Review of Evil Dead (2013) by Faisal F — 20 Oct 2013

It should not really come as a surprise to anyone that this movie is a bit of a gore-feast. I have to admit that I have not seen the original movie from 1981 so I cannot comment as to whether this one is better or worse. Personally, I thought it was quite okay and a step above the classical B-movies that these kind of horror movies frequently turns out to be.

The story is not really very original. Not that it had any chance of being that since it is a remake after all but the group-of-young-people-get-stuck-in-cabin-in-the-woods-while-evil-things-make-bad-things-happen was not really the most original one already when the first movie came out. It is a straightforward enough horror movie story and it is quite well implemented.

The special effects (read gore) is well done and not too ridiculous and over the top as in some movies. Some may of course consider that the gore levels that we talk about here are always over the top but then this is obviously not a movie for you so do not watch it. Of course there are some ridiculous moments in the movie though. For some reason they never seem to be able to make a horror movie without them. There is the always present dumb guy that stops and feels sorry when the demon starts to whine in the voice of his girlfriend or sister even though he knows it is a demon for example. The amount of punishment these people take and still walk around is also a bit ludicrous. Warning, slight spoiler ahead! I especially think the scene where Mia pulls her arm so hard that she separates it from her hand is just silly. There is no way she would have the strength to do that and there is even less way that she would be able to walk around afterwards. She would have passed out from shock at the very best.

Anyway, as I said, no one seems to be able to make a horror movie without some silliness in it so I cannot say that I was very surprised. In general it was a good movie though. Well implemented with a fitting scary mood in a lot of the scenes. I have to say that I liked the fact that there was no hysterical teenage beauty queen and actor wannabee running around screaming her head off all the time. Actually, that is another thing that elevates this movie to a slightly higher state than the traditional B-movie state of most horror movies. The acting in general was quite acceptable.

In general it made for an enjoyable movie evening...if you like gory horror movies that is.