Evil Dead (remake) - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

FEDE Alvarez’s remake of seminal horror film Evil Dead may not surpass the achievements of Sam Raimi’s original but it’s still a bloody good horror film… with the emphasis on bloody!

Affectionate towards its predecessor when it wants to be, this re-do also has the guts to go for it too both in terms of its hardcore approach to the violence and when to deviate from the original.

And that’s thanks in no small part to Alvarez, who didn’t want to see a remake in the first place, and then decided that he should be the one to protect its integrity if there had to be one.

As with the original five friends head to a cabin in the woods and unwittingly unleash a demonic force upon discovering the Book of the Dead.

This time out there’s no Ash. Rather, there’s recovering addict Mia (Jane Levy), her estranged brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and their three best friends (Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore).

Alvarez wastes little time in establishing the scenario (one criticism could be at the expense of giving audiences anyone to truly care about) and throws himself into the horror full-scale.

There are literally buckets of blood throughout as well as innumerable scenes to make your toes curl (another criticism could be that things eventually get so over the top in terms of gore that the chill factor is negated).

But Alvarez is smart too. He isn’t afraid to pile on the excess to such an extent that the addiction becomes in seeing just how extreme things can get. And it’s that which ultimately keeps you gripped.

He also retains some of the original’s key moments, making them darker and less ambiguous in the case of the infamous tree rape sequence and probably even more bloody in the case of the rain.

In doing so, he also conforms to modern horror trends in putting his young cast through the ringer in terms of suffering (physically and mentally).

Yet ironically, it’s this go for broke attitude that carries the film through and what makes this particular Evil Dead a wild ride for horror and non-horror fans alike. And worth seeing whether you have an appreciation for the original or not.

Certificate: 18
Running time: 91mins
UK Release Date: April 18, 2013

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