Summary:
Five friends go to a cabin in the woods where they find a book that unleashes demons.
My Thoughts:
Honestly, I think my review of this movie could be boiled down to ten words: “I love the original “Evil Dead”; this one is fine.”
I suppose since we actually like to discuss movies in depth here at TMM, I should get into it a little bit more. From a technical aspect I think this movie is really good; from a story aspect it’s all right; and from the remake aspect it’s acceptable. Really, I think the best part about this remake is they didn’t mess it up horribly. As a standalone movie, it’s pretty creepy, and it definitely has enough brutal gore-effects to make even me cringe… but… it’s incredibly hard for me to think of this film as a standalone. It bears the Evil Dead name, and thus, in my mind, it will always be weighed against the brilliance of the originals.
“I will feast on your soul!”
David (Shiloh Fernandez, “The East”), his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), and their friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas, “Cloverfield”) and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci, “Spring (2014)”) all travel to a remote cabin in the woods to help David’s sister Mia (Jane Levy, “Don’t Breathe”) overcome her heroine addiction. As the withdrawals get worse, the friends discover a book in the basement, which, when read, unleashes a demon.
So, this is the part of the review where I try to separate “Evil Dead” from “The Evil Dead”. As a whole, this movie’s plot is pretty simple, but honestly, that’s never been a huge problem in horror movies before, so I can’t hold it against this one. Our characters are all pretty flat other than Mia, the one going through withdrawal. Most of the acting is middling, other than Elizabeth Blackmore, whom, in my opinion, easily gave the worst performance.
The gore and scary creatures and effects are the real staples of the Evil Dead film, and those elements are the real scene-stealers. The gore in this movie is brutally unrelenting. I honestly think that even to this day, six years later, this is one of the goriest mainstream horror films I’ve seen in theaters. The effects are all incredibly well done and super effective. I had only seen this movie twice before (once in theaters and once after I picked up the Blu Ray), but there are images and sequences in this movie that will remain burned into my memory. The thing that really makes this movie stay with you is just how far they are willing to push the gore. Most films would turn away after a few moments of gory details, but not this film; this film focuses on that violence and enjoys it. It’s rare that gore effects gross me out anymore, but this one still managed to turn my stomach a few times.
Now, when comparing this film to the original “Evil Dead” there are a few things I liked and a few things I didn’t really care for. I like the fact that this film did not try to replicate the campy aspect of the original, and instead went for a true horror feeling. I also liked how this film chose to use primarily practical effects instead of chintzy CGI. The practical effects just added to the grittiness of the film overall. All this is great, but that doesn’t inherently make this film feel like an Evil Dead movie. It just feels like an ultra-violent cabin in the woods movie that just so happens to be slightly above average.
I think that’s my biggest problem with this film; it’s lacking the spark that made the original films so special. The original film was made for less than $400,000 in a cabin in Tennessee, and that film delivers low budget gold in droves; it’s one of my favorite low budget horror movies, right up there with “The Night of the Living Dead”, “Eraserhead”, and “Basket Case”. “Evil Dead II” is essentially the same film, only remade with a larger budget and with a more tongue-in-cheek tone. When people think of the campiness of the Evil Dead series, they are usually thinking of the second and third entries (“Army of Darkness”). This film simply exists; it doesn’t have the humor of the second and third entries in the series, nor does it have the low budget charm of the original. This movie is made competently enough, but it doesn’t have enough to really stand on its own. Great gore effects and spooky imagery only go so far. I need characters (or at least something) that I can care about and grab onto.
Verdict:
Overall this movie is fine. I still gave it a passing score because I honestly believe it deserves it, just for the work they put in with the practical effects and atmosphere. As a whole, this movie is made well; it just doesn’t do much for me when compared to the original trilogy.
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