Evil Dead (2013) – Not a Milestone
Category: Gore/ Horror
Actors: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore
Duration: 91 min
Rated: R
You might like this movie if you enjoyed:
The Evil Dead (1981), The Loved Ones (2009)
The story in one sentence: Five friends travel to a remote cabin in the woods and find a mysterious book that awakens a demon.
Storyline: David (Shiloh Fernandez), his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), his sister Mia (Jane Levy) and their friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas), and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) are spending a few days in a remote cabin in the woods. Mia has decided to stop taking drugs while they are together. In the cabin they find a mysterious book that is wrapped in barb wire. Eric can’t control his curiousity and opens the book, but despite a clear warning written on the inside – “Leave This Book Alone!”, “Don’t say it! Don’t Write it! Don’t Hear it!” – he reads out loud. Soon Mia starts acting strangely. Her friends think she is showing withdrawal symptoms but it is something far worse than that.
My Review: First of all I have to say I haven’t seen the entire version of The Evil Dead from 1981, so it cannot completely compare them with each other. From what I’ve seen, however, I can say that the original was over the top gorey like other horror and slasher movies from the 80s, and had a few funny lines. In a way it was charming for the given time. But why releasing a remake of this movie? My guess would be, to make it better, but did Evil Dead succeed with that? Not at all:
– We have the thinnest storyline ever
– Trashy dialogues
– We don’t get any background information about this demon
– The beginning is confusing and meaningless
– The characters are flat and I am sure no one can relate to them
– The worst part: The creators of the movie obviously knew that it is bad because it seems like they were trying to cover it by adding as much gore as possible.
After less than 15 minutes I already stopped caring about the characters. If you read things like “Leave This Book Alone!”, “Don’t say it! Don’t Write it! Don’t Hear it!”, would you still open it? And when you figured out that strange things happen because you were so dumb and opened the book anyway, wouldn’t you at least warn everyone immediately? Well, not Eric. He decided to wait it out for a while.
When Jane Levy tried to whisper oh so mysteriously that something bad is in the house I was already done with the movie and annoyed. And from there I just saw one gore fest after the other. I was hoping for a shocking, suspenseful horror movie but all I got was gore, and that just doesn’t do it for me.
I don’t even know if there was anything interesting about this movie besides maybe the trailer and the posters. So I just leave it that way and say, ‘Nice Try, but this was an epic fail in my oppinion!’
Evil Dead is a remake that had promising advertisements but unfortuntely it missed almost every mark. However, for everyone who loves decent gore this might be just the right movie!
My rating: 3.5/10
Image sourced from http://www.imdb.com
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•Sϊmȯn•Sӓyz• 
I like this movie a gallon more than you did. You wrote that the filmmakers tried to add as much gore as possible, but I think the intention is to deliver the blood by the bucket loads as well as the gruesome images. As a horror film that uses special effects to make us want to look away due to the details of the wounds, cuts, etc. I think it works.
I agree with you that the set-up is familiar but given that it is a remake (I do think it’s an improvement over the 1981 version, comparable because they have a more serious approach as opposed to, say, 1987’s “The Evil Dead II”), they have nothing much to go on other than to be a little bit more hyperbolic. I’m all about well-developed characters when it comes to watching movies so, yes, I did feel like the screenwriters could have tried a little bit more in that area.
In the end, I was entertained even though it wasn’t THAT scary.
The Gorefactor was definitely there and it was very realistic, which was probably the positive part about the movie and the reason why I didn’t give it a 0/10. I wish I could have laid back and enjoy the movie but so many aspects were bothering me. As far as the more serious part goes I can relate to your oppinion; if it was done in a more comedic way it would have come off like Hatchet. What I meant was that this concept worked for the 80s. So the approach was maybe good but the end product was just disappointing. Thanks for the comment, I appreciate you oppinon.