Evil Dead '13

On a trip at a cabin, a group of young adults come under attack from a demonic force desiring to possess their souls could arise to power on earth. A certain book, with specific incantations, if read can release the demonic force; can any of them stop the hell certain to be unleashed on them all?
**½

Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods (2012) came to mind as I was watching Evil Dead (2013) early on, when the young cast smell something that reeked, their dog gnawing and pawing at a rug, a dry-blood cellar door underneath, a staircase down leading to quite a scene of dead animals (some skinned, others with eyeballs removed; all right out of a taxidermy horror house or the prop shop of the major studio behind this film), burnt wood (a possessed girl was burned alive by her father, who himself was urged by onlookers to end the evil while she was subdued), and a table featuring a certain book wrapped in a garbage bag and barb wire. They decide to take the book upstairs and discuss the cellar, curious as to what happened down there. One of the group decides to recite hidden text in the book (while looking through it, he scribbles across a white torn paper sheet, seeing the text letters, reading each word). Through the iconic POV camera moving through the forest, the evil possesses its next victim…somewhere I could image Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins giving each other a high-five.

One by one, we will take you.

Sometimes, I have to say I just don’t “feel” a movie. It is like something is missing. Maybe an excitement or energy doesn’t grab me. I have a hard time, for whatever reason -- no matter how good looking a film might be -- to get into a film that doesn’t provoke that spark inside needing to be lit. Evil Dead Remake seems to fall into that category. It lacks that je ne sais quoi that would really take me by the reins and settle me into its power. I do return to how attractive the film looks. I will indeed try to point that out in image with screen shots, but the material and characters just aren’t there. The Evil Dead movies weren’t subtlety-rich films. They weren’t films that carried a serious, somber tone about them. A mother’s death mentally/emotionally damaging the lead girl to be possessed, Mia, and how her friends (and brother) take her to their “cabin in the woods” for therapy or rehabilitation; this departure from the norm (the tone) of the films that inspired it kind of leaves me restless. I do, however, imagine many will applaud the change in tone, and different approach to presenting the demonic spirit terrorizing those in attendance at the cabin in the woods. Everything/everyone is oh so serious in Evil Dead Remake that the fun of what made the films that inspired it has been left out. We Evil Dead fans have just come to expect zany, out of control, non-stop mayhem, exhilarating camerawork that captures the madness and presents it as if we ourselves are as much a part of that whole surreal experience as our hero, The Chin, & that unwillingness to take anything too seriously. The roller coaster. I like the roller coaster. I do like the slow burn horror film. I’m not against the serious face, addressing the dilemma of coping and adjusting to a difficult loss, but an Evil Dead movie isn’t the place (for this fan, anyway) to concern itself with such weighty topics as a daughter dealing with suicidal thoughts, drug problems, or struggling with the loss of her mom. The brother that has been away – having removed himself from the presence of his mother’s slow death – returns to try and help his sister, with a girlfriend, and two past friends (I consider him and his friends somewhat estranged since he kind of abandoned them for a career in Chicago) heading to the cabin, unaware of the evil that will be unleashed upon them all.

At one point or another, most of us horror fans have either screamed at the screen or in our heads at stupid decisions characters make in a horror movie. Evil Dead Remake is no different. David's (Shiloh Fernandez) girlfriend, Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) notices, after much sound effects and a camera that circles around the room, that the basement door is open (thought it was locked, but I guess the spirit flung it open) and Mia (Jane Levy) is weeping on one of the bottom steps about why her friends and brother left her trapped down there. Now would you for any reason, after this girl nearly shot her brother with a shot gun and behaved in homicidal fashion, go downstairs to see if she is alright? Even after witnessing the crazy results of demon-possessed nurse, Olivia (Jessica Lucas) attacking Eric (Luke Taylor Pucci) in the bathroom, Natalie's still willing to walk down the rickety steps of the basement towards Mia. I understand concern for one's welfare, but this is simple stupidity. A scene like this just makes me groan inside.

In horror movies where nightmarish events transpire almost in a frenzy, there comes that point where the lead consults with himself on what has just happened. I think it is important for that brief "let's catch our breath and realize what freaky shit has just went down here" and after the whole business with your sister being possessed by evil, your girlfriend cutting off her demon possessed arm at the elbow with a electrical meat cutter (after suffering a demon-infected hand bite), and your buddy admitting to releasing the evil by reading it out from the book found in the basement (and barely held together himself thanks to a nasty needle stab to the eye and a deep window shard chest wound) leaves David under considerable strain.

I was thinking as the ending sequence played out "Let there be blood." It literally rains blood. The demon rises from the earth, still in the form of Mia, but everything surrounding the cabin in the woods has become blood soaked and damned. Mia becomes drenched in blood, as does everything else. It amused me even as I felt the raining blood was more than a bit silly. But, admittedly, all that blood - and there's plenty of of it - does allow us to see Levy finding her primal side and the visual of her just bathed in red gave me a visceral thrill. I did like the approach that no one - no one character- in this film escapes without serious damage to their person. Levy, even as she becomes heroine in a rather interesting twist that I rather liked, has to endure machete slices when pinned in a crawlspace, and later having to pry away her hand after it is underpinned beneath the jeep, doesn't walk away from the film without battle scars. And the chainsaw damage certainly left me with a large grin on the face. I can't help it, there's the gorehound in me that does kind of need to be fed bloody meat occasionally. A face split apart down the middle just kind of made me laugh; this was absolute overkill. But at this point, we had seen poor Eric just take a brutal beating throughout. I think the rest of the cast get off a bit lightly compared to Eric. Eric had taken a needle to the eye and mirror shard to the chest, but it didn't stop there. He gets the crow bar, nails (from a nail gun, ouch!) fired into his hands, arm, and torso, and even gets a box cutter blade stabbed into his side. He's a human pin cushion before its over! Mia, however, spends the entire film victimized, one way or another (whether it be her emotional suffering because of her mother's long death, being abandoned by her brother, took to the cabin with her "family" not letting her leave as "to help her", and becoming possessed by a demon "leeching" on her body like a parasite), until the film decides she deserves a little love (well, she does take her licks as already mentioned) and gets to release her rage on the demon that "gave her hell", using the chainsaw for all its worth. A little sunlight piercing through the woods at the end after a lot of darkness sends her on her way. She kind of earned it, methinks.

I did enjoy the emphasis a little more on the Book of the Dead, although the filmmakers stay close to the vest (the outer cover made of skin, the script written in blood; the incantations of demons) just dwell on the details a little more. The illustrative art in the book is impressive and really grabs you (or it at least did me), and the emphasis on what evils can be unleashed or quelled is especially used as storytelling devices to dictate the outcome either for the demon or humans.

I could take or leave the cast. None of them save Levy really left any impression whatsoever. I can sympathize with their demon-afflicted victimization, but as personalities the cast left me rather wanting. Levy, however, emerges victorious when it seems she would remain in the obviously-grueling role of shrieking, profane demon-possessed ghoul. She is basically saddled with the exorcist-Linda Blair role for quite some time. “I’ll feast on your soul! Come here and I’ll suck your cock, pretty boy!” She gets stuck with a lot of that. Her eye lens and ghoulish facial make-up, Levy gives this bit her all, though.

 Who needs a chainsaw to take a hand off when a jeep will do?

Look, there’s plenty of gore. A demonic arm (it looks like a rotted and diseased, just plain ugly bit of makeup nastiness) wanting to gain control of Natalie, with her using that cutter to remove it as demon-possessed Mia looks on in disapproval, voicing demands for her to leave well enough alone, has blood spraying off the gushing wound all over the place. It eventually plops from a single thread of flesh to the floor as Eric looks on in horror. A lingering shot of Mia having to tear her arm away from the underpinned hand shows the flesh ripping. We see Eric pull out the needle lodged under his eye as the skin bends. You see plenty of weapons pulled from bloody wounds. A chainsaw just decimates a demonic face. A face is a mangled, grotesque sight thanks to a broken piece of mirror glass inflicted by the demon possession causing a victim to do it to herself (that is after she grinds to a halt as she was about to give Mia a hypodermic to knock her out into a coma, trapped in the possession, urinating down her legs!). The gore is one of the chief reasons behind the film’s popularity. In this regard, the film offers aplenty.

Don't go into the basement!!!

Touring the festival circuit, and with lots of positive reviews proclaiming it “scary as hell” and “the scariest movie you’ll see this year”, Evil Dead Remake had a ton of acclaim and good feedback that gave it the kind of rep that was certain to spurn interest. For some time (before it received a real, nationwide release) Evil Dead Remake carried plenty of word of mouth to inspire horror fans to go and see it. The machine behind this film was rather impressive indeed.

In all seriousness, I hope Levy decides to remain close to the horror genre, but something tells me, after what she obviously endured here, she may try tamer, less grueling genres after this. I like her theatrics here, the way she goes all in. She's got the "scared shitless" down pat. She also nails the agony and anxiety, as well. And is she ever empowered with that chainsaw! It is like, put a chainsaw in an actor's hand(s), and they are totally badass without hardly having to try. Even with one hand gone, she takes to the demon face without abandon, applying plenty of ruthless aggression.

I have enjoyed gauging the overall reaction on the imdb horror board. The general consensus is that this is forgettable, rather "cash in", a bit lazy, and bland. Viscera is here, though, and Aaron Morris (who has mostly shot for the BBC television series, Orphan Black) proves to be an accomplished visual artist under the tutelage of director Fede Alvarez, and there seems to be an effort at gripping you photographically, at least. That part wasn't lazy, even if the script churns out cliches and seems comfortable mining the horrors of past with little effort to try and add a bit of originality to the proceedings. But I did enjoy the finale unlike many, with the change in hero by film's end. This bit of late movie switcheroonie returns to the slasher final girl genre trope we horror fans are accustomed to. How this is accomplished (a bit of an inventive - if far-fetched - take on the "shock the heart back to a beat") is more than a bit ridiculous, complete with burial even, but it gets us to Levy getting some revenge for what the demon did to her, so I just accepted it for what it was. I love the final scene with Levy, now vindicated, face, body, and clothes covered in dry blood, looks out to the rising sun and has vanquished her demons literally and metaphorically.