Redux of the original cabin-in-the-woods horror cult classic (which you should see instead)

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2013)

EVIL DEAD (2013) **1/2 Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore. Bigger-budgeted remake of the the original "The Evil Dead" cult-classic by Sam Raimi (who produced with his fellow collaborator Bruce Campbell, the original's star) may have more buckets of blood and bang for your book for the special visual effects and make-up however it fails when you have to have an 'explanation' for why sh*t is happening (the beauty of the original was it JUST did!). Case in point Levy (who is excellent and if she had the muster to could be a new Scream Queen) is a 'cold turkey' candidate in attempting to curb her drug abuse with her older, estranged brother (Fernandez) and their 3 friends who camp out for a weekend in a cabin in the woods (again Raimi mastered this first of the 'sub genre' of horror) and get far more than they bargained for when they come across a mysterious book of the dead that subsequently unleashes a threatening supernatural force that is very angry. While the surprisingly by-the-numbers screenplay by filmmaker Fede Alavarez (and a gloss over by Diablo Cody!) suffers in making the stupid kids even stupider is quickly turned-over in its second half when all hell breaks loose. Again the viscera flowing makes up for the hackneyed plot but the film's source material should be seen again for its patchwork shopworn indie cred and ingenuity (although the 'whooshing' frenetic force camera-work thru the woods is re-introduced). Enter at your own peril but buy a copy of the epic precursors instead if you haven't already.