A Better 80s Horror Remake than 80s Horror Deserves

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 2019)

There was a lot of hype leading up to Fede Alvarez's remake of Evil Dead. To say the least, I was not one of the ones buying it. I was firmly convinced there was no way that a darker take on the franchise could work, that Evil Dead without camp was like Fall without College Football. Rarely have I been so happy to be wrong. Evil Dead (2013) is not only one of the best remakes ever made, it's actually the best Evil Dead film to date, even topping the seemingly unsurpassable Evil Dead II. The film somehow captures Raimi's dirty, nasty and ruthless style even better than any of Raimi's Horror movies did, feeling mean spirited without ever being tasteless.
Evil Dead (2013) does what no Horror movie since The Blair Witch Project has pulled off; making me feel like a small child in an expansive, frightening world that still had some evil, black magic left in it. It's the kind of film that makes me fear the forest again, fear the unknown of the wild lying deep in the ominous backwoods near where I grew up. While The Blair Witch Project feels like watching home movies, Evil Dead (2013) feels like a twisted childhood fairy tale brought to violent and visceral life. Alvarez's visual style in everything from the dying, rotting woods to the delapidated and worn down cabin feels distinctly nostalgic in a way that hit me so much harder than I was expecting. I never thought that an Evil Dead film could hit me so personally, but this one absolutely did. It takes the hyperbolic fantasy of the Evil Dead franchise and turns it into something raw and real without ever losing personality and coming off dull, as so many dark reboots do. That's all without mentioning Alvarez's exceptional use of dolly shots, expanding the tracking shots that defined the original Evil Dead with some of the best uses of dolly zooms I've ever seen.
Jane Levy's performance as Mia is one of the best the Horror genre has seen this decade. While the female characters of previous Evil Dead films have felt underwritten at best and demeaning at worst, the characterization of Mia furiously rises from the sludge of its predecessors and figuratively beats them to death for being less intelligent than it. Her internalized horrors becoming something very literal, very external and very real, dragging all who surround her to a sadistic, nightmarish Hell, is spinechilling to witness. Levy makes Mia's increasingly belligerent and violent descent into madness something truly tragic and worth investing in. The gentle softness of her natural cadence juxtaposes brilliantly against the enraged ferocity of her vocal delivery ("I'm such an idiot." she seethes, in one of the most heartbreaking line deliveries of the decade, "For thinking that for once I could count on you!")Levy can very easily consider herself added to my list of Poison Ivy fan castings with her intense performance here.
Lou Taylor Pucci is one of the most underrated actors working today and it kills me that this is his only mainstream Hollywood Horror role as Eric. He's the only one here who really gives Levy a run for her money. Eric's increasing anxiety and fear of what he's done and what horrors he's responsible for, juxtaposed with his increasing introversion and aggression, is performed phenomenally through Pucci's cold stares and increasingly shaky delivery.
The writing is equally excellent. The way that this film captures fractured-but-strong family relationships; some broken, like between Mia's mother and her children, some in danger of breaking, like David and Mia. If The Wolfman (2010) nailed the dynamic of a family relationship inherently monstrous, Evil Dead (2013) nails the dynamic of family relationships that are made monstrous from something good, rather than doomed to spawn something vile from an aggressive and socially Darwinistic party. The film balances its inevitable tragedy with an unexpected level of triumph; David's rescue of his sister is a heartwarming and oddly humanistic decision reminiscent of the very best literary works of Stephen King. It's a truly rare narrative path for a modern tragic Horror film to date, giving it its very own unique throne in the pantheon of the decade's best Horror.
You'll notice that almost all cable screenings of Evil Dead (2013) refuse to go any direction but uncut. There is nothing but good reason for this. The rawness, the spectacle of its graphic and uncensored nature, (almost capturing the feel of found footage tonally at times) is something that was never meant to be contained. It's a ruthless and often cacklingly violent film, like a rabid predator shoved into a tiny cage. For perspective, this and Inner Demons (Which I greatly look forward to discussing) are the only films to make swearing genuinely scary since the aforementioned Blair Witch Project. Just as those films should never be censored, neither should this one be.
Evil Dead (2013) isn't just the best Evil Dead film to date, it's a better definitive 80s Horror remake than the very vast majority of 80s American Horror deserved. One of the biggest surprises in its outstanding execution in a decade all too full of them. Please, Mr. Alvarez, may I have some more?