Big Budget Not Remake of Original

Rating: 6/10 (12 March 2014)

Other than taking cues for creativity in depicting possessed people and the way they commit acts of gore, this film more than stands on it's own for thickly layered evil. Roughly the exact opposite of the Paranormal movies, where scares are derived from long periods of nothing, this films tries to up the shock value more like the torture porn "Saw" movies. What also pushes the envelope is the incredible punishment all our victims can endure. Which makes the film just that more creepy and bloody. I was amazed to read that the budget for this heavy effects film is just 17 million. There are enough practical scenes of gore to make three low budget horror films. But there are also well shot scenes of swamp and creepy forest chases that did not look easy to film.
We barely get to know our group of cabin dwellers before the evil takes over. Each scene was well thought out in terms of pushing the ick factor, making each possession as superhuman as they are supernatural. Yet the director is wise enough to keep this film from feeling conventional. Again, seemingly a great deal of time was put into creating a creepy atmosphere (foggy woods, dark and lonely cabin rooms, point of view attack scenes), and trying it's best not reveal how much was created in a studio.
Some of the gore reminded me of the classic 80s version of "The Thing", which also took pride in coming up with creative gore effects. The recent remake of "The Thing" was an example of how hard it is to try and best the original or at least give the title some dignity. In this Evil Dead update, other than a few obvious CGI effects, most of the gore is only touched up slightly with digital manipulation. When things get crazy as time goes on, the film still finds ways to up the ante, and make it not so predictable as to who will survive and who won't.
To compare this to the original Evil Dead is not appropriate, because other than the basic premise, this film finds it's own sense of style and execution. It certainly invites a sequel, but I have no great enthusiasm for an obligatory 13 sequel franchise to milk the concept beyond it's rate of return. So with a real budget I would guess near 25 million, there are thrills aplenty in this graphic and creepy franchise maker.