This movie was a special case for me, the 81 version of the film is not in my top 5 by any means, but it is a movie I have seen more times then most others. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell essentially changed how I viewed the horror genre with that film. When I go into a horror film now, I hold them up to that standard. It is not all about gore, it is not all about jump scares, you need more then that to interest me. Now given my feelings for the first film, you can imagine why I was both excited and nervous when I heard about this one. Bruce Campbell is not in it for one, and everybody was nervous they would go over the top with cgi and effects and ruin the charm of the original. Thankfully as more news came out, these fears started to go away. Campbell and Raimi signed onto the film as producers, and we got the announcement that no cgi would be used in the film. After seeing it, that last one astounds me. Also there is a 10 or so second long stinger after the credits, not worth seeing if you are not a fan of the franchise however. If you are though, make sure you wait around.
The story is pretty similar to the original, however as this is a remake they altered it quite a bit as well. We get 5 young people heading to a cabin in the woods, and bad stuff starts to happen to them. One of them is fighting a drug addiction, and her friends decide to hold her there as she goes cold turkey. One of them finds the fabled Book of Evil, and summons some sort of great evil into the area. The evil comes in the form of a witch, who targets the Mia, the drug addicted girl, and starts to torment her. Her friends and herself think it is all related to the addiction at first, and play it off until things escalate and people start to die. The story is simple, and it sets up the chaos. However it does have more depth then most cabin in the woods films. The book serves as a great plot device. As they read and learn more of it, parts of the film start to come into focus. There are lines that seem unimportant at the time, but explain why things happen later on for example. Or will let you see a twist coming before it happens. It is a movie where paying attention rewards you, but if you miss key things you may be confused later on. Also while the film does have it's own unique story separate from the original, it does have nods and scenes taken from that film.
I mentioned earlier no CGI was used in this film, that is a huge thing. No computers adding in gore or assisting in make it look like somebody was hacked into. There are a few parts in the film I simply could not believe they did not use computer. One part in particular has somebody on fire, and you can see them still moving quite convincingly while parts of them are melted off. This also brings me to one major point of consideration if you are thinking about seeing this movie. Gore is present, though not in any extreme sense. I will admit I cringed a few times in this, and yes there are buckets of blood. However most of the violence is not over the top, and the actual visuals you get are not overly graphic. If gore bothers you, you should be fine with this film, but you will see more blood then in most other R rated movies.
The cast is all pretty much unknown to me, but they all handled their roles nicely. Jane Levy plays Mia, and she did crazy perfect. She was by far the stand out role in the film, and one of the main reasons it works so well. The other person who really made the movie for me was Lou Taylor Pucci as Eric. He starts off the movie as by far the least likeable, but ends up being one of the more enjoyable roles. Everybody else did well with their roles, and overall the acting ended up being better then I thought it would be.
How scary is this movie? Well that honestly depends on a few things, one being what do you consider scary. This movie works off of atmosphere, and minimal jump scares. It builds up suspense and then tosses some very chaotic and violent scenes at you. It picks up 30 or so minutes in, and then does not let off until it is over. If you find tension and a great atmosphere creepy, good news. Add in some jumps, and some god awful violence and you have a horror film worth watching. For me it was not overly scary, but it was creepy and kept me uncomfortable for the duration. For that reason alone, I would say it was one of the best horror films in recent memory.
Closing thoughts, I loved this movie. It holds true to what I consider to be the idea of the original. It is unique and well written, it has depth and great characters. It goes above and beyond what you normally expect from a horror film. The ending was fantastic, and the screen was painted red long before the credits.
For a second opinion I asked my wife who had not see the original. She actually did not want to see this movie at first, as she thought it was a campy comedy like all the other Bruce Campbell movies I have made her watch. However after showing her the trailer and explaining it was a serious horror film she caved and went to the theaters with me....after canceling our date on opening night. She seemed to enjoy it, and after talking to her for awhile after the film she gave the same rating for it that I did.
So if you are a fan, and are worried about how they handled the franchise, don't be. They did very well with it, and the movie is worth your time and money. If you are new to Evil Dead and just like horror, go see it. It was by far the best Horror film I have seen in some time, and still would have been even if it was not connected to the old movie in any way.
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