A Classic, Hard-Hitting Remake

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2015)

The Evil Dead is about 5 twenty-somethings who take a trip to a cabin in the woods where two siblings - Mia and David - used to spend their time growing up. Not long after arriving, the group discover an old witch-craft book called the Book of the Dead, but one of the group members unknowingly brings an evil demon to life after reading from the book, so it's not long before all hell starts to break loose.
Now, I know that the film industry has come a long way since 1981 (when the original was made), but let's be honest - the original is a camp, low-budget flick with just a few scares which is cheesier than a cheddar factory. Whether that was intentional or not, I don't know, but when you read what a movie's about and has the title Evil Dead then this new version is what I'd be expecting...not the Edam one. I've never understood why the original gets such rave reviews as it's just a bad-acted, mediocre film.
Anyway, enough about the crappy original and onto this much better version. This one is extremely dark and is most definitely not for the squeamish. There are a few scenes that will definitely make you flinch & feel uneasy and for one of these scenes all I'll say is "tongue" and "knife". It's obvious the makers of this version wanted to go with unsettling, gory and relentless instead of laughable, badly-acted and boring and credit to them for doing that.
The make-up was fantastic, as were the visual effects. It may be sometimes obvious or predictable on what is going to happen at times, but the vast majority of these of horrors are, and if you're let down by some predictability in a horror movie like this then you're pretty naive.
I actually really enjoyed this version. We know it was never going to be a Hollywood Oscar-winner or an all-time "classic", but just watch it for what it is...a very gory, squeamish - and sometimes unsettling - horror film. Ignore the original and go with this one instead as it's much better.