Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci
Suffering from a drug addiction, Mya (Levy) is taken by her
friends and her brother David (Fernandez) to her family’s cabin in the woods in
order to go cold turkey. One of the friends, Eric (Pucci) discovers in the
cabin a skin-bound book, wrapped in black plastic and barbed wire and that
contains strange blood-stained messages of warning. Eric finds a hidden chant
in the book and when he recites it, he seems to conjure up something in the
woods that takes hold of Mya, even though the others simply think she’s
experiencing withdrawal symptoms.
Remaking horror films is a tricky business. The rule of
thumb is that generally horror remakes are wholly inferior (with some notable
exceptions such as The Thing (1982) and The Fly (1986)) and a cheap excuse to
make money; an act that large numbers of horror fans find tiresome and
annoying. Evil Dead remained up until this point one of the few major American
horror franchises from the 1980s left untouched in the world of remakes and
boasts one of the most loyal (if rather eccentric, even by horror fan
standards) fan communities in the horror genre. With the Evil Dead trilogy’s
director (Sam Raimi), star (Bruce Campbell) and producer (Robert Tapert) to
hand, this film seems to have been given the seal of approval.
To call this Evil Dead a copy-and-paste take on the original
1981 film would be misguided. This newer version is a more classically horrific
approach that features none of the first film’s humour (the initial Evil Dead
sequels are better remembered for the comedy, but the first Evil Dead still is,
at times, a little tongue-in-cheek). In this sense the film is less unique when
compared to its antecedent but it delivers a still vicious and thrilling story
with involving characters. There’s a real love for the original material here
with a series of homages that run from obvious to subtle. The film lacks a lead
as charismatic as the original trilogy’s Bruce Campbell (although, to be fair,
Campbell only really shone in the subsequent Evil Dead films). Inevitably, some
fans will be disappointed. It’s not the same as what came before and the
pre-existing prejudice towards remakes will hang on this a little (though not
as much as most other examples in this category) but what the new Evil Dead does
is preach to the Evil Dead-worshipping choir with a new hymnbook and speaking
as a proud member of the congregation myself, the sermon still holds up a
little.
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