Evil Dead (2013)

Eric: "Once he feasts on five souls, the sky will bleed again and the abomination will rise from Hell."

By Fede Alvarez
With Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez and Lou Taylor Pucci

I was absolutely excited to see this movie! Evil Dead (1981) and Evil Dead (1987) are some of the absolute best horror movies and of course some of my favorites. I tend to be really cautious about remakes because, honestly, most of them are just trying to make money on old cult classics. Somehow, this one seemed to stir up very good criticism and every though I shy away from spoilers, I read a few reviews and got excited. Another reason I was excited was because it features Lou Taylor Pucci who was amazing in pretty much everything I saw with him, like the adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis' The Informers (2008).

In this film, five friends decide to spend the holidays at a cabin that belongs to the siblings Mia and David. Mia went through a difficult period and her friends are trying to have her quit her drug usage. David has been distant from her through her drug issues will try his best to make up for it. As Mia's cold turkey's regime starts, she smells dead meat but her friends dismiss it as withdrawal symptoms. Soon enough however, they discover a trap under the cabin. The exploration of it will prove gruesome as they find a burnt place with tons of dead cats strung in barbwire hanging from the ceiling. They also retrieve a well sealed book, which curiosity will have Eric open. He reads it out loud and releases the demon out of the book of the dead, the Necronomicon.

Bloody fantastic! That was my reaction when the film was over. Groovy! Could have been an alternative. As I said, I am always wary of remakes but this is easily the best modern horror remake I've seen. It started off very well with some clear references to the old movies: the cabin looks exactly the same, Mia sits on the same car that they had in the first movie, the trees are menacing, the chainsaw, the trap... Those references always give bonus points to a remake in my book.

The Necronomicon is really well made. The demons are pure evil and their trash talking is joy: I missed the "I'll swallow your soul, I'll swallow your soul, I'll swallow your soul.... - Swallow this" quote but the clear references made it all good.

Sadly, none of the actors or actresses have the charisma of Ash (Bruce Campbell). I was also annoyed at the way they used withdrawal symptoms to discredit the first signs of demonic possession as well as the nurse who thinks she's got everything under control. This was however a lesser evil, literally, as the movie unfolded in a scream fest of blood and mutilated members. You know you'll get what's coming when you see them use a nail gun or an electric meat cutter.

The graphics and gore were pretty good and the relatively low use of CGI was very welcomed. As is common in horror movies, the sounds and music played a great part in building up the scare effect and Roque Baños (of The Machinist (2004) fame) does a fantastic job again.

However, I think this is the kind of movie that you shouldn't show to minors but that's a good thing for us and them. Despite suffering from a few flaws common to the modern horror genre, it pleased me to the utmost.

I liked: Evil. Bloody. Gore. Knows what was good in the film it's based upon.

I disliked: The know-it-all nurse, the hopeless junkie and the blonde. The female characters and acting suffered the comparison to their male counterparts.

90/100
It's evil but it won't stay dead. A relentless demonic assault and a bloody good remake.