Evil Dead - Review

Horror remakes, they never seem to end, and like movies based on video games they nearly always deliver poor or sub standard results. So imagine the collective sigh of millions of film fans when it was announced that one of the holy grails of horror, The Evil Dead, was to be remade. A small amount of relief came from the fact Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were producing, but still is this really warranted? As someone who'd never seen the original before now, I had a chance to see the two with a fresh perspective.

Evil Dead (dir. Fede Alvarez) follows Mia (Jane Levy), her brother and three friends as they spend a weekend in a cabin in the woods in order to help Mia kick a drug habit. On discovery of a Book of the Dead they unwittingly summon demons that possesses members of the group. A desperate fight for survival ensues as the evil grows and bodies begin to stack up.

Evil Dead, although being a remake of The Evil Dead, does things differently to the original in terms of story and tone. The original plays out very simplistically, there's not a good deal of character foundation. The remake has a sturdy structure to it, the visitors have been here before as kids, they're long time friends and they're here to help Mia kick a drug habit, far from the world where she can fall back in to it. When shit hits the fan there are legitimate reasons for them to stay, it feels believable. This isn't your typical, stupid kids do stupid shit kind of film. Surprisingly any amount of humour is almost non existent, except in a few instances with one character flat out refuses to die, despite multiple, horrifying wounds. This lack of laughs is a little jarring and really not what I expected from the this film, and the seriousness makes you want to re-watch Evil Dead 2 just to remember why you initially wanted to see this.

The action is reasonably unpredictable, and with focus occasionally shifting from characters, you have a vested interest in some of them, however it's easy to guess who will come out on top. There are efforts to avoid cliched tricks of the trade that I have come to sigh and laugh at, therefore the shocks come from rather random places, and once or twice I did physically jump in my seat. However that idea of haunting, brooding and disturbing horror still remains absent, as it does from countless modern horrors, I firmly believe that no film will ever impact me the way The Shining did. The effects are quite simply stunning and grotesque, with most being old school in camera solutions mixed with flutters of digital enhancements. They will make you squirm and reel as there's so much care and attention made to keep this feeling very real. The result is a horror film that I actually enjoyed watching, the pace, action and the all important foundation of the story had me reasonably interested. What helps is the way the back story gives Mia's outcome some kind of metaphorical implications, rather than simply it's all over, let's get to a hospital and try and explain this madness. There's some element, albeit a very obvious one, that she may have ousted her demons.

It's not perfect by any standards, the genre and the setting are well worn and makes me think of The Cabin In The Woods in the which the idea is riffed on almost in a spoof fashion. It rings with those familiar problems with modern horror, but does a better job at keeping you engaged and occasionally surprised. Given this comes from the guys who defined the cabin in the woods horror, I can't help but respect that they tried something a little different, rather than a flat out remake (a funny mindless horror) they went a different road and sought to give us some serious scares. Brave move and on it's own it stands out further than a lot of horror movies, but ultimately makes me want to settle back in to the not so serious predecessors for some relief.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆