More blood than the original, may or may not work for you

Rating: 8/10 (10 April 2013)

First, I shall say this right off the bat, I enjoyed the original a bit more. This is mainly due to the fact I love watching Bruce Campbell in anything. As I was watching this film, I could not help myself but ask, "What would Ash do?" That being said, I thought they did a good job with the remake and it was not to far off the original. The plot was different enough to keep me wondering what was going to happen, but it paid homages to the original. It did subtract a few laughs, but it did add a lot of blood and gore. Though, I do not remember the original Evil Dead having to many laughs. I remember it being more of a straight horror film, it was really the two sequels where large additions of comedy were added. So why I keep reading reviews saying this one subtracted the laughs had me a bit confused as the original Evil Dead to me was a straight horror too.
The story has the same premise of friends going to a cabin in the middle of nowhere. However, the reasons for them being there are quite different, as this is no relaxing getaway. Instead, it is a trip to help a young lady detox and get over a substance abuse problem. There is something in the basement though, as a ceremony took place there. A book is also found there and one of the friends, for some unexplained reason, really has to find out what the book is saying and he accidentally releases a force that will possess and tear apart the group of friends in most brutal fashion. At first, they think the young lady is going through withdrawals as she is attacked trying to get out of the woods, but they soon realize there is something evil at play here.
The rehab part of the story works as there is no way anyone was going to the cabin they featured here for a pleasant stay. Most would have left after what they saw in the basement, but they were trying to help their friend. The gore was ramped up in this film, making it one of the more gory films I have ever seen on the big screen. I have seen worse though on DVD. This film relied a lot on tension, too as I was never quite sure how things were going to play out. All in all, they did a good job of making a different film, but still in the spirit of the original. They paid homage to the original by having the camera moving through the forest as an unseen force, there was a scene that was like the tree seen from the original and near the end it paid a bit more homage to the second film with a chainsaw.
So a good horror film, for me anyway. I have heard many people say they enjoyed the film. However, I have heard others who did not care for it much. Just depends on your tastes. I like gore and blood and such...add to that a supernatural presence and you are most likely going to have a film I am going to enjoy to some degree. Others though may simply think the film was a bit too brutal, or gory just for the sake of thrills and the story was lacking. I can see this too, as the behavior of the David character at times had me nearly yelling at the screen! So I enjoyed it, mainly for the bloody romp it was. The gore effects were way beyond the original film, making my girlfriend avert her eyes through most of the kills and attacks. Still, though I think the original is the better film. I kept thinking, "Ash would have had this wrapped up by now." It was also nice in this one that if computer generated graphics were used, they were not apparent. So, I enjoyed this film and the original. In the end, though, it was nice being able to watch a horror movie like this in the theaters for me. I like a bloody gory film.