SXSW 2013: Evil Dead (2013): Dark, Dead, and Disgusting

Here we have another remake. While Evil Dead is one of the best remakes out there, it’s still a remake- an unoriginal idea aping an earlier work brimming with originality. Stop me if you’ve heard this plot before: “Five friends stay at a cabin in the woods and something evil picks them off one by one.” This particular trope is like a diaper- it wasn’t ever meant to be reused over and over. So why is Hollywood still making audiences wear the same poopy diaper? Stop it!

Remake culture aside, Evil Dead is a very well done, gory horror flick. It manages to keep the spirit of the original alive while still varying things up enough to be interesting. Director Fede Alvarez made sure to use practical effects liberally, which keeps the gore looking amazingly disgusting. Most of the characters end up covered in blood at some point, or otherwise impaled/dismembered/disfigured, and it all looks deliciously painful. While there’s plenty of gore, your mileage may vary as to whether you consider it gorier than the original. If you recall, the original Evil Dead got an X rating in some parts of the world, and star Bruce Campbell spent a majority of his time being doused in blood or goop of some kind.

To (slightly) vary the basic storyline about five good-looking people going to a cabin in the woods, the filmmakers added in a little plotline about the excursion not being for fun, but to help Mia (Jane Levy) break her drug addiction. So, when they don’t bolt from the cabin at the first sign of trouble, or when Mia talks about seeing things and no-one believes her, it makes sense. This story hook provides more depth to Mia and her brother, David, and feels very organic. The remaining three characters didn’t fall directly into the typical stereotypes- okay, maybe one of them did. But for the other two girls to fit into stereotypes would have required they have personalities. Seeing as they don’t, you’re better off just remembering them as Body Bag 1 and Body Bag 2. The last member of this quintet is the Scholar. This guy is supposed to be the smart one, and yet he opens a book bound in a bag and barbed wire, reads a passage with repeated warnings not to read said passage aloud, and, since the cursed phrase is marked out, he goes to the trouble of making a charcoal impression of the writing just to find out what it is. Let’s not forget that he finds this book in the basement where there’s twenty or so dead animals hanging from the ceiling. Why the HELL would he read that?

Once Evil Dead gets going, it keeps up the full speed pace for the entire film. While there weren’t many jump scares, there are, instead, a lot of raw and unsettling scenes. With the new additions and slight twists on expectations, Evil Dead can easily be classified as a great remake. Despite a few problems, it’s a fun watch… but then again, so is the original.

Best Kill: Mia fights the demon that’s responsible for all the chaos and pulls out the Evil Dead series’ signature weapon- a chainsaw. As the demon crawls towards her, Mia meets her half way with a hearty “Feast on this, motherfucker” and jams the chainsaw in the demon’s face, refusing to stop thing’s been split in half. Oh yeah!

Action Rating: 3 ½ Deadites, out of 5.

This is the Action Flick Chick, and you’ve just been kicked in the ass!