Evil Dead

Evil Dead
(2013) [Trailer]
Director: Fede Alvarez [IMDB]

The original Evil Dead trilogy is up there as some of my all time favorite horror. The Evil Dead was basically already remade once with Evil Dead II (which I am extremely fond of) and that caliber of film means the 2013 remake will have some pretty big shoes to fill. I knew all the people involved in this new installment, Bruce Campbell included, had good intentions going into it and wanted to honor the original... so I was pumped to finally check this out after missing it back in April.

Synopsis: A group of teens head to a remote cabin in the woods to help ween their drug addicted friend off the smack... their plan works and everyone lives a happy life... just kidding... they all die.

This remake definitely tries to do things differently from the original, which isn't a bad thing, but ultimately it just doesn't succeed in my opinion. The original is so effective at just getting into the shit and blasting its way through story and character development to instead offer you 70 minutes of blood, guts and gore... and strangely it worked perfectly. This remake tries to build up the characters and story a little more, but honestly I found it boring and uninteresting. If you're going to spend that time, you better bring something unique and Evil Dead does not. I also felt the actors were forgettable, as opposed to Bruce Campbell, who had so much charisma that worked in the roll.

This is the one problem remakes face. It's really hard not to compare them to the original. I know I should treat this as a stand alone, but I can't. After seeing a remake I look at whether or not I'd sit down and watch the original over it. Unless the remake goes somewhere profound, then what's the point?

Now it's time for the pros. 2013's Evil Dead is highly successful in the gore department. There are tons of awesome moments including people cutting their mouths off, getting stabbed in the face repeatedly by a syringe, extremities being cut and ripped off... basically good wholesome family entertainment. The scares are also very prominent and had my wife covering her eyes through most of last 40 minutes of the film.

I didn't despise Evil Dead but given the chance to rewatch it... I'm gonna go ahead and pop in the 1981 classic and roll with that any day over this.