective flick from the New York born director.

Then in February 2016, disappointing news came for fans of Malevolence, Bereavement and director Stevan Mena, during the filming of the eagerly awaited Malevolence 3. Due to the tragic death of lead actor Scott Decker, production was halted with only 75% of the film completed and a lot needing to be re-shot, if the actor was to be recast. Financing the production independently, there was little or no funding for Mena to do so. The future of the project looked grim and nothing has been heard since…until now.

Recently there seemed to be movement again on the Malevolence 3 Facebook page, and IMDB updated their Malevolence 3 page to list it as “completed”. As a big fan of the first two films, I reached out to director Stevan Mena to get the status of the film and here is an update from the man himself…

“The rumors are true, I’ve been hard at work these past 9 months re-shooting and re-cutting the film. It’s not what it could have been if Scott Decker were still alive, but it’s finished. The budget was none so I’m doing everything myself, which is taking forever. I’m working on the trailer now. It should be done soon. We did a screening of the film and it seemed to go over well!”

There you have it! Malevolence 3 has been finished and a trailer is soon on its way. This is awesome news for fans of Mena’s films and those awaiting the final chapter in the story of serial killer Martin Bristol. As a fan myself, I cannot wait to see it.