By Madmax 673

I went in with a lot of expectation for this reboot version of Evil Dead as it’s hard to forget the original classic.

Second, this flick, unlike other Hollywood franchise movies that rush into reboots, has waited three decades.

Even more to me is that this is my third movie review for SI and as most people say “third time is the charm” I genuinely hoped that I was in for a scary treat.

But now, if you ask whether Evil Dead (2013) scared me – Hell No!

Let’s face it – we are obviously going in looking for a moron with big balls to open a book and waiting for hell to break loose and freak the shit out of us.

But unfortunately here, the movie fails to freak us out miserably beyond a point that ends way too early and all we are left with is a bloody aftermath to the extent that one would seriously start wondering about the quantity of fake blood used for props.

Tons maybe!?

Story

The movie starts with a prologue where a Dad is forced to kill his ‘possessed’ daughter and conceal the book of the dead.

Cut to the present – we see David along with his friends entering a remote cabin to help his sister, Mia recover from her drug addiction. If she ODs another time, she’s dead.

As it always goes, Mia smells something awful and wants to leave but none of her friends neither believe her nor smell it.

Luckily we are spared any further banal or corny anguish (for this segment of the story) by the quick revelation of blood stains beneath the rug that leads into the basement.

Once they get in, Eric – the dude with the “balls” takes the book. Curiosity gives him an instant woody causing him to open the book and trace the doomed hidden letters and spell it out, thereby inviting the demon.

The rest is for you to watch on screen.

Good

The cinematography was good.

Some of the shot compositions — particularly the opening shot after the prologue and a few other shots were impressive.

Less CGI and more real effects, which is rare to see in a horror movie these days. Prosthetics were also good.

The first letters of all the five characters forms an anagram for “DEMON” (Mia, Dave, Eric, Olivia and Natalie).

Bad

Although this genre calls for gore, an overabundance of it makes us cringe resulting in lack of real scare.

I even heard some ‘laughs’ in the theater during those wannabe scary moments. And no! They weren’t really funny. The laughter was at the failure of execution.

Even the moments that give you those cheesy cheap shocks were instantly followed by a moment of gore, so that I saw this movie only as a ‘gore fest’ rather than a real scary movie.

There were certain places that director Fede Alvarez failed to focus on the geography of the crucial scenes.

The last few shots could easily confuse the audience.

The BG score wasn’t up to mark.

There is a moment where Mia tries to escape in the car and has the key but drops it in the floor board, shaking and shivering — a scenario we have seen in many movies before.

The writers, Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body) and Rodo Sayagues, along with the director, hardly present us with memorable lines.

When Natalie amputates her own hand which is something we clearly see, Eric goes like “OMG she just cut her fucking hand!” Theater audience laughed here as well.

Other than Mia, portrayed by Jane Levy, none of the actors’ performances stand out.

While the writers have worked on changing the story for this version, the film loses steam in too much exposition.

Casting was not the best.

None of male leads had the charm that Bruce Campbell had (There’s a so called surprise after the end titles).

Evil Dead Rating

I am sure it will become a hit as it’s being released over 3,025 screens in the US.

If you’re a craving to watch torn limbs and tongues, bloody vomit, self mutilation, slicing with box cutters, shooting with nail guns and, oh yeah, raping with tree and these alone, then this is your cup of tea.

Otherwise just stay away from this movie that doesn’t inflict even a tinge of fear.