Sunday, April 7, 2013

Evil Dead - more thoughts and spoilers




Ok...letting the spoilers fly. Be warned!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about EVIL DEAD and the more I think about it the more I like it. No...love it.

The movie had me right out of the gate. The opening scene set the whole tone for the film. We know what we're going to see - something familiar, but different enough to be interesting. Thank you. Honestly, people hate on film remakes when they are shot for shot, right? They moan and piss on about how they are just seeing the same movie redone and they hate it. However, they are doing the same with EVIL DEAD for being different from the original. "They changed things!" Yes, they did and they did it well!

We have a familiar setup - five twenty-somethings go to a cabin. However, they go for different reasons than the original film. They are trying to help their friend kick a drug habit. Interesting stuff. Just the right amount of new. Again, thank you. It was believable and interesting.

This creates additional interesting interactions and situations. The cold turkey intervention has Mia's friends thinking that she's just going through withdrawals...not fighting off demons. This was added interest to me. A little added tension. And right when people start catching on, it's too late. The shit is already connection with the fan.

Fede Alvarez, Diablo Cody and Rodo Sayagues along with Sam Raimi came up with a great new take on the script without drifting too far off the beaten path. (SEE: THE FOG remake) The gimmick about the book showing the various, nastiness we're going to see unfold was a fun change. They had Lou Taylor Pucci take on the body bashing endured by Bruce Campbell in the original.  And there were no useless characters or silly plot twists that lead to silly actions.



No...this isn't CITIZEN KANE. I've heard several people talking about character development and dialog. I strongly believe that the only reason people are mentioning this for a gore filled horror fest is it's connection to the original film. It's a horror film. It's being horrific. It's not My Dinner With Andre. I wanted scares, gore and evil dead and I got 'em. And the dead were so....very evil.

We get a nasty bit of swamp assault, face slicing with a mirror shard, needles in the face and eye, an arm sliced off with a carving knife, multiple nail gun injuries and more...culminating in a chainsaw shoved into a mouth with blood spraying and raining from the sky!

Come on, Horror Fans, we should rejoice that this film not only made it out to a major release, but is topping box office charts all over the place. Huzza for horror! I understand, you love the original. You might have watched it like we did - over and over committing scenes and dialog to memory. I get it. But, that was 1981and, while fun and cool and GRAND as a film, even Sam Raimi himself remade it, really. It's not sacred. Let it go already and support good, nasty horror with some truly nasty and mean spirited bloody goodness in it.


2 comments:

  1. Solid review Malcolm. Nothing like the original, but bloody enough for it’s own good.

    ReplyDelete