The good outweighs the bad in a rare case.

Rating: 7/10 (2 May 2020)

Revisiting this in 2020 was pretty interesting and satisfying. I needed that much time to let my thoughts on this film marinate. First let me cut to the chase the main cast, you could tell they put all their effort and trust in to this crew. The dedication from most of the cast and the make ups and gross-out initial story progressions were part of the extreme highlights.
I think it's cool that they filmed majority of the film in order, in order to benefit from the cast's understanding of the escalation in the story. All of the pieces were there to fit in the spots. Jane Levy was committed, exhausted, and beautiful. Jessica Lucas was her usual excellent and persuasive self, I love her subtlety and realism, and always thought she was an underutilized actress. The other main actors all looked and acted their parts well both alive and especially dead. The practical make ups and unique body horror/ contagion / almost sci fi parasitical nature of the plot's re-tweaking all worked surprisingly well for a one-off.
But that brings me to the weaker aspects. The story doesn't make much sense, and it's glaringly obvious especially towards the end. Even for Evil Dead standards. They couldn't really tell what vibe they wanted to go for in some parts. Gore was the top priority, and although that plays out well, especially with the deadite's, the sense of it wears thin by the end. Some of it works awesome, some of it seems a little lazy and contrived. It's a mixed bag.
The writing and script suffered the most I think, and a lot more than is fair for the actors and their dedication to the roles. Had the writing and script been stronger, the good visuals could've benefitted a lot more from it. The end was a scattered wtf moment. But the initial production was not bad.
I see this as an enjoyable horror film for the most part but the flaws are very evident. Some of it could've even just been fixed in editing, how they didn't notice or retweak some of the flaws in post-production is a bit of a mystery after all that work and effort of the cast.
I really think Bruce Campbell should've been the truck driver at the end. If they were going to turn on the campy faucets to that degree, might as well take it all the way home with more than an after credits one-liner. Overall not the worst it could've been. The potential and glimpses of talent still shine through. But some of the contrivances, nonsense, rushed editing, and unintentional campiness was a little all over the place I can admit.
I think most of the cast did great and I still think with that said, I like this film more each time I watch it. The good outweighs the bad in a rare case. It took me a while to accept this film as a part of the main series. But I think I've finally wrapped my head around it as a sequel more than a remake.