Evil Dead has a lot going for it. Unlike the original, made on a shoestring budget in 1981, the production values are sleek and professional. The woods into which the obligatory group of young people is led to the slaughter is thick with atmosphere; there isn’t a hint of sky visible through the low hanging branches and twisted vines. The cabin in which these sacrificial lambs stay was designed with a macabre eye. And the filmmakers apparently spared no expense when creating the practical special effects.
Speaking of which, while Evil Dead is hardly the goriest thing I’ve seen (that would be Dead Alive, directed by a pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson), it offers more than a few moments of inspired carnage, my favorite being when a possessed victim splits her tongue using a sharp kitchen utensil. There’s a reason mom and dad told you to not lick your knife at the dinner table.
Evil Dead also has a solid premise: A group of friends takes one of their own to a cabin in the woods to detox from a drug addiction and accidentally unleash a demon from hell, which in turn proceeds to dramatically reduce their number. The addict nearly died from an overdose, and has promised to go to any length to go cold turkey. This is a clever story ploy, as when the demon at the heart of this tale possesses her, her friends write off her crazy behavior as part of the withdrawal process, leaving them vulnerable.
Finally, Evil Dead devotes at least a little bit of its running time to character development. I liked that there was a reason for the girl’s drug addiction – her mother died a slow, painful death, and the rest of the family abandoned her to take care of her mother alone. When her long absent brother shows up to help her detox, she’s in no hurry to forgive him, although the sibling love they share for each other is clearly still there. Director Fede Alvarez doesn’t allow their relationship to be one-dimensional.
So, what’s the problem? Evil Dead is inexplicably bland. Despite bathing the screen in crimson red, Alvarez fails to produce a single genuine scare. Oh, there’s one good jolt, but it doesn’t count. Fake scares are easy; stirring up fear in an audience isn’t.
Worse, Evil Dead isn’t creepy. Somehow, we have an ancient demon running amok in the deep woods, but the whole thing lacks energy. I’ll never forget the possessed girl in the original Evil Dead levitating and laughing at her friends in a crazy demonic voice. Here, the girl in more or less the same role saunters into the living room and says, “You’re all going to die tonight” like she ate bad Mexican food, and everyone stares blankly at her.
Also, Alvarez is no Sam Raimi. Before Raimi directed the Spider-Man trilogy and Return to Oz, he made the original Evil Dead movies. (Apparently, making low budget horror movies prepares you to handle big budget blockbusters.) His kinetic, off the wall camera movements and slapstick humor are absent from the remake, and I missed them. Alvarez mimics some of Raimi’s camerawork – specifically the POV movement of the demon through the woods – but otherwise brings no visual style to the screen.
Another issue is the poorly defined nature of the evil. The demon is awakened when one of the young adults staying in the cabin finds a book of black magic and reads one of the incantations. Once the demon is out, she possesses the addict and then begins killing off the others – by possessing them, too, or by causing them to hurt themselves. I was unclear on what was happening. The lack of a clearly defined villain kept me from connecting more strongly with what was taking place on the screen.
For all of the skill brought to bear on making a good-looking movie, Evil Dead is just another tepid remake of a far superior film. It’s a rental at best.
Rated R for violence, gore, sexual content, and language. Two stars out of four.