EVIL DEAD (2013) Dir: Fede Alvarez

It was only a matter of time until Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD got it's self a remake/re-do/re-imagining and with it upon now, is it any good? does it taint the originality of the first film? well here with the answers is EVIL DEAD fan Richard Long with his thoughts on this new EVIL DEAD. Check out Richard's words after the jump...



Written By Richard Long

I’ll start by saying I have never had a problem with remakes. I enjoyed Dawn of the Dead (not as deep or as good as the original) and I thought The Crazies was better than it’s original. A remake can’t take anything away from the original. The original has been done and put to celluloid and if it was good and has been taken to your heart, no one can take that away.

The ultimate experience in gruelling horror is how the original film was labelled, or as horror writing godfather Stephen King put it, ‘The most ferociously original horror movie of the year’ and he wasn’t wrong.

The original The Evil Dead is my favourite movie ever, and I have written about it on several sites as to why and what it means to me. I knew watching a remake of a favourite film was going to be a test. I knew, no matter how good, it would never replace the love I have in my heart for the original. However, I was willing and very curious to see what they did with it. Early trailers indicated this was going to be gory and those that had seen it said it was good, but the same was said about Superman Returns (not the gory part) and look how that turned out.

So I waited for the release and tried not to watch or read any other reviews or blogs concerning the film. This has been hard since most of my social networking friends are film geeks like me, but minus a few spoilers I managed it, and went to see the Evil Dead with little knowledge of what it was going to be like.

I knew right away it would be wrong to nitpick and question or pull apart every little change or thing that bugged me. I like it when remakes are different and take the source material somewhere else. Some complain when this happens, but they also complain when a remake is a scene for scene remake. The troubled remake can’t win, but as long as the remake keeps the heart of the original then I like to see new imaginings.

What I liked firstly about the new Evil Dead was the idea for the kids going to cabin in the woods, which was to help their friend get off heroin in a place she couldn’t get anymore. This worked for me. I liked that brother and sister had been to the cabin before and it was all set up nicely. It would have worked better without an opening scene before the credits which cheapened the film slightly.

The movie itself is beautifully shot. There are some wonderful moments, like when the jeep stops at the entrance to cabin, some great scenery shots of sunlight pouring through the trees, and when we first see Mia the troubled sister to David who struggles with addiction and coming to terms with her mother’s death.

I liked main character Mia. She was troubled but she had heart and I wanted her to get through the addictions that plagued her. Of course, we all know this film isn’t going to be about getting clean.

The group of friends stay in the cabin after fixing it up a little, but after an awful smell starts coming from the cellar they discover sacrificed cats, and the book that started it all, the book of the dead.

Here is where we start the horror and unfortunately I felt here is where the film starts to fall apart. Following a similar path to the original with far too many similarities for this to be considered a sequel, we have Mia who, like the Cheryl character before her, is attacked by the trees but in a more mature way than the original. (Won’t spoil how)

However, afterwards I was eager to see how the ghouls/demons were done. What I liked about the original is Cheryl was a scary demon. When she first presented herself she terrified me and still does to this day with her completely white eyes and pale face, sniggering as she moves towards the camera holding half a pencil that she has stabbed through Linda’s foot. She scares me just thinking now of her face, which changes and alters dramatically through the film.

Mia as a demon isn’t scary. Everything about her is stylised. Green tinted skin and similar eyes which are all one colour but haven’t changed. She and the demons that will follow all suffer the Romero zombie arthritic walking. What made the original scary was Cheryl and the others moved fast, twisted and deadly like nothing we had seen before. Although perhaps the director didn’t want a 28 days later type film.

The new Evil Dead is gory, at times very gory. But this can’t substitute the scare factor of the original. The original was frightening. When Scott hunts the back rooms for Shelly, when Ash stands at an open door and a bloody Scott falls into his arms, there were plenty of scares to be had.

Scares aren’t the only thing missing. Also lost is the tension. There is a big scene in The Evil Dead where Ash is walking around the cabin spooked out by noises; not knowing when his evil sister is going to attack was tense. Some might conclude that the original during this scene is slow pacing, but it gives a break from the carnage to build up tension and scares again. The new film doesn’t and is fast paced, relentless in gore but in that loses any emotion or growing fear.

A big issue I had was the swearing. I don’t mind swearing in films. Most of my favourite films have swear words as every second line, however with the new Evil Dead the swearing was far too shock value and unoriginal. At times it bordered on parody and The Exorcist came straight to mind when Mia swore that she wanted to do things to her brother. The original didn’t have a single swear word but was genuinely creepy. When Cheryl stared out of the cellar laughing and tormenting the group it sent shivers up my spine and when Linda sat curling her hair and softly singing her demented ode to Ash was nerve shattering. That is gone. In fact, only one demon says any real dialogue and it’s mostly obscenities that didn’t even make the audience laugh because it had been done before.

There are some nice homage’s to the original. Sam Raimi’s 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 car, the pendant is similar and of course we have the fruit cellar and the book of the dead.

I also picked up there was never a mention of mobile phones, internet or anything modern which led me to believe this film wasn’t set in the present – although perhaps the director didn’t want the film to have a 

timeless feel and not age it with gadgets that would look dated in ten years.

What I liked about the original, was the gore was messy and over the top disgusting and yet at times to much it was funny. There is a sheer terror to the original The Evil Dead. It’s filled with plenty of scares and frightening moments, with some lightly added comedic moments of relief which add to the adrenaline fuelled black rainbow ride. The original was a masterpiece otherwise Sam Raimi would never have had the career he has had. It had moments of great attention to detail and dare I say poetry. The camera hovering over Ash and then closing in on his face, the fast and slow movements of the spirits of the woods, the mirror that turns to water and all the collections of fantastic sound effects from the movement of the camera over wood beams, to Linda’s voice haunting Ash during his hunting through the cellar and of course the stark disturbing static as Cheryl attacks everyone.

However, at times in the new Evil Dead the music is great and Roque Banos has done a great job in a score that at times is reminiscent of Joseph LoDuca original.

However on the whole the film for me doesn’t work. Take away the original and as a movie it’s stylish and has a purposefully washed out look. But it’s too stylish in places making the scares not scary and the demons not frightening.

I didn’t want to keep comparing with the original but it’s impossible not to. I didn’t hate, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted. If an extreme edition comes on DVD it might add more carnage but can’t come close to being as scary or as good as the ultimate experience in horror that was the original.