“Evil Dead” is the best horror franchise re-boot ever!!!
Maybe that’s a bit overzealous. Sorry. I’m just excited. How about “Evil Dead is the best horror franchise re-boot of the last decade!!! That’s definitely true.
I realize that considering the competition that this could be seen as light praise but I think that it’s important to start here so that we can differentiate the film from the horde of monster movie do-overs that have haunted the multiplexes for the last few years.
The shallow remakes of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (yes, all of them), “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” held little reverence for the source material and were merely easy money-grabbing exercises relying on whatever name recognition the title provided. While watching “Evil Dead” it is clear that the filmmakers are fully embracing the idea that they get to make an “Evil Dead” movie and there is an excitement in the storytelling that will be contagious for fans of the genre.
Part of the success of this re-telling is that the original film is ripe for a makeover. Director Sam Raimi’s classic was a fearless, non-stop ride that mixed its horrific images with a campy humor that diffused the tension. The 2013 version simply removes the camp and tells the story straight-faced. The trick that first-time director Fede Alverez pulls off is that by taking things seriously he is still able to keep the atmosphere enjoyable and (as weird as it sounds) fun. Here the laughter comes from an uncomfortable disbelief of the images flickering on the screen.
The plot is soaked in horror conventions and the similarities to “Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil” and “Cabin in the Woods” may be off-putting to those unfamiliar but “Evil Dead” is where the standard was set. Five young, attractive adults in their twenties head out to… you guessed it… a ramshackle cabin in the woods. In the original this set up was not really fleshed and the kids went out to a rotten shack in the middle of nothing for the sole purpose of getting slaughtered. Here Alvarez focuses on the little things like “Why are they out there?” and “Who are these people?” All the better to takes things seriously.
You see, Mia (Jane Levy) has a bit of a drug problem and her brother and friends take her out to the family cabin so that she can detox with no place to run. The problem is that when the demons come to swallow your soul, there’s no place to run!!! The doomed crew find remnants of some sort of witch craft in the cellar; dead cats hanging from the rafters, the smell of burnt hair and an ancient book giftwrapped in barbed wire. Is that human flesh that this book is bound in? Why yes it is. After reading some foul-sounding Latin passages from the book, Mia begins to witness creepy things in the surrounding woods. But she is not to be trusted and the kids decide to stay put. Of course there is something sinister out there and the night is spent dealing with horrid demons that want to defile the flesh. Many, if not all, will indeed be dead by dawn.
Once the characters are fleshed out the first act, the terror gets rolling and never lets up. This film is a tense experience and I left the theater breathing a bit shallow like I had run a mini-marathon (Note: I am very out of shape). While the images are extreme, there is a difference between this and the most unforgiving Torture Porn that we’ve been beat over the head with for the last decade. While “Hostel” and “Saw” were content with operating in the real world merely and tying someone to a chair and pulling out teeth, the violence here is meant to actually entertain. “Evil Dead” is extreme and relentless but operates as pure fantasy.
While a couple of the members of the cast prove to exist solely as victims, there are some standout performances. Lou Taylor Pucci plays Eric, the chump who reads the Book of the Dead aloud and causes the chaos. His character is put through a gauntlet of horrible pains and tortures. While it is tough to keep your eyes open and witness some of Eric’s misfortunes, his luck provides much of the film’s demented comic relief. Jane Levy is the most important component and she gives the film its kick. She sells the horror and many of the visions that are seared into my brain are of her staring straight at the camera, a pure image of evil.
Fans of genre should eat this up and my only hope is that they make more. If we have to have seven “Saw” episodes and an annual “Paranormal Activity,” let’s have a few more trips into the woods. Then maybe, just maybe, our friend Ash might show up one day and slaughter some Dead. That’d be more than groovy.