April 15
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Not Enough Groovy: The Evil Dead Remake
Not Enough Groovy:
The Evil Dead Remake (spoiler free!)
By: Meg Humphrey
I’ll admit that it’s been a few years since I’ve watched Evil Dead. I feel like Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness just happen to pop up more (like how Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom seems to always been on TV). Please pardon me for anything I get a little mixed up on.
I’m not saying that the new Evil Dead isn’t good. It is! A couple of the jump scares had me clinging to the arm rests of my seat and there were plenty of gross-out, cringe worthy moments. If you’re a gore whore you’ll love it! Plus there were enough tips of a hat to pay respect to the original.
There was just one thing that really bothered me though.
BRB never sleeping again.
It was too darn serious.
The entire Evil Dead trilogy is as beloved as it is because it’s goofy. It’s gimmicky. It’s kitschy. Plot doesn’t matter. What matters is how many folks are going to die and in what creative ways. It’s more about fun than about tense atmosphere. Granted, Evil Dead is the most serious out of the trilogy, but it still had its moments.
Let’s look at the remake in two different ways. First: as a person who hasn’t seen the original (or can’t remember it very well). It’s very much like any typical stand alone horror movie you’ve seen in theatres or watched on Netflix over the past few years. It starts off with a sob story to get you to care (at least a little bit) about the characters so you hope that at least one or two of them make it out alive. Spooky things happen, demon possession, people start dying, our brave characters try to fight off evil and save each other. Outside of massive, and I mean massive, amounts of blood, there’s nothing really outstanding about the film. No one-liners. No memorable characters. No moments where you stop and think “dang, that was cool.”
Lots of “that was gross” moments, though.
On the other hand, if you’re an avid Evil Dead fan, you get a little more satisfaction. Like I mentioned, there are several nods to the original that were delicately placed in and were fun to pick out. The remake didn’t cut out or alter a bunch of stuff. It had more than enough gore to make Sam Raimi proud. But I think it lacked those sparks that turned the original into a cult classic.
But take everything I say with a grain of salt! The most recent (and my personal favorite) version of Evil Dead I’ve seen is the musical so my opinions may be skewed from that. The movie is definitely worth the watch (stay through the credits, please), just don’t have your heart set on it being better than the original.
And for goodness sake, don’t read from any books bound in human skin.
Being a fan of the original, I was pretty bummed by what I saw. However, I do have to say I enjoyed a good-portion of myself watching all of the non-stop blood, action, and gore. Nice review Meg.
Love your review Meg, and I totally agree. As a big fan of the original series (and someone who was totally pumped at the idea of a remake) this one was just too…ick.