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I never thought I'd live to see this remake, but, here it is.
In 2003 it was announced that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell would be producing a remake of the original horror film that started both their careers, 1983's (or 1979, or 1981, depending on where you were before the wide release of the original) "The Evil Dead," a film so violent and so disturbing it's still banned in several countries across the world, today. The original film is a classic, from the opening frame depicting a crashed automobile half sunken in a swamp in out in the boondocks of Tennessee to one of the most profoundly haunting endings of a horror movie I've ever seen. And while the original in is a classic, nearly flawless horror film made on a shoestring budget, this remake proves to one up it many ways. I waited ten years for this film to be made, it was worth every moment.
The main strong points of the remake are the character development and the slight expansion on the origin of the demonic nature of the Mortorum Demonto (Book of the Dead). The original film's premise was straightforward: Five college students go to a remote cabin in the woods for a weekend to drink, smoke pot and have fun, but when something evil haunting the woods beyond leads to them discovering the ancient Book of the Dead, which one by one possesses them, turning them into monsters, turning on each other, playing mind games and eventually leading into a blood explosion extraordinaire.
The remake drops much of that premise, while retaining only the bare bones of the old characters' archetypes. There's a guy with his girlfriend who's with his sister, but she's a recovering heroin addict and has come to their old family cabin in hopes of detoxing over the course of a weekend with the help of a rather nerdy fellow's smart registered nurse girlfriend. A foul smell in the basement leads to the nerdy guy discovering a strange package wrapped in black trash bags and barbed wire and upon carefully opening it, he discovers a book bound in human flesh and inked in human blood. On the inside, someone has scribbled the words "LEAVE THIS BOOK ALONE," but being a curious college student, presumably with a philosophy nature (or just bored because he forgot to bring a book along for the trip and the TV doesn't get good reception) he begins to translate it, speaking the terrible words aloud which awaken something from deep below the earth.
And then the fun begins.
I know this remake (I'm not sure it's a remake, part of me thinks it's actually a clever prequel to the original, more on that, later) had rather split views from fans of the original. Some hated it, others loved it. It seems in the year since it was released it's leaned more towards the latter, gaining trust due to the heavy involvement of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell acting as executive producers. Pretty much everything in this movie is, if Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell wanted you to see something going on on screen, you saw it. There's a scene when the addict girl tries to escape and she crashes a car into a swamp... this is what leads me to believe this film may be a prequel. In the original movie, as I said, the first scene is of a crashed car in the swamp-- not the same make or model of course, but it's the thought here that counts. On the commentary for the original film, Bruce or Sam said the idea behind the crashed car was that another group had been at the cabin and tried to flee, failing-- although in the original movie that's only implied for the brief time the submerged automobile appears. So I'm lead to assume that this film takes place before the original movie, if not literally then spiritually speaking.
This movie did not disappoint me, I've been a fan of the original "Evil Dead" movies for a very long time and this movie stayed very true to the original's "balls to the wall" approach, rather than sink into the demented "Looney Tunes" or "Three Stooges" comedy/horror of the also excellent sequels. And, to viewers with a keen eye, the "Three Stooges" elements are still in this film, however they're played in such a way that they come off as more terrifying than funny (when someone slips on a severed ear and smashes their head into the bowl of a toilet in the movie is rather gruesome, where as it can be seen there is influence from comedic bits, there).
The acting is surprisingly good for a group of unknown actors, the writing was done by the same screenwriter as the Oscar winning (or nominated?) film "Juno," and the camera movement is fluid and haunting, combined with the dark lighting and often ambient sounds creating a perfect atmosphere for a great horror film. However, all in all, I felt this movie's violence was seriously downplayed from the original's. The original film is a much more brutal film if you watch them back to back. And while there may be more blood in the remake, the original has more scenes that make you turn your head and wince (the Achilles' heel pencil stabbing scene, for instance). While much of the film's plot is dramatically different from the original, certain scenes are almost frame for frame reproductions of the original-- which is a nice mix.
My main disappointment was a single line of dialogue near the end which was from one of the original films spoken with a slight change which made me a little upset, but it's easy to get over, though it still makes me roll my eyes when I hear it delivered. However the rest of the movie is so solid that it borders on brilliance. The expansion on the demons is nice, some rules have changed regarding the book, but for the most part, the same rules to kill a "deadite" apply. If you pause the film and look at each visible page of the Necronomicon, you'll find there's some interesting insights written in it by "previous readers," which expand upon the origin of the demons. In the old movies, one could argue that the demons weren't so much devils, as they were mischievous spirits who happened to be extremely playful in a very violent way. In this film, the demonically possessed don't act so goofy, instead opting to taunt the tormented by whispering those most profound of personal blasphemies.
The picture quality of the Blu-Ray is amazing, there's a nice commentary by the director and actors on it, but few special features other than that to be found. But, if you're an "Evil Dead" fan, new or old, this movie belongs on your shelf along with all the others. It's pretty damn groovy.
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| Additional Blu-ray options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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Blu-ray
October 23, 2018 "Please retry" | — | 2 | $19.09 | $10.66 |
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Blu-ray
August 20, 2013 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $11.44 | $11.38 |
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Quick Review: Evil Dead (2013) Blu-Ray
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