Evil Dead (2013)
For anyone that has seen the original "The Evil Dead" movie by Director Sam Raimi, who served as a producer for this "reboot" (I use that term loosely for this movie) you already know most of what you're going to get with this one. It's sort of the same premise, but with a new take & new characters. In this movie it's about a girl, named Mia, who agrees to stay in the family cabin with her brother David, & their friends (Eric, Olivia & Natalie) to try to quit drugs once again. Through the process, one of the friends discover the Book of the Dead, & recites a few words of passage from the book. Awaking demons living in the nearby woods which possess each character until one must survive. Just about the same premise, but the whole "quitting drug addiction" part is different. It's actually a genius move on Fede Alvarez's part, because it separates itself from "The Evil Dead" which was just about teenagers going to a cabin.
Before reviewing this, I must say I was kind of skeptical about this movie. I am not a huge fan of the original in the first place, though I do like it, it's entertaining; but it's not as great as people make it out to be, to me at least. I think that sort of comes from me not being a huge Sam Raimi fan in the first place, & that I never really cared for corniness/cheese-fest in movies. Though I am a fan of Sam Raimi as a producer, he's done a couple things as a producer that I've been a fan of. With that in mind & that the director Fede Alvarez saying that it'll be "more serious and scary than the originals"I was getting more ready for it as time went on. Then I started hearing good things about it & started thinking, "Maybe I will see it" & I did & here is what I think of it:
Evil Dead was actually a pretty good, violent gory horror movie. I got more out of it than I expected, but it's not exactly a scary horror movie, which is one thing it fails at. I wish someone could make a horror movie that I actually get scared at, that hasn't happened in years, so far The Shining still has that spot. It starts off kind of rough, because they have to establish their characters and where they are at in their life, simply because this is just one of those movies that has to do that. When you meet all the characters, it actually comes off as you're meeting the characters, they sort of do a brief explanation of each character and it was sort of annoying, though I see why they did it that way. Also, when I say violent & gory, I mean violent & gory. This movie has buckets & buckets of blood & it's not the fake CGI blood, it's the practical fake blood. It's not like little droplets of blood, but waterfalls or just one big monsoon of blood. All the acts of violence in this one is up close & personal, all for you to see. It's outrageous how gory & violent this movie is. There's a scene in Evil Dead where one character cuts their arm off with this saw & you see the arm hang by just its tendons/ligaments, it's gross & instantly made me say "Ewww!"
One thing Fede Alvarez could've utilized more was the whole drug addiction plot point for the main character of Mia. Sometime during the movie Mia starts going through drug withdrawals & she freaks out even more because she starts seeing things in the woods & her friends just blame it on the withdrawals. It makes that whole "Is she really seeing demons or is it all apart of the withdrawals?" thing a bit believable, just for a second. Alvarez kind of expanded upon this point, but not too much, he could've done it to where the audience actually could've believed it 100%, but it's just one of the wasted potentials in the movie. Each actor does a good job with their characters, I didn't really see any horrible acting in this movie, then again this isn't a movie that really calls for too much.
Verdict: I had fun with this movie, it was really the only movie to see at the time, & it's certainly not a "I wish I could get my money back". You can either wait for home media release for this movie, or go out and see it at matinee price, either way you shouldn't be disappointed. Be sure when you see this movie stay after the credits for a very short post credit scene by none other than Bruce Campbell, Ash from The Evil Dead, the movie that started this whole franchise. The cameo sort of connects the old franchise with this new one.
