Remakes are always a bit pony but it’s a bit odd to see the original creators of a movie more than happy to come back and work on updating their original piece for audiences… well that’s what I like to think. What real purpose Sam Raimi (Oz The Great And Powerful) and his B.F.F. Bruce Campbell (My Name Is Bruce) have with a producer credit when they’ve probably had minimal work on this remake of their original cult horror hit The Evil Dead is beyond me. Fair enough handpicking a successor to direct this update but modernising their franchise in Evil Dead hasn’t been the cleverest of moves.
Five friends go up into the back of beyond in the woods to help crack addict Mia (Jane Levy, The U.S. remake of Shameless) “play” cold turkey. The remoteness of the location plays on Mia’s scrambled mindset while educated Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci, The Story Of Luke) plays about with a book in the back of the cabin; the title of which roughly translates as “Book Of The Dead”. The stupid schmuck summons a demonic force which corrupts Mia and the others whilst big brother David (Shiloh Fernandez, Red Riding Hood) takes charge in saving his sister and her soul.
Now as with most modern horror films, you can expect the shrieking and moron acting from the cast and sadly this Evil Dead remake is no different. There’s so many bloody idiot character moments that you just want to smash your head against the wall. For example, 70s throwback Eric is a science teacher so you’d think he’d have half a brain, analysing the situation before reacting… Nope!
Reading through a book which he translates as Book Of The Dead, he muses through it and the stupid bastard sees fit to do exactly what the clear warning signs tell him not to. Honestly, when it clearly says “DO NOT READ! DO NOT COPY! DO NOT SPEAK WORDS!” in blood, why would you carry on?! For science?! Definitely deserved a more fitting death than the weirdly heroic role he plays. The amount of face palming moments from the audience from the characters and the lack of help they give each other when they’re in the same room faced with a problem just makes them completely stupid. “Oh, Mia is acting all weird, why is she jumping all around the room? Why is she vomiting blood all over our friend?” I can hear the three other fools speaking directly in my mind as they watch mouths wide open.
There is a feeling watching this that something as cult and revered as the original Evil Dead trilogy has been now downgraded to a basic teen horror film. What do we really remember from the series? – Bruce Campbell giving an over the top performance and ridiculous comedy horror schtick for a nice, meaty slab of entertainment. Tis not the case in this remake. We have bog standard, horror stereotypes as the group of five friends with as equally stupid character moments, even from something of this genre. Most of the film is spent half building to each member being dispatched more gruesomely than the last, whilst we have some pseudo-commentary on being a drug addict in the background which gets promptly forgotten about. It’s not a case of rooting for the demons or undead, more so for the filmtime to finish when these mugs are on camera. Massive downgrade, and instead of trying to be original, this remake is happy to sink into modern common tropes.
This remake is not trying to capture the original’s elements and it’s knows it can’t top the original Evil Dead for what it did. Instead, it sets out for some good old shock value… to whit I found slightly dull. There’s some blood rain segments (which made for a neat, well done visual to be fair) and a blackened evil tree branch snaking it’s way to a lady’s nether regions which will probably wind up the local focus groups, but the audience for this won’t care a bit and they’ll be entertained but I must say it’s not really anything original. I suppose it’s the first time they’ve been chucked up on the big screen however once you’ve seen it once in one medium it’s effect is limited elsewhere. More fool me I suppose. Then again I did go mental like most people in the audience for the final showdown ending which does have to be seen to be believed.
Does Raimi’s handpicked successor to direct, debuting Uruguayan Fede Alvarez, get it right then? Hmmm, a work in progress. The amount of false finishes near the end is taking the Michael. I am a bit anal and like to know how far I’m through my run time of any film so I suppose I’m in the minority. I mean Evil Dead is meant to be a piece of entertaining fiction but with the lame happy music, “oh my god we made it!” scene when there’s another 20 minutes to go and after you set up various bits which have yet to be paid off, it’s a damp squib. The “alone in the woods” aspect is captured really well mind, and Alvarez does throw in some lush and simply brilliant tricks. Getting it to rain blood in one specific spot is tricky but impressive and seeing people’s reflections on TV is neat. That said, there are multiple easy shocks thrown in to garner a reaction which fall flat. The budget is used to full effect and it looks a better movie than you expect for the $17 million spent on it. Maybe tone down the always ominous Silent Evil murmuring soundtracks and completely random sirens (seriously where the hell did they come from?!) and there’s potential here.
Needless to say, there’s plenty of odds and ends tribute wise which filter into Evil Dead. The actions some characters do are reminiscent of Ash from the original. In fact you could say the role of Ash is spread over three characters but with more added teen annoyance. The iconic shotgun and chainsaw do make an appearance, although it would be nice without all the leering teasing they do. There’s one scene where it lingers on an overhead shot of a platter of the shotgun, some shells and the Book Of The Dead. It’s so pandering in the good 10 seconds they spend hovering over it and presents itself as pretty much porn to audience to get a reaction. So sickening. Speaking of the Book Of The Dead… great job on making that frigging boring guys. I recall the book being alive and having so much more dark spells and the like instead of just summoning one demon which wants to take over the world!
A tough one to sum up since it is kind of entertaining but mainly unoriginal. Remaking a cult classic like The Evil Dead is going to have it’s detractors but the audience Alvarez is aiming for will lap this up. Everyone else will turn their head sideways. Evil Dead only really gets going after a boring opening 45 minutes but then it turns into a “glorious” spectacle to which you feel quite dirty after watching. Mixed results and, honestly, average.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
