Film Review: 'Evil Dead' Ups the Gore, Drops the Laughs

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 07 April 2013 16:33

Written by Matt Oakes

Evil Dead
Directed by Fede Alvarez
Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore
Horror
91 Minutes
R

This 2013 rendition of Evil Dead definitely does enough to distinguish itself from the 1981 original but in doing so, abandons a lot of the winking goofiness that made the original such a one-of-a-kind. It's mucky, yucky, and dripping in goo but there's not quite enough beneath the buckets of blood to claim the bone-throne of horror classics.

Although it didn't quite meet the lofty expectations it set for itself with it's tagline, "The Most Terrifying Film You Will Ever Experience," it does rise to the occasion of trying to out-do it's predecessors and certainly scores there. The obvious goal behind this Fede Alvarez's remake was to rain down the blood and treat its central troop of unfortunate victims like human pincushions just waiting to be jammed full of a whole spectrum of unconventional weapons chilling in the tool shed. In regard to that goal, congratulations are in order. Alvarez has made one of the most chilling, grisly, visceral horror movies to date.

For those unfamiliar with the original storyline, the whole concept of the Evil Dead franchise follows a group of five twenty-something year olds who visit an abandoned cabin in the woods and after reading a passage from the Necronomicon - an ancient book made from human flesh - unleash evil personified, hell-bent on devouring their physical bodies and claiming their souls. Sounds like the kind of vacation just about anyone would ask for. This film deviates in the setup to this weekend-of-death with some exposition that is pure Diablo Cody (Juno, United States of Tara), who penned the script. Evil Dead imagines that this group of old friends and family reunited to help carry out a cold-turkey weekend for junk addict/little sister Mia. As you can imagine, things didn't quite go that way.

In establishing the little weekend getaway as a rehab stint, the film avoids the tired cliché of friends on vaca in a creepy locale and at least attempts to justify the initial refusal to run at the first hint of things gone awry. It's this small semblance of intelligence that offers some promise for Evil Dead to transcend the genre stereotypes but in the end, it's still the same breed just a little prettier, a little smarter and a whole lot bloodier. 

Once the evil is unleashed, the heads begin to roll and Alvarez and Cody only stop the onslaught of human plasma to occasionally remind us that these are people with relationships that we're supposed to care about. The only problem is most of these relationships are built on rushed and shaky foundations so it's hard to really elicit much of an emotional response. We're not watching My Girl, we're watching Evil Dead so crank up the deaths and dial down the pity.  

As a remake, it hits the right marks. The basic elements are in the same place but it heads in enough of a different direction to make the affair noteworthy not only in the horror genre but in the much beloved franchise. I'm sure there will be a legion of deadites protesting the absence of snark involved but Evil Dead never quite tries to capture that element that so clearly defined Sam Raimi's films.

Instead, it's happy being the depraved little cousin reveling in the sick carnage of it all. Just like the best and most memorable of the genre, the telltale earmarks of exploitation are written all over it. The film essentially presents itself like a dare; a cynic's double-dog dare to watch the thing wide-eyed and not occasionally cringing. However,  I personally guarantee that it'll make even the most stable of knees go wobbly thanks in large part to the top-notch practical effects - Alvarez promised to totally avoid CGI - and a fantastically creepy turn by Jane Levy.

The bottom line: Evil Dead is a gory mess in both substance and execution. This bloody remake drops the campy laughs of the original in favor of an all out gore-fest. There's enough viscus flying around the camera to make even the hardest stomach squeamish and even though the laughs come from the rare, sadistic chuckle rather than the cackle inspired by campy lunacy this is exactly the kind of goopy, gory goodness any horror affiliate is hunting for.

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