Remakes and reboots of classic horror films are the craze for modern cinema, and the April 5 released, Sam Raimi produced Evil Dead falls into that trend.
The film follows a young woman named Mia, who is struggling with sobriety, and four others—named Natalie, David, Eric, and Olivia—who set out to help her get clean by staying in an isolated cabin in the woods. These characters are all somehow connected because Natalie is David’s new girlfriend, Olivia has been a friend of Mia and David since childhood, David is Mia’s estranged brother, and David’s friend Eric is the one who awakens evil spirits after reading from a cursed book.
The idea to remake the movie came after Sam Raimi—the director of the original 1981 version of the film—and the original producers decided to bring their horrifying vision to a new generation of moviegoers. This resulted in the most anticipated horror flick of 2013 being released to both critical and commercial success.
The film’s trailer played the biggest part of the commercial success, but the movie’s original scares, gripping timeline, and intense acting is what grabbed the attention of both critics and audiences.
The movie’s scares were fresh because they weren’t typical jump-scares, but cringe-inducing horror, which were created by using loud crunches and splatter sounds whenever a character endured a violent injury—those of which usually resulted in death. The film’s gore included hands being torn off, arms being sawn off, and even a face being sliced off, which are all sure to make audiences close their eyes and turn away. These grotesque scenes weren’t constant, but were spread throughout the film.
Early in the film, a terrifying chase takes place that keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat because of its fast-paced nature and grueling villain. After some dialogue, this chase segues into one of the lead characters becoming possessed by an evil spirit who gets into the minds of the other people and tells them to kill themselves in gruesome ways. This order of events gets progressively worse and eventually make the cabin an extreme house of horrors filled with believably frightened residents.
Fresh-faced actors Jane Levy and Shiloh Fernandez take the lead roles of Mia and David, respectively; and they do so with utmost terror and emotion. With Levy already being dubbed the next “scream-queen,” she has proved that not all horror movies require stale acting and wooden line delivery by utilizing her wide eyes to portray the fear from her character and by letting out piercing scream whenever terror shows itself.
The film’s creative scares and outstanding actors lead to an appealing and satisfactory gore romp which will definitely be recognized as one of the greatest cult horror film remakes by not only movie buffs, but also general audiences everywhere.
