"Evil Dead" (2013) Review

"Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up!"

In 1993, Army of Darkness effectively ended the canon of The Evil Dead, a trilogy of horror-farce films from the minds of Spider-Man director Sam Raimi and B-movie legend Bruce Campbell. For over 30 years, the original Evil Dead film has been a cult classic for its campy, black humor and over-the-top approach to cabin-in-the-woods horror clichés. In 2013, Raimi and Campbell have decided to personally turn the classic franchise over to younger hands in order to update it for the YouTube generation.

Now known succinctly as Evil Dead (without the "The"), this remake tells the story of five twenty-something friends who head to a remote cabin to help one of their group recover from a drug addiction. When they stumble upon a "Book of the Dead" stashed in the basement, the friends unwittingly summon demonic forces that take possession of each of them until only one is left to fight for survival.

Sounds familiar, right?

It's essentially the same set-up as the 1981 classic, except here the story seems like its fleshed out a little bit better than it was 30 years ago. The characters actually have a substantial reason for choosing their setting, and this makes for, what seems like, stronger relationships between them. David (Shiloh Fernandez) is there for his sister, Mia (Jane Levy), along with their other friends (Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore, Lou Taylor Pucci) to support Mia during her cold-turkey rehabilitation. Tensions arise between David and Mia when they first reconnect, stemming from David's neglect of his family in the wake of their mother's death. This guilt weighs on David, and it adds a nice dimension of internal conflict to his character that really comes out later in the film when he's taunted by the demon. The other characters aren't quite as richly developed because, as the audience knows, their only purpose for being there, aside from helping out a friend, is to be picked off by the demonic presence living in the woods.

And speaking of demons in the woods, it just wouldn't be Evil Dead without fast tracking shots, possessed tree vines, girls locked in the cellar, and over-the-top gore. There's plenty of that to go around, but this remake lacks the subversive sense of humor that the original used in its approach to the violence. Aside from one or two moments of gratuity that had me chuckling, there isn't much to laugh at here. This 2013 Evil Dead feels much more like the "torture porn" found in movies like Saw and less like a true Evil Dead film. I still found the characters to be better developed here than in the original, but none of the actors give performances worthy of holding a candle to Bruce Campbell's Ash. His slapstick overacting made the original Evil Dead films gleefully, albeit darkly, funny. His presence (or, if there is one, that of any capable successor) is sorely missed.

Another thing that made the originals fun was that the demons all seemed to have distinct personalities. When Cheryl and Linda were possessed in the original, there was a difference between Cheryl's grotesque, angry "deadite" heckling Ash from the cellar and Linda's giggly, doll-faced "deadite" taunting Ash with the creepy tune "We're gonna get you, not another peep, time to go to sleep!" "Abomination Mia" is really the only vibrant demonic personality that reacts with the other characters similar to the way Cheryl reacted with everyone in the original movie. There aren't any campy approaches taken with the demons or the violence in this remake. Where the original Evil Dead was backhandedly silly, this new one is genuinely unsettling. For a regular horror movie, it works rather well, but Evil Dead has never been a regular horror movie now, has it?

Overall, Alvarez's update of Evil Dead lacks the campy sense of humor that made the original films cult classics, and for that reason, I don't think this remake will ever achieve that status. But as a horror film, it boasts a stronger story, plot twists, deeper characters, and more genuine, pulse-pounding terror than its predecessors. "Groovy" indeed, but maybe not for all the reasons you've come to expect.

7.5/10