Movie Review of Evil Dead (2013)



Evil Dead (2013), A Review
“The most terrifying film you will ever experience.” or is it?


Directed by Fede Alvarez
Produced by Bruce Campbell, the original star of the Evil Dead franchise,
                       Sam Raimi, the original director
                       Robert Tapert
Cast: Jane Levy (Suburgatory, Don’t Breathe), Shiloh Fernandez
Runtime: 1hr 37m


Before watching the movie, my BFF/horror movie buddy and I were already lowering our expectations once we decided we were going to watch something on Netflix. We’ve discussed that when it comes to horror movies, it’s a hit and miss. We wouldn’t mind a bad movie as we’ve always seen worse. First, we picked The Babysitter, a Netflix Original, but we had to back out after ten minutes. It gave us “coming-of-age” vibes than a mysterious/frightening premise. So I picked Evil Dead. 

I’ve already seen the original years ago (the campy 80s version) and decided it would be nice to see the remake. It didn’t hurt that the movie poster was freaky. Couldn’t seem to Google it now, but it was a colourful retro drawing of the lower half of a human’s face, and in Evil Dead fashion, the tongue was split in the middle. Groovy. 

When I pressed play… 

What we missed to feel in The Babysitter, Evil Dead made up in the first few minutes. The movie starts in the woods, a woman running for her life until a group of dirty hillbillies capture her. She blacks out and wakes up tied to a post. Tools for torture are laid out on the table. The token evil book is there, and then, drama and begging transpire when the girl realizes it was her father who had her put there. Depending on your compassionate nature or immunity to horror movie surprises, you’ll either fall for the girl’s charms or say you called it when it’s revealed after a few lines that she was possessed. The kind father calls her “baby” fondly a few times, but the man knew shit had to be done. He takes her out and BAM! Justice served.

It was an exciting start, but my friend and I were still doubtful. The main act was just about to begin. Then again, we already had an idea about how everything would pan out from now. We’re dealing with indescribable evil, and someone eventually is stupid enough to set it free. 

Enter our group of mid-20 somethings meet-up in a cabin in the middle of the woods; Mia; the pretty addict, Eric; the nerdy asshole, and Olivia; the no-nonsense friend. It’s an awkward reunion when Mia’s brother David joins them (he also brought his girlfriend Natalie); apparently, he’d been MIA for the past 10 years and has returned to finally “be there” for his sister. Still, Mia tells him she needs her brother more than ever; she’s determined to clean up her act.

Fun fact: First letter of their names is spelt out as D-E-M-O-N. Photo from sbs.com.au.

Regardless of the scary scenery around them, (it’s lost on me why they would pick such a depressing place to rehabilitate their friend), they talk about giving Mia tough love this time around, bygones be bygones,. When they enter the old shack, Mia is the first to voice out her literal disgust. 

Something smells, she said, and true enough, she was onto something. The tricky part was, no one could smell it, so they immediately blamed her road to relapse for her being weird. Eventually, however, they discover a barely-hidden basement (a flimsy rug hid the trapdoor in the living room). Dried blood crusted the floor. It didn’t even take much to open the damn latch. The group didn’t apologize to Mia because she was right all along; something WAS literally stinking, and they just chose to call her crazy. 

The group enters the basement and it’s best described as a torture chamber. It looked like a dark torture chamber. Carcasses were hanging from the ceiling, same torture devices were there on the table, the same burnt post from the opening scene was there, and of course — sitting comfortably on the table was the spooky, black Naturom Demonto. It’s sealed by barbed wires and it’s obviously bad news, but of course, the not-so-unsuspecting idiot picks it up and brings it back up to his room. 

He gets a “leave the book alone” warning from Olivia, but Eric persists in his quest for truth. When he cuts the barbed wires and opens the book, he leafs through the pages and basically stumbles on the most important thing in this movie’s story.

Yup. The info is RIGHT THERE. In plain English. 

But of course, Eric doesn’t stop there. We already know he’s into witchcraft, so I don’t know why the hell he would start reading PASSAGES in the book… OUT LOUD. Yup. What makes this worse is the book

And of course, that’s when everyone starts dying one by one. The deaths are raw and gory and it was almost orgasmic to see the Eric douche suffer. He single-handedly destroyed everyone’s lives thanks to his ability to read. 

MOVIE BUFF REVIEW: 4 stars

I know it seems like I’ve had plenty of rants in the past few paragraphs, but truth be told, it was a pretty good movie! The horror movie buff in me really had fun sitting through the entire thing. Although I would have appreciated a more gruesome death for Eric, the gore was awesome. There were scenes that would be pretty hard to forget; a needle poking through the eyeball scene, lots of self-mutilation, and 3rd degree burns care of a simple overheated shower.

Even if it was Eric’s fault, I’m willing to forgive him for it because we were given a good thrill. There were good scares throughout the movie, and there was no dull moment. Even if there were comedic twists to the scenes where the demon was taunting the group, it was a rather welcome distraction. 

Peek-a-boo!!! Photo from Movies.com. 

CRITIQUE REVIEW: 3.5 stars

The glaring flaw of this movie was not its Eric, no. Not at all. It was the acting. Although I’m impressed by Fede Alvarez for his directing chops, it seems he had only spent enough time directing Jane Levy. She was the only stand-up act in the entire movie, her co-stars paling in comparison. Take, for example, David’s girlfriend Natalie was such a waste of a character. She had the least lines and her acting was as flat as an unsalted cracker. The worst offender, however, is David. I mean, we’re supposed to be rooting for this guy and yet, his reactions were lacklustre. I quote my friend, “I’ve reacted more to a cockroach” than David reacting to the reality that his sister was possessed by pure evil. 

Aside from this, the script was passable, the special effects were great, and the soundtrack was just right. And did I mention the great pacing? It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a movie that didn’t rely too much on drama or artsy cinematography. 

Watch it or Ditch it? 

WATCH IT!!!! Best watched during sleepovers. (I’d probably watch it before chill, but that’s just wishful thinking.)

OVERALL RATING: 


MOVIE TRAILER: 


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jacal Ste. Worme is a writer by day and an even crazier writer by night. Still working on her first official novel, you can read her countless mumbo-jumbo in various websites from fanfiction.net, Wattpad, and Ao3. You can follow her on Tumblr or Twitter. 


Find out more about Jacal Ste. Worme here.


Have you watched the Evil Dead? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.

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