Evil Dead FIlm Review

Evil Dead - "If we want to help Mia... we're gonna have to kill her."

This is not the most terrifying film you will ever experience. The first evil dead still remains one of the greatest timeless horrors in film history, one of the original cabin in the woods tales with a terrifying twist. This Evil Dead was in capable hands and they did manage to make a half decent film, but there were a few unforgivable mistakes. Ash should have been the central character, whether you reinvent that character or make this Evil Dead a sequel and cast Bruce Campbell again I'm not sure but Jane Levy as "Mia" the heroin addict was a little lackluster. Shiloh Fernandez plays "David" Mia's older estranged brother, he enlists the help of 3 friends to try and get Mia to quit Heroin cold turkey over the course of a weekend at his grandfathers cabin in the woods. This in itself is actually a plausible plot line that lends itself to the initial craziness of the film. As Mia begins to feel the effects of withdrawal the evil within the woods awakes and starts to prey on the 5 friends which she just thinks is side effects of heroin withdrawal. Little did she no that her curious cat of a friend Eric stumbled upon the infamous book of the dead in the basement and unleashed the demon. This is when the film blows it's load a little early and after some brief character development the demon reveals itself and methodically starts picking off our cast 1 by 1.

In the original Evil Dead there was plenty of build up and suspense and the horror sequences were used more sparingly so we wouldn't be desensitized to quickly, in this film it's total overload from the vomiting a torrent of blood to slicing your own tongue open to the famous tree rape scene it's a little too much a little too soon. It's far from being a bad movie, it just fails to deliver genuine scares or a feeling of dread. The gore is extreme, if you love your gore then this is the film for you, it's done really well and really creatively, the iconic basement of the cabin is a little more modernized and expanded upon particularly in the prologue scene. The prologue scene is the best part of the whole film sadly, it sets such a fantastic tone for the film or at least I thought it was going to. The prologue could win "best short film" at any festival hands down, it's so well crafted and reminds you of original Evil Dead trilogy but then the actual film starts and it just doesn't quite live up the hype. The casting for the most part is fine, the score is fantastic, the acting is serviceable for a horror film but the film really shines in the camera work. They really exploit the slightly comedic 70's crash zooms on objects of interest in the film, those were a welcome sight. The speed runs through the woods are also prevalent as well as the looming trees over the dirt paths and roads. It basically looks like the original Evil Dead covered the art department and the story took over the modernized Evil Dead.

Still recommendable, non die-hard Evil Dead fans should love it, definitely the ballsiest horror film of the last decade, it didn't take any prisoners, everyone was fair game and it gave the censor a big middle finger, because of that it has my respect. It's a fun ride, even if it did feel a little long for a 90 minute horror film. See it with a good audience the atmosphere will take care of itself, stay after the credits for a "groovy" post credits scene and just try to have fun with it. Not perfect, not horrible, almost right. 3.6/5

Bechdel Test: There are 3 female characters they talk to each other sometimes about things other than men, this film passes the Bechdel Test