Given that most horror films produced nowadays rely on jump scares, gore porn and surveillance footage, it makes you wonder if the Evil Dead brand will be able to set itself apart from the other horror franchises of today.
Especially when you consider the fact that this film, like the original, takes itself a lot more seriously than the other films in the franchise, meaning less camp, more gore.
Jane Levy stars as Mia, a young drug addict looking to quit cold turkey with the help of her friends and her brother, David played by Shiloh Fernandez, by spending time at an old log cabin in the woods.
Things go sour when one of them uncovers the Book of the Dead and begins reading from it, breaking the seal on force of terror and darkness the likes of which they have never seen.
The film follows the premise of the original pretty faithfully and manages to put its own twist on it. It begins to suffer when it uses imagery that was iconic in the original, causing the story to drag a bit as well as some missed opportunities for some creepy moments.
The over-the-top gore doesn’t help either
While there are some times where the gore works, a lot of it comes across like it’s done for shock value, as if their trying to one-up the competition. The biggest offender in this regard is the dependence on CGI for some of the more “colorful” effects.
It gets really goofy toward the end of the film as there are a total of three ending fake-outs. The film also suffers from the false protagonist trope, where we follow one character throughout the story, only to have that character not make it through to the end.
There are also times where certain things that happen feel more like a formality, borrowing plot points and imagery that made the original movie and its subsequent sequels iconic. The film even goes so far as to use audio from the original to build its atmosphere, although not as blatantly as some of the imagery.
In the end, Evil Dead feels like your generic gore-fest horror flick. It sports some good scares here and there, but there was a great deal of missed potential. It felt as if this was almost limited by the fact it was a remake.
Had it been an original story, it could have taken advantage of certain opportunities rather than having to shoehorn in pre-established ideas from the other films.
If you like the original or are into the borderline cheesy gore films, you may find some enjoyment from this one. On the other hand, if you’re just an average movie-goer, feel free to skip this one. On my personal scale, I give Evil Dead a 3/5.
