As a fan of the original Evil Dead trilogy (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness) I was a little concerned when I heard that a remake was on the way. At first I thought they would try to hire a young actor to play the character of Ash and do his best Bruce Campbell impersonation, which seemed like a mistake. Thankfully, they went a different route. Jane Levy was cast in the role of Mia, whom a lot of fans and critics alike described as a "female Ash" before the film came out, and she and director Fede Alvarez took the Evil Dead in an unexpected direction. Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness became cult classics because of their surreal humor and Three Stooges type gags. A lot of people (and I'm one of them) will tell you that the reason the Evil Dead franchise has lasted so long is because of the goofiness of Ash and his attempts to survive the Deadites in those movies.
However, in the original Evil Dead film, while there was some charm to the low budget effects and over-acting, it was always meant to be a brutally shocking and gory horror film. There really wasn't much comedy to be found in it, though most people laugh at it nowadays because of the budget constraints and the way the film has aged since 1981. Alvarez decided to go back to the horror roots of the original film for this "reboot" of the franchise and left out much of the comedy (although some does sneak in, though it seems to be unintentional, much like the first film) though put in enough references to Evil Dead 2 for fans to love.
There has been a fair bit of controversy over this new film amongst movie goers. Some fans of the original trilogy think that it doesn't have any of the suspense of Sam Raimi's first Evil Dead and that it suffers because it doesn't have enough humor. Some female fans love Mia as a character while others are disappointed that she didn't do more to free herself from the possession of the demon (which apparently makes her less impressive as a feminist hero than they would have liked). Some people find it overly gory. Some people don't find the characters memorable enough or don't have enough personality before they get killed off (I have to keep wondering if these people have even seen the original film).
For those of us who love the new Evil Dead (and Mia as a character), I have to say that, aside from the references and nods to the original trilogy, my favorite aspects of this new chapter in the Evil Dead franchise is that Alvarez comes up with a new reason for the five friends to go to the secluded cabin in the woods (it's a drug intervention for Mia, who is trying to quit drugs cold turkey) and establishes that Mia hasn't had the best life up to this point. Her mother is dead, her brother left her when she needed him most, and her two remaining friends don't have much faith that she'll be able to sober up. In addition to her withdrawal symptoms, this emotional turmoil makes Mia a prime choice for demon possession. Mia is given more backstory in one film than Ash had over the course of three movies. There is a story of redemption here (for both Mia and her brother David) that works well enough to move the story forward. Since Alvarez has been given the go ahead to start working on the sequel (he's planning on making a trilogy to stand alongside the original Evil Dead trilogy), hopefully he'll show some character growth for Mia in the next two films as well.
While the majority of the cast do a fair job with the material they're given, the real stars of this movie are the practical effects (make-up, gore, etc.) and Jane Levy. Levy goes from struggling addict to demon to hero in the span of an hour and a half and while we don't get to see much of Mia the hero until the last 10-15 minutes of the film, she does leave an impression. She's given interviews as to how intense the making of the film was for her (everything from wearing prosthetics for hours on end to being buried alive) and if you watch her TV show "Suburgatory" (a comedy on ABC) you'll see just how different a role this is for her. Hopefully the next two movies will get to showcase just how much of a bad-ass she can be and have her kicking ass a lot more.
Evil Dead hits Blu-ray and DVD tomorrow (July 16).
...So the only reason you loved the movie are because of its flagrant and repeated references, which actually succeed in distracting from the original storyline, and the lame rehab story, which makes the fivesome's stay at the cabin utterly ludicrous, adds a bonus level of bs moral equivalency and completely disappears during the majority of the movie only to resurface of a plot point in the last act.
ReplyDeleteWow. I am totally persuaded.
RE your snide remark about remake critics "never having seen the first" - protip: the point of a remake is to improve the original, not make you giggle at the awsum references to the other movies.
The part about wondering if people had seen the first film was due to the fact that people wanted to see more character development in the film for characters other than Mia. There really isn't much point in character development in horror films as most of the characters, especially in a cast this small, are only there to get killed off. In the original Evil Dead film, there wasn't any character development either but people seem to have forgotten that. That was the point I was trying to make.
DeleteAs for my reasons for liking the movie, yes, I loved the references to the first two films, and yes, I liked that Alvarez and his co-writer came up with a different reason for going to the cabin (they weren't there for a weekend party) which also helps establish how David, Eric and Jessica have been growing apart from each other and Mia. It also helps establish why they don't trust her and why they think her withdrawal symptoms are the reasons for her actions at first. Why would they continue to focus on that after they realize that something supernatural is happening which is killing them off/possessing them one by one? That would be the last thing on their minds. Also, as I pointed out, I loved Jane Levy's performance in the film and her dedication to her work. If you watch the interviews or behind-the-scenes clips, she went through a hell of a lot for this movie. Another thing I really liked about the film (which I should have wrote more about in the original blog post) was the fact that Alvarez used practical effects for almost everything (aside from a few instances of CGI fire) including make-up, gore, blood rain, etc. Much better than having a CGI heavy film.
I also made note of a couple of things the movie could have improved upon: amping up the feeling of suspense from the beginning and letting Mia free herself from the demon (like Ash did in Evil Dead 2), though I think having David help her brought some redemption to his character and solidified their relationship. He had left her after their mother died and this was his way of making up for that. Side note: the brother/sister relationship here was much stronger and much better portrayed than the one in the original film between Ash and Cheryl.