A Brutal, Visceral Modern Vision of the Cult Favorite

Rating: 8/10 (27 September 2013)

This is the part where I make the most obsessive of fans' stomachs churn: I didn't hate the new EVIL DEAD. Not only did I not hate it, I actually had fun with it. It's no masterpiece and it doesn't come close to the level of Sam Raimi's original cult favorite, but it's good enough for what it is. Let's face it: remakes are the current go-to cash grab in Hollywood and just about every film you've ever loved is probably going to be rebooted, remade, reimagined, etc. at some point in the near future. EVIL DEAD might be a popular example as to a property that didn't need modernization, but I believe it to be a lot better than most people give it credit. There are a lot of, admittedly, viable complaints about the new movie but, if you can overlook some of it's problems, there is some awesome stuff here. The movie is an all-too-familiar premise: five friends are secluding themselves away in the woods in a long-abandoned cabin. As opposed to the average 'cabin-in-the-woods' horror movie, these friends have a purpose behind their visit besides boozing and debauchery: David (Shiloh Fernandez) and his friends have gathered for his sister Mia (Jane Levy) to help her kick a nasty heroin habit. They've brought her out to the woods, away from temptation and escape, to help her get clean. The cabin belongs to their family but they haven't used it in a while, and it's since been used for other sinister purposes. In the basement, sitting among the remains of some bizarre occult ritual, the friends discover a flesh-bound book wrapped in barbed wire and unleash an ancient evil with their meddling.
Before I explain why I don't hate this movie, let me clarify that, yes, I have seen the original EVIL DEAD movies but it's been over ten years. I don't own them in my collection, not because I don't want to, but because I'm a sucker for the best edition of a movie on DVD with the most in-depth special features and the EVIL DEAD movies have about three billion different DVD editions and each has their own separate group of special features. When attempting to decide which edition was best, my brain shut down from all the input and I just gave up. Maybe some day
For starters, I love the look and feel of this movie. It's gritty and gloomy, the woods are constantly fogged over and give the cabin an even more remote feeling. This place truly feels like it's own little world and there is no escape when the evil forces join the fun. It's isolated and claustrophobic. Then there's the fact that everything in this movie has a grimy feel. Everything seems wet and dirty, and the colors are pretty muted with the whole movie having a very neutral tone with the exception of the color red. It seems to me the filmmakers really wanted the red here to pop. There's so many earth tones, blacks, and grays that the blood gets an extra visual bang when it explodes on the screen. And explode it does because this movie is easily one of the most brutally violent I've seen in a good long time. Maybe this is because I'm not the biggest horror fan but my experience with modern horror movies is limited to some smaller indie shockers and horror anthologies. EVIL DEAD is incredibly graphic and people with a weaker stomach might want to just skip it. I've got an iron stomach for movie gore but I'll admit there were a few moments in this movie that had me cringing. Dismemberments, immolation, blood, vomit, carvings, and on and on. There should be enough here to satisfy gore hounds, but I need a bit more than that to really dig a movie.
My problem with horror movies, and I've mentioned this in other comments on here, is that there's little focus on character development because we know as an audience going in that most of these characters are just there to die gruesome deaths. No sense in giving a character more personality than your average archetype if you're just going to disembowel them a half hour into the film, right? Well, that makes for boring times whenever there's a lull in the action because I don't care what the characters have to say. At least the characters in EVIL DEAD are fleshed out enough to give them a little purpose. We learn about David and Mia and their tormented histories. Olivia (Jessica Lucas) is some sort of nurse, Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) is a high school teacher, and both come in handy a bit with their fun in the cabin. Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) is nothing more than David's girlfriend and serves no purpose other than a wicked little throwback to the original film with the help of an electric carving knife. I'm not saying these characters are well-written, flesh and bloodbut we know a little about them, they're distinct personalities (except for Natalie), and they contribute a little to the film.
Still, above-average horror film characters and enough blood and guts to open a hot dog factory are not enough for me to find more than a passing interest in the movie and, for the first two thirds of the film or so, I wasn't all that impressed. I was entertained enough but I wasn't wow'd. But then we came to the final act. The movie fooled with about an hour in when it seemed everything was wrapping up and coming to a close. I was disappointed and ready to write this movie off as throwaway entertainmentbut then, the movie kicks into overdrive and takes a sudden left turn into CrazyTown. I'm not going to spoil anything here about the end but it was so over-the-top that it saved my opinion of the movie at the last minute.