First time feature director Fede Alvarez’s remake of Sam Raimi’s highly regarded 1981 horror film The Evil Dead isn’t nearly the shameful atrocity that most modern remakes of 70s and 80s-era horror movies are. Not only does Alvarez stick close enough to the things that made the first Evil Dead beloved by fans of the genre, but he’s also a filmmaker with a capable enough eye for visual style that his take on the tale doesn’t end up looking like the glossy, homogenized version made to please a mainstream audience.
So, what’s different here and what’s the same? This is still a story about three girls and two guys going out to a cabin in the woods, discovering a flesh-bound book, and using it to release demonic forces that end up possessing and disemboweling them, but this time around the kids aren’t just going out there to have a good time, they’re going out there so that one of them (Jane Levy) can kick her heroine addiction. It’s an interesting twist that not only spares us the tedious and now-obligatory partying teens segment of a horror film, but that also allows Alvarez to layer in some interesting thematics that connect drug addiction with demonic possession. The film also makes the smart move of not establishing a clear hero the way Bruce Campbell’s Ash was in the original. Not only does this save some young actor from having his career sabotaged by trying and failing to fill Campbell’s gigantic shoes, but it also allows the plot to swerve in a couple of different directions and not feel like a complete retread.
Most importantly though, Evil Dead stays true to the original by keeping the focus on the gore and amping the blood and guts up to absurd levels. This is the bloodiest, most disgusting, most hard-R horror film that I can remember seeing in a theater in quite some time. By the end of the movie it looks like you’re inside of a blood tornado. And, best of all, this is the sort of gore that mixes in enough practical effects work that the tactile nature of the flesh ripping and the blood spurting effectively grosses you out. Too many modern films rely too much on CGI and end up creating video game gore that numbs rather than upsets. Alvarez’s Evil Dead may not have the spark of personality that Raimi’s The Evil Dead did, and it may be lacking Raimi’s innovations in crafting, but it polishes up the acting and the effects work enough that it makes up for its shortcomings and plays on par with the original.
