Anyone who is more than passingly familiar with 1974's "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and 1978's "Halloween" will see these two horror classics' undeniable imprint all over "Malevolence." Treating his movie as homage while cementing why those pictures—and, by extension, this one—are so nerve-janglingly effective, writer-director-editor-composer Stevan Mena has crafted a low-budget, underseen genre gem that makes up for occasionally stilted dialogue and unpolished acting with a remarkable visual sense and skillful command of building tension. A bank robbery gone bad on the outskirts of Minsersville, Pennsylvania, is the catalyst for three criminals—along with their two hostages, mother Samantha Harrison (Samantha Dark) and teenage daughter Courtney (Courtney Bertolone)—to regroup and hide out in a rural farmhouse. Unfortunately for all involved, ominously standing beside the property is the shut-down Sutter Meat and Poultry plant where a psychologically disturbed killer, himself a kidnap victim ten years earlier, resides.

"Malevolence" takes its time setting up the multiple plot threads, then delivers the goods in alarming, scary ways that pay loving tribute to beloved slasher efforts of old. The burlap sack-wearing killer harkens back to 1981's "Friday the 13th Part 2," the stark, grimy, lonesome setting reminds of Leatherface's lair, and the elegant cinematography and music score, complete with jumpy electronic stingers, are an atmospheric ode to John Carpenter's seminal Michael Myers opus. The characters are by and large disposable types, but that hardly matters once director Stevan Mena starts unpacking his bag of suspense-laden tricks upon his audience.