Evil Dead, 2013.
Directed by Fede Álvarez.
Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore, and Bob Dorian.
SYNOPSIS:
Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods.
Although the pros and cons with regards to remakes is an ongoing argument that isn’t going to go away anytime soon, back in 2013 it seemed the idea of remaking Sam Raimi’s infamous low budget gore classic The Evil Dead got many people choking on their entrails and wondering how a vision created with such style and energy could be interpreted for a new generation who expect certain things from their horror movies, things that don’t include stop-motion special effects and re-treads of old Three Stooges routines.
Although the skeleton of plot is still in place from the original, it has had some new flesh put on the bones. In Evil Dead 2013, five friends go to the secluded cabin for the reason of putting one of the group, Mia (Jane Levy), through cold turkey to get off drugs. Mia’s brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) are the last to arrive, joining Mia and her friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas) and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), and not long after Mia’s uncomfortable situation begins to manifest itself as she claims to be able to smell something terrible. Finding a trapdoor to the basement the group discover a room full of hanging cats and a book wrapped in plastic and tied up with barbed wire. Taking the book upstairs to his room, Eric begins to read some of its pages and inadvertently unleashes an ancient evil that will possess each of the group in a night of seemingly unending bloodshed.
Despite being a remake of a film that was over three decades old at the time, Evil Dead is still a 21st century horror film and certain conventions that have become part of the make-up of horror movies in this time period must be adhered to. The most obvious one is the look of the possessed victims – known as ‘Deadites’ in the original series – which brings in a mixture of J-horror influences combined with the look of the creatures from Lamberto Bava’s ’80s classic Demons, which was itself an Italian knock-off of the original The Evil Dead. These Deadites lurch around with jerky movements, much like the ghostly figures in pretty much any Japanese horror film from the past 25 years you care to mention, and their features don’t go much beyond yellow eyes and slimy green/grey skin, which is enough to keep things unnerving.
Being a fairly intimate story and having a small cast, Evil Dead does better than most modern horror movies when it comes to having characters you give two hoots about. Keeping the number at five makes it easier to keep track of who is who, and instead of trying to emulate Bruce Campbell’s iconic Ash character it seems that the writers took the liberty of spreading out some of his character traits and plights across David, Eric and Natalie. Natalie is the one who gets the possessed hand, David takes on Ash’s emotional burdens with regards to what to do for the best and it is poor old Eric who gets stabbed, slashed, shot, bludgeoned and beaten, and it is done with the emphasis on brutality rather than humour. All of the actors do fine with what they are given, with Shiloh Fernandez and Lou Taylor Pucci probably doing the best work to gain our sympathies. Jane Levy is also a trooper with what she has to go through, although she is more believable as a demon than she is a junkie.
Remaking an established classic with so many trademarks is no easy feat and thankfully the soul of Sam Raimi’s original is still alive and well within this film as it is a fun ride when it could so easily have been an exercise in mean-spirited torture porn-style violence. That isn’t to say that the violence isn’t brutal, but it is all done with a sadistic glee that wants to make you jump, squirm and giggle all at the same time.
That said, Evil Dead doesn’t quite crackle with the same manic energy that kept the original film rolling along, which is something of a curse for any remake that is trying to recreate a style of filmmaking that was because of necessity rather than by any contrived ideas of what would work, and although Evil Dead looks great and touches on enough familiar gags for the fans whilst adding a few new twists, it doesn’t push the envelope in any major way and is simply an excellent horror movie without being necessarily groundbreaking or inventive.
Being released just as Evil Dead Burn, the latest installment in the franchise, is also hitting shelves, this 4K Collector’s Edition contains both the Theatrical and Extended Cuts of the movie, although once you’ve watched the Extended Cut you probably won’t need to go back to the Theatrical, as blood is what you come to this franchise for and copious amounts of blood is what you get in that version (side note – did anyone try and license a certain Slayer song for the final act? Missed a trick if not). There is also Resurrecting a Franchise: Chris Tilly on Evil Dead, a new featurette with the critic giving his thoughts on the movie, and a host of archival extras, including an audio commentary with Jane Levy, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, director Fede Álvarez and writer Rodo Sayagues, various making-of featurettes and interviews with Jane Levy, Fede Álvarez and Bruce Campbell.
The two discs come housed in packaging that features new artwork, two posters and a 64-page collector’s booklet, which all looks fantastic, and as a 4K UHD presentation Evil Dead looks incredible. With so many bodily fluids being flung around the screen it would easy for it all to become a jumbled mess but every drop of blood and every pulsing vein on the Deadites is visible, offering up clarity that is only helped by the deep blacks contrasting everything. It is a dark movie so not everything is going to shine, but the lighting is such that it shows up everything you need to see, and the scenes in the basement show very little, if any, crushing when it comes to the use of shadow. Even the CGI fire doesn’t look quite as bad as it did 13 years ago.
Is Evil Dead ‘the most terrifying film you will ever experience’, as it claims on the poster? Not quite, but it is aspiring to be and, possibly due to the involvement of original creators Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert, there is a lot of heart and (ironically) soul here. It accomplishes that most difficult of things by being both a remake that pays enormous respect to its source material and also a solid enough movie in its own right, so that if you are not familiar with the original series you are not going to get bogged down with nods and references to a mythology that you wouldn’t understand. The impeccable 4K upgrade is definitely worth it if you are questioning whether to double-dip, and with this being the first time the Extended Cut has officially been made available in the UK then that just seals the deal if you already have the previous Theatrical Cut Blu-ray release.
As time goes on and the franchise gets new movies, Evil Dead 2013 seems to grow in stature and, like the 1981 original, it will be remembered fondly for decades to come, which isn’t bad at all for a remake – especially one that came with a bit of trepidation when it was first announced – and this set is the definitive way to experience it. Is it better than the original? That’s not a question for here, but Evil Dead 2013 did its job and re-interpreted an old movie in a new way successfully and without compromise. And if you don’t know already, make sure you stay watching until the end of the credits.
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Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
