Sam Raimi’s 1981 “video nasty” gets the remake treatment in a film that strips away the comedy and ramps up the gore, designed to scare the pants off the Hostel generation of horror fans.
This new vision follows five twenty-something’s as they spend a weekend in a secluded, dilapidated cabin in the woods, only to discover a flesh-bound demonic book that awakens an ancient evil lurking within the forest.
By remaining faithful to the original, the film keeps plenty of restless Evil Dead fans in check but doesn’t do enough to help support itself on its own two, dismembered feet.
The only major difference to the plot comes from the main character Mia (Jane Levy), a troubled drug addict whose friends have taken her into the woods in order to force her to go cold turkey. It gives the already familiar plot an interesting new angle, as her friends initially brush off her demonic visions as hallucinogenic withdrawal symptoms.
However, this idea soon gets washed away in a tidal wave of blood, which is a shame, as it could have been the key idea that helped this film craft its own identity.
The rest of the cast is taken from the paint-by-numbers horror palette, consisting of the jock, the ditsy blonde, the smart one and even the shaggy one. Whilst the hokey acting of the first film was forgivable due to the virtually non-existent budget, this time around there are no such excuses and much of the film’s dialogue is rather clichéd and tired.
The silver lining to this however is that director Fede Alvarez has free reign to dismember and kill off this poor supporting cast in the most nightmarish and grotesque ways imaginable.
The evolution of horror films has given rise to the “torture porn” sub-genre, and given that the original film was dragged over the coals by classification boards worldwide, Evil Dead has a lot to live up to.
From licking Stanley blades to jabbing needles in the eye, anything goes and Alvarez’s decision to keep the CGI to a minimum certainly pays off, making for some of the most difficult to watch, yet perversely enjoyable masochistic scenes you’ll find this year.
As far as remakes go, Alvarez’s Evil Dead ranks rather highly on the spectrum. With plenty of nods to the original and more than enough violence, there’s enough blood spilt to keep fans of the original and the modern day horror entertained. However the plot lacks ambition, and given that 2012’s “Cabin in the Woods” turned this tired horror trope on its head, you can’t help feel that Evil Dead could have been a hell of a lot more adventurous.
In cinemas now. Directed by Fede Alvarez. Running time: 90mins.
By Leigh Forgie
Evil Dead
Date: 22/04/2013
Movie Review
