‘I will feast on your soul…’
Remakes of horror classics are always fraught with danger. Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, Candyman, A Nightmare on Elm Street – all suffer in comparison to their respective source materials. Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead was met with warmth from fans of the original but indifference from the wider world of cinema. It’s time for an agonising reappraisal…
You know the story by now. Five friends rent a cabin in the woods and find an old, mysterious book. After one of the dumbass kids reads a passage from the book, an ancient evil is awakened, initially by using recovering drug addict Mia (Jane Levy) as a conduit.
Being a grumpy old fuck, I will begin with this film’s main failing. The cast is utterly forgettable. They aren’t bad. Some of the acting in the original film was bad. Here it is too often just bland. Most of the core cast make better monsters than they do actual human beings. The other issue is when this incarnation of Evil Dead attempts to replicate the original. Nothing will ever be able to match the intensity of The Evil Dead. Alvarez’s film fares best when striking out on its own. It is in these moments that Evil Dead is truly inspired.
Because of the two immediate sequels, people often erroneously believe The Evil Dead to be a horror-comedy. It isn’t. The first movie is a nasty piece of work. It’s haunting. It’s mean-spirited. It treats its characters with utter contempt. And it is this tone that Alvarez returns to here. There are no Ash Williams-esque high jinks here. The subplot of addiction and grief comes roaring to the surface in the third act and there are moments of real cruelty throughout. The gore is unrelenting and frequently bonkers, but it is also incredibly entertaining. At just over 90 minutes, Evil Dead sets off like a runaway train and doesn’t stop until there isn’t much of anyone left.
Evil Dead is not the original. And that’s fine. Once one has accepted this to be true, one is free to take this movie at face value. I would urge any fans of The Evil Dead to watch this movie or revisit it before taking on Evil Dead Rise. This is not just a remake. It’s better than Army of Darkness for a start. There. I said it.