EVIL DEAD REVIEW

Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods. The evil presence possesses them until only one is left to fight for survival.

Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, and Jessica Lucas

Directed by: Fede Alvarez

Written by: Fede Alvarez, Diablo Cody, Sam Raimi, and Rodo Sayagues

  Horror fans have seen a lot of remakes come their way, and many fans seem tired of seeing them. However, there is something unusual in regards to the “Evil Dead.” This remake has the support of the original writer and director Sam Raimi, and the star of the original, Bruce Campbell. With most of these remakes, there usually isn’t this kind of support from the original movie’s cast and/or crew. So will this make horror fans more likely to see “Evil Dead?”

  To answer the question above for myself, no they had no influence on my decision to see the movie. I wanted to see it simply for the movie itself. Since they do support this film, I’m not going to bother to do a review comparing the two movies. Instead, the focus will be on the good and bad of this movie.

  So what is there to like? Well, if watching people get brutalized is your thing, then this might be the movie for you. There is a ton of blood splattering, bone crushing moments. Characters are losing body parts left and right. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie where the characters are getting sliced and diced, so I enjoyed every second of it.

  There are many great examples of this, but two scenes really stand out. The first is when one of the girls becomes possessed, and decides to make some improvements to her face. She then follows that up with a nice attack on one of her friends. The other scene, and probably my favorite, is when the demon is face to face with another character on the stairway. The demon takes a box cutter away from the girl, and lets just say it pretends the cutter is a lollipop. It then decides to get up close and personal with its terrified victim. There was a woman in the audience that was having an absolute fit, and I loved it! Oh and I can’t forget to mention that there is a pretty decent chainsaw moment as well!

  Whenever there is this much fun watching blood get splattered all over the place, there always comes the bad part. It’s just too unreal. Not necessarily the special effects, but what is happening to the characters, and their reactions. There are several times when a character loses an arm, but they seem to just keep on trucking. Yes, plenty of pain at first, but then they get over it. One character has tons of different things happen to them, but they keep on going. I don’t know how they could ever handle that much pain besides the fact that it’s a movie.

  Moving on to the story, it’s the simple formula of sending some young people to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, and some extremely awful things happen to them. And why did they come to this cabin in the woods? Well, Mia (Jane Levy) is a drug addict, and her friends have brought her there to detox. Not a bad little addition to a story where a demon is about to possess the drug addict.

  What is really good is that the movie doesn’t waste too much time getting to the point. The audience sees her struggle without drugs, they find the book, and then it’s demon time. While I appreciate them moving on, it did seem a little odd how Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) just gets the book, and starts reading it. He doesn’t really hesitate, and no one else notices what he’s doing. The only other complaint about the story is that parts of the ending are a little predictable.

  The acting isn’t too bad. Most of the actors do a good job as their regular characters, and when they are possessed by the demon. Maybe Shiloh Fernandez, who plays David, could have put a little more emotion into it, but his performance didn’t cause a distraction from the movie. The only person’s performance I didn’t care for is Elizabeth Blackmore as Natalie. She actually did a better job in the short time that her character is possessed.

  I really don’t know if having Sam, and Bruce on board will make horror fans more likely to see the movie or not. I know it’s a cult classic in many people’s eyes, so it can’t hurt to have their support. If you have never seen “The Evil Dead,” or love horror movies where people are put through a world then it might be worth your time to catch this movie. There are many great painful moments throughout. The story is pretty simple, and doesn’t have many glaring holes. Overall, the acting is good enough. I give “Evil Dead” 3 pools of blood mostly because it creates many pools of blood throughout!

  HorrO

**There is a bonus scene at the end of the credits**