It’s raining blood in Fede Alvarez’s shock-gore remake of the 1981 indie-horror classic “The Evil Dead”. No, seriously. It’s actually raining blood. Where most remakes come with a preemptive sigh, “Evil Dead” opens a familiar vein in a new, creative way.
The film’s original director Sam Raimi (Oz: The Great and Wonderful, Spiderman) collaborated and produced with original cast member Bruce Campbell. They worked closely with director Fede Alvarez as well as writers Diablo Cody (Juno) and Rodo Sayagues (Panic Attack!). This combination of old and new gave Alvarez an opportunity to capitalize on a cult-horror standard while mixing in his own slash and stab style.
Evil Dead takes the original story in a new direction. Instead of five 20-somethings boozing and fondling one another, Alvarez injects a little drama with a heroin addict sister Mia (Jane Levy, Suburgatory) and a guilt-ridden brother David (Shiloh Fernandez, Red Riding Hood) who are both dealing with the death of their clinically insane mother.
Mia vows to stop using and gathers her two closest friends, Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) and Olivia (Jessica Lucas), at the family cabin to sweat it out. David brings along his girlfriend, Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) and promises to be there for Mia. And when Eric reads a prayer from the cursed book and Mia is possessed by a puke-spewing, razor-totting, tongue-splitting demon, David is there for Mia with a chainsaw, nail-gun, shotgun, and an ever useful roll of duct-tape.
There’s plenty of “don’t open that door,” “what’s that in the mirror,” and “there’s something behind you” shockers, but I was surprised to find them in the minority compared to the gory carnage and dismemberments. Alvarez takes his time when someone’s about to draw blood, and when they do he doesn’t skimp on the red dye and corn syrup. If you’re squeamish this isn’t your kind of movie. I wasn’t surprised to see a couple people leave the theatre when Olivia played Jack-o-lantern with her face.
Is Evil Dead better than the original? No, it’s not the same kind of movie. The Evil Dead is quirky and littered with eighties style dark humor. Evil Dead is perfectly disturbing and nods to the original in all the right places. It capitalizes on the desensitization of modern horror fans with buckets of blood and hacked off limbs. With all the things Alvarez did to change The Evil Dead, he never tried to make it better than the original, but rather have Evil Dead stand on its own stumpy, sawed off legs.