Chix Chat on Film review: Scary remake no comic relief

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2013)

A remake is always a risky undertaking because it will invariably be compared to the original. In the case of Evil Dead I couldn't shake thoughts of two other films,' The Cabin in The Woods' and a short which I had the pleasure of viewing at SXSW 'Hell No', unfortunately I did not get a chance to see Evil Dead at SXSW, which was also screened, but I decided not to miss out on it. This update of the original campy horror flick was a veritable blood bath or perhaps I should say blood shower, but no matter how you slice it there was a lot of blood and gore. The reason that it brought CITW to mind was that I saw that film recently and it was somewhat patterned off the original with five young people in an isolated cabin, although there was some comic relief in Cabin. The fact that this story was played out so straight just added to the fear factor. I only buried my face in my hands once to avoid the on screen mayhem, which is pretty good considering that any film with a demonic possession theme gets a license for any nature of next level bodily harm. This group came to the cabin to assist Mia (Jane Levy) with her personal demons and decided that this was the best place to help her. Mia's brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) is described as 'absent' when the going gets tough, so of course he chose this situation to step up. The group enter the cabin and find that is smells of death but still stay and then ignore every single hint and warning that could avoid unleashing evil, thus the horror is set in motion. HN came to mind as I watched every opportunity to make a sound decision quickly get passed on which makes it clear that if the characters employ good rational sense it would make for a very short horror film. The special effects used to create the gruesome slice/dice, boiled flesh, dismemberment and such, was visually too frighteningly real, again adding to the fear factor. If you have an appreciation for a great horror tale where you get to see beautiful people tortured from the inside out and the outside in then this is the film for you. I found it to be entertaining and scary. The scenes with the nail gun where graphic enough that I never want a nail gun around me again. I give it a green light.