Evil Dead-2013

 

Evil Dead-2013

5 out of 5 Screams

Tagline: “The most terrifying film you will ever experience”

Im going to keep this as spoiler free as possible.

I often bitch about American horror movies. So many of them are fucking cookie cutter, PG 13, disasters. Then, the ones that ARE kinda brutal either overstay their welcome with numerous sequels (Saw) or have no real identity (Hostel). Horror CAN be artistic. Horror isnt always just about being jolted with lame jump scares with a disposable plot and cheap CGI. Scaring people is an art. And there is a fine line between goofy nd unrealistic…and terror.

That being said…

Lets talk about this fucking little piece of awesomeness. I was not, from the inception of this film, an irritated fanboy. I wasnt sitting around saying “Well it isnt the original, so its gonna suck”. I dont care that Bruce Campbell isnt in the film. I also dont care that they took out the campy humor. If youre one of those people that like to bitch about “staying true to the original”, then save yourself some time and skip seeing this one. Fact is, the filmakers had some pretty big shoes to fill. They couldnt fuck this up. You would have a swarm of angry people ready to crucify you, if you fuck this up.

But one of the reasons its so great, is it doesnt stay true to it roots. They took the concept, and ran in a totally different direction. Thats a good thing. Because where they take it is pretty fucking dark. To say theres a big leap between this, and “Army of Darkness” is an understatement.

Hardcore fans of the original will notice the homages to the beloved trilogy. A certain car makes an appearance, early on.  A chainsaw and a shotgun also have a cameo. Some hands are lost… Also, there is an all too familiar cabin, with a trap door in the living area. Oh, and a little bit of text, called the Necronomicon…

Thats where your comparisons can stop, however. We have a whole different set of characters, taking a trip to the woods to help out a friend, Mia, who needs to detox from her drug habit. What better place than the middle of nowhere? Especially since every time she has tried to detox before, she escapes and scores more drugs…much to the disdain of her friends. This time, they plan to be successful and get Mia off of drugs for good, even if they have to lock her in the cabin.  However..once they find a certain book, and the road to the cabin floods out completely….hell ensues. Literally.

The gore and special effects are top notch, and they didnt spare much when it comes to showing you whats going on. There were plenty of people screaming in the theater:

“Holy shit!!!”

“NO!!!!”

“UGGGGHHHHHH goddamn!!!”

To go back to the point I made about American movies, this is certainly on par with the “French revolution” of horror films. I read that originally, this carried a NC17 rating. I can see why. But now I wonder what got cut. I cant wait for the unrated DVD.

It also helps that there is nearly zero CGI, most of the effects and gore are practical. They are done with models, prosthetic and real fake blood. I hate CGI blood. just sayin’.

The camera work is awesome. There are plenty of shots that will remind you of the original, but theres also alot of more modern camera angles that add to the tension. Including the first person “deadite cam” flying through the woods.

Theres a rather brief build-up before you get into the good stuff. But it is seriously brief. The acting is neither here nor there in these moments before the carnage. You get to know a little bit about our characters, before they meet their demise. But they are also not who they seem to be. The typical jock? The brainy guy? The rebellious girl?

All not what they seem to be,  not when it gets dirty. And it gets really fucking dirty.

I hope this is an example being set. I hope that many more American films follow suite, and take this as a learning experience. You can make a brutal horror film, and make money off of it. People like myself, have a real passion for Horror, and we watched it become its own distinct genre, in the 70’s and 80’s. We watched it, and realized that people that are attracted to darkness, are not blind to the forms of art just because they like the darker side of things.

Well crafted horror should be a thrill ride, but it should also be menacing, and put you-the viewer-into the movie. Why do you think “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was so good? So scary? It contained almost no gore! But it was scary because you placed yourself in the movie. Thats a fucking art. Our horror films shouldnt be limited to “found footage” and PG13 “Ghost stories”.

But I digress. I understand our casual movie-goer is not interested in the pitch black darkness. They want to wait outside the door, and look into the dark..but not be consumed, surrounded, and devoured by it.

The casual Horror movie-goer is in for a real fucking surprise.

Go see it!!