The whole thing is a tad overrated, but this is still an atmospheric creeper

Rating: 7/10 (8 December 2018)

I'm sure by this point nobody cares what somebody like me has to say about this movie, or indeed, this *franchise*, but I'll do it anyway. I saw the next two instalments (the remake given the name Dead by Dawn and the loose sequel), and I was glad to finally come to this one. I thought all three movies were somewhat entertaining, but also given an undue amount of cultural weight. This is my favourite of the bunch because it really does contain a weird, morbid atmosphere, and is not played for laughs.
Those only familiar with the other films (and I think there are a surprising lot of you) might be surprised at how hard Sam Reimy works to create an atmosphere of genuine dread and hopelessness. It works well, up to a point. The problem is that the characters are non-entities except for Ash, and the story feels like it was written by a nine-year-old. Of course, we are all only really in this for the mayhem, and it does start pretty quickly. I like how this movie really pushes the case for the environment itself being malefic; that it's not just the playing of a tape waking the dead (or demons as the case may be), but the entire woodland they are in being riddled with evil and malignant spiritualities. It added an unexpected almost folk-horror element to proceedings, even though it was rather understated. Not much dialogue of interest in the film at all, so really not a lot to think about.
The demons seem to be able to possess whomever they want, whenever they want, so the rules of the world are nebulous and don't seem to make sense. Why'd they go back to sleep after the professor made the tape and spoke the incantations? Look, I'm fine with ambiguity in horror; in fact it's largely preferred to having everything explained, but here it just seemed like none of that stuff really mattered, and that's a bit iinsulting.
But hey, this is a really well-made movie with some nice quirks that was created by people who clearly really enjoyed what they were doing. Everyone plays it up to the hilt and I appreciate that. It's a lot creepier than the other instalments and does contain one or two genuinely disturbing scenes involving trees. it's also just over 80 minutes long, so the time will fly by.
JOIN US!