Was all of that worry justified? Well, yes and no. A middling answer for
what turns out to be a middling effort by Alvarez, and by extension Raimi who
moves into the producer chair. Evil Dead isn't especially terrible, but it's
definitely uninspired. A major problem is that in the wake of a film like TheCabin in the Woods, Evil Dead just looks silly and dated. These movies need to
be smarter now, and break the cookie-cutter mold. Instead, it seems that
Alvarez has simply chosen to hack away at our senses with an almost offensive
level of gore and sexual violence. Limbs are ripped and torn, blood and other
nasty fluids gush to sickening, stomach-churning degrees. When a girl gets
violated by a tree then it's pretty clear that things have gone a little bit
overboard and into the land of the tasteless.But it does have a few things going for it, primarily the performances of Jane Levy and Lou Taylor Pucci, the only two who have characters worth paying any attention to. The Suburgatory star undergoes an amazing transformation as Mia, a girl who heads to a family cabin in the woods (always a mistake) with her friends to kick a drug habit. Shiloh Fernandez plays her estranged brother, David,
and there's some obvious tension between the two. Pucci plays Eric, the
token smart guy who also serves as the catalyst for the heinous acts to follow.
The other two characters, portrayed by Elizabeth Blackmore and Jessica Lucas,
might as well not have names they're so badly under-written. Not long after
arriving, they discover a hidden basement with a skin-covered book latched shut
by barbed wire. Of course they open it and begin reading, unleashing a demon that
begins to pick apart the group one-by-one in increasingly disgusting ways. This
is not for the faint of heart.
The story mostly follows the same path as the original, but adds a few
wrinkles, some which are purely cosmetic and others that are significant.
Alvarez pays proper homage with a couple of well-staged scenes that fans of the
original will instantly recognize, but they never become a distraction or feel
like they were meant to be taken all that seriously. What is important, and
frankly the best addition to the fairly standard story, is the psychological
layer just underneath all of the action. Mia's family has a history of mental
illness, which when combined with the temporary psychosis experienced by drug
addicts in the midst of withdrawal, suggests the possibility of some sort of
break from reality. Her friends can't recognize her genuine appeals for help
from what they think are the normal ravings of an addict in agony.
Most of that is forgotten by the time the blood really starts to flow, as
the flat script co-written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues stays pretty
conventional. Supposedly Diablo Cody did a punch up on the draft, presumably to
add her usual wit and quippy banter, but it's nowhere to be found. As each
character tears themselves into vomit-spewing slabs of crimson flesh, it all
becomes a little tedious because we have no reason to care about what happens
to any of these characters. Only in the final act, when Pucci is given a chance
to shine while taking some truly obscene punishment, does the film really begin
to show what it could have been throughout.With a tagline boasting that Evil Dead will be "the most terrifying film you will ever experience", it doesn't pack a whole lot of scares. It's certainly disgusting, and fans of extreme gore will be satisfied enough to last the next ten horror films. Clearly, Raimi wasn't interested in having Evil Dead be a simple rehash; otherwise it would have a vibe similar to Drag Me toHell. He decided that depravity was the way to go, but in the process he sacrificed what made the original so much fun. We get the chainsaw, the Nerconomicon, and another welcome return for those who hang around after the credits, but there's little reason why this Evil Dead warranted a return from the grave.
