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The Appropriate Tune - "Shotgun", by Jr. Walker & The All Stars
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Evil Dead is in the top tier of the 80’s horror world. A film birthed from the deepest, darkest parts of Michigan, which not only got the full franchise treatment but kickstarted the careers of director Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell, which in turn lead to some popular Spider-Man movies in the 00’s and that one TV show where Bruce Campbell had his head up a corpse’s ass and Lucy Lawless was in it or something. And it wasn’t even the good one! Evil Dead 2 is the one that has the funny quotes and violent slapstick and stuff, Evil Dead 1 is mainly gore and and an extremely uncomfortable scene with a tree. But hey, you’ve got to start somewhere.
Given it’s status in the halls of horror then, when the idea of a remake came floating down the tubes the feelings going in were less than favorable, especially as there seemed to be a distinct lack of Bruce Campbell’s with shotguns involved. That folks were wary is understandable; Recent years had seen the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street and the two Halloween films by Rob Zombie, so the fear of something that was fun being turned to shit in front of their eyes was still a fresh cut on their souls. But they’re still making Evil Dead movies now, so something must have worked out. Time to find out for myself.
In Evil Dead (2013), Jane Levy stars as Mia Allen, a drug addict who has decided to hole up in the family’s old abandoned cabin in the middle of nowhere in order to quit the stuff cold turkey. Luckily for her she has a group of friends around to support her through this harrowing time. Unluckily for her they also discover an abattoir in a secret basement that contains a book of black magic which unleashes terrible demons upon them that wish to torture and kill them. First Kid Rock and now this? Michiganders really can’t catch a break.
So the premise is the same obviously, but the new Evil Dead is trying out new stuff with the material. I’d say the most obvious is the greater focus on our group of victims in the cabin. In the original Evil Dead none of the cast were all that memorable, even Ash was mostly just a scared guy before later films developed his character. Here all the characters are defined, their relationships are defined, and so when demons are murdering them you’re far more invested.
And trust me, they do get murdered. The first Evil Dead’s popularity was in part due to the gruesome violence and crazy special, and I’m sure one of the worries for fans going into the remake was whether that would continue. It does, for the most part. People are getting showered with blood, cutting off limbs, sliced open, all that good stuff. How much of it practical effect and how much is CG I can’t say, if feels like a mix, but either way it looks very well done.
To rain on the parade a tad, folks who enjoyed the ‘madhouse’ feeling that the original Evil Dead had might be disappointed with the remake. Crazy stuff happens to be sure, but perhaps because of the greater focus on the ensemble it doesn’t feel like we ever quite get to that 1:1 cabin fever paranoia that Ash went through in the original Evil Dead. It’s also got some of those modern things horror movies love to go through these days, you know the exact type of jumpscare with the music sting, the scene where someone gets dragged backward by something, whatever. It doesn’t bother me as much because most of the movies I watch are 40 years old, but there are things that mark this Evil Dead of its time as much as the first.
To rain on that rain though, while it might start off a bit rote in that regard, by the third act I was quite pleasantly surprised and just how much things had descended into total bloody chaos. Truly a level of carnage that Raimi would be proud of, and maybe was, I didn’t check. It’s not the Evil Dead fans knew, but it’s an Evil Dead worthy of the name. Thumbs up.
STATUS: RECOMMENDED
