Rating: 
The horror remake seems to be one of those things that Hollywood is just incapable of cracking; one need look only so far as the stillborn contemporary takes on Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street to see how it isn’t done. The decidedly less popular cult franchise Evil Dead gets the unnecessary makeover treatment this year, and though it hardly manages to convince of its necessity, it is without question one of the more stylishly reverent – not to mention gory – takes on a horror classic.
Evil Dead is not a great film, nor is it even a particularly good one; the script is chock full of risible dialogue (Diablo Cody reportedly did a rewrite, so don’t be too surprised), all but two of the actors (Jane Levy and Joe Taylor Pucci) are absolutely forgettable, and the first half of the film in particular drags its feet, too keen to go through the motions of a dull first-act build-up.
Few of the big references to the Sam Raimi original come off half as well as they did before – the famous “tree rape” scene isn’t a might as effective – because the tone has been curiously shifted from comic horror – although it is funnier than you’ll expect – to straight-up visceral horror.
The problem is that in jettisoning the comic elements of the original, director Fede Alvarez fails to replace them with anything approaching scary; every single jump scare in this movie can be predicted bang on cue. Take the slapstick comedy out of Raimi’s original and you don’t leave very much behind at all, hence why Alvarez defers to more conventional wisdom.
However, the first-time director does still manage to rattle viewers through Aaron Morton’s lush lensing, and the film’s thorough intensity in its second half. Yes, this is the “five friends holed up in a cabin” scenario that fans of the original and its first sequel will be totally familiar with, though it diverges in a number of key areas; the intervention of drug addict Mia (Levy) is what brings the youths to the cabin this time, and amid the glut of possessions and severed limbs, the true “Ash” of the group isn’t definitively discernible until the final moments of the film.
What really differentiates it, though, is the grand guignol third act, replete with wanton dismemberment, mutilation and a simply ludicrous degree of blood-letting. Alvarez refuses to let up, consistently hurling absurd gag after gag at the audience, such that the sheer reckless abandon should be enough to please most horror fans and, indeed, even the more skeptical hardcore fans of the original.
Mainstream horror hasn’t been this brazen with tearing off limbs in some time, and the showers of gore tread that fine line between being stomach-churningly vile and just a little too silly. The final scenes of the film in particular will have audiences squirming in their seats, something the Raimi original certainly failed to do.
With a tagline as audacious as “The Most Terrifying Film You Will Ever Experience”, the film was nevertheless always setting itself up to underwhelm. Expect the harmlessness of the original’s veneer of camp and you’ll be disappointed; expect a scary time at the cinema and you’ll similarly be disappointed. Oh, and don’t expect a Bruce Campbell cameo, because there isn’t one (sadly).
Gorehounds, however, will find themselves right at home when the pay-off comes around, and though it only barely makes the grade overall, Evil Dead does just enough to pique interest for its mercifully short 90-minute run-time. The whole endeavour invites a sure feeling of pointlessness, but it’s as beautifully shot and gore-soaked as these retreads come. What’s more, if it cultivates a greater interest in a fourth Evil Dead film – which Raimi is apparently writing this year – then that’s no bad thing.
Evil Dead is in US cinemas April 5th and in the UK on April 19th.
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7 Comments
The original had very little slapstick and tons of gore. I think you’re thinking of Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn, the remake/sequel.
No ash? the reviewer obviously didn’t stay for the end credits sequence.
Shaun, I have to question one thing in your review, and it’s something I’ve read in a few other reviews: I don’t think Raimi’s original Evil Dead has too many comedic or slapstick-y elements. Evil Dead 2 was full-on comedic horror, with Raimi indulging in his love of Three Stooges early and often. But the first Evil Dead is pretty much straight-ahead horror in my opinion. It does show some of those slapstick influences at times, but it IS a pretty visceral horror, or at least it certainly was at the time. It’s also fairly gory and completely disgusting. I mean, it was billed as “The ultimate experience in grueling terror”. I don’t think that was meant to be ironic – it was a genuine promise.
Enjoyed your review though. Looking forward to seeing this, with some trepidation.
Shaun,
Next time try to actually watch the original before writing about the remake. The tree rape in the original is not played for laughs at all. Shock? Yes. Laughs? No. If you laughed, you are probably a sociopath. But then, we already knew that now didn’t we?
When, oh WHEN is everyone gonna get,and keep it, right??? The Evil Dead is “tagged” at the end of it’s credits as “The Ultimate Experience In Grueling Horror”, not terror! It’s HORROR because it’s so balls-out gnarly! Terror is for pussies!
I agree with the comments above. I think you were comparing it with the wrong film as Evil Dead 1 has no or very little comedic elements. It is also extremely gory and disgusting and I would be verxm surprised if the remake gets near it in that respect.
Agree that it was a needless remake though. Most of these films try to use CGI to enhance the gore effects but a lot of them like the Dawn of the Dead remake actually look worse than the original in many scenes.
the effects in the remake were all real practical effects, not cgi. it was so it held some more familiarity to the original, which i adore, one of my favourite films i’ve ever seen.