Movie Review: Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead is a remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 classic. The film, directed by Fede Alvarez, stays close to the source material, but this version lacks suspension and the quirky charm of the original. Evil Dead wants to be a gorier outing than the original, but it’s not, and the absence of a charismatic lead makes the film feel like an exercise in mimicry instead of the creation of something new.

The film begins with a girl walking in the woods. She’s bleeding. She sees someone, and she hides behind a tree, but it’s not enough. Two men find her; a bag is put over her head, and she is taken. At first I thought this was a set up to a flashback, but these events happen before the five friends arrive at the cabin. The girl is taken to a basement. There are people there, including her father and an old woman. The old woman tells the father that the evil the book wrought must be ended by how the book decrees, so the girl’s father sets her on fire. Before she dies, the reason, a valid one, they are burning her alive is revealed.

Jane Levy as Mia

Thanks to the beginning, the audience knows what the book is and does, so the time spent building Mia (Jane Levy) up as the person affected first, why it would happen to her, is tedious. Also, there is a lot of backstory to convey about Mia and her brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez). The siblings haven’t seen each other in a while. David left Mia with their mother when she was young, and she had to deal with their mentally ill mother on her own. Mia is the reason the five are at the cabin. Mia has a drug problem. She tried to go cold turkey before, but this time, at her family’s cabin, she is trying again. Her friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas), a nurse, and Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), a high school teacher, have gone through this before, so they stress to David that Mia has to stay no matter what. David has brought his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) along.

Because everyone is there for Mia, we only know about the characters in relation to Mia. Olivia, Eric, and David used to be close friends, but with David gone for so long, David is basically a stranger to them. Natalie is just David’s girlfriend, so she isn’t around much, and when something happens to her, you’re only shocked because you forgot she was there at the cabin. David and Natalie don’t really interact as lovers; we only know they are together because David calls Natalie “my girl.” If Eric and Olivia are lovers, it is not shown either. Everyone is tense and alienated from each other. The dearth of friendly interactions, of intimate moments, and of jovial banter makes the characters seem more like props waiting to be slaughtered instead of people we should care about.

Lou Taylor Pucci as Eric

The film picks up momentum once the blood starts flowing. Evil Dead is known for its gore, and there are moments that don’t disappoint. What Natalie does to herself to try to stop what is happening to her is cringe inducing. The beating Eric takes is epic and stomach-turning. However, a lot of the gore and action is hidden. Alvarez was probably trying to be suspenseful, but the blacks were flat, and I kept trying to see what was happening, especially in the cellar scenes. The last fifteen minutes are the best, but the whole film felt like an origin story for the ultimate hero of the film with the last shots conveying an opportunity for a sequel starring said hero. The film would have been stronger if it told a focused, tight, horrific tale. Evil Dead does have some icky and gross moments, but it failed to do what a good horror film should–it didn’t scare me.