EVIL DEAD (2013); Carlisle's Final Word.

"Feast on this, motherfucker!"

Mia.

Katie Hopkins on 'This Morning'.

Script Logic; 1/2

Pace; 1/2

Acting;1/2

Aesthetic; 2/2

Originality & Intention; 0/2

Final Score; 5/10





Final Word: Jesus, these 'final words' are getting longer, arn't they?
I could write a lot more on this film because, if nothing else, it's certainly an "interesting" film. First time director Fede Alvarex shows some promise and has a real handle on intensity, but one-time hot-shot screenwriter Diablo Cody's 'polish' on the script appears non-existent, and that's where the biggest issues of the film stem from. Any of the naturalistic wit or quirky indie sensibility of her previous (and overrated efforts) is completely missing from this mess of cliches. Instead of anything too original we're served with a cast of typical stereotypes, who speak only in trailer-dialogue, doing unspeakably dumb things: a nurse who thinks the best way for a junkie to quit heroine (infamously dangerous practice at best) is to essentially hold her prisoner in an isolated cabin, a 'protective' brother with all the charisma and vitality of knotted rope, a homosexual best pal and the group's intellectual-type who only seems capable of reading if he speaks aloud, a whiny blond who's only real defining features are 'she's blond and whiny', and a sassy junkie chick who, for all intense and purposes, IS Diablo Cody (seeing as she basically takes starring role in all of her screenplays). The plot is likewise weak, and full of inconsistances! I know that this is magic we're talking about here, and not a legal contract, but it has to at least make sense and abide by it's own rules.

Spoilers ahead: The Abomination, the demon called fourth from the book to unleashe a Hellish fury upon the 5 'happy campers', must claim 5 souls (convenient) to walk the Earth as flesh and blood. Yet one of these characters dies from his extensive injuries (not possessed by the evil, so surely soul-intact?), while another blows himself sky-high in the typical heroic-sacrificial manner (again, surely his soul is also safe?). And, by the the Abomination does "come fourth", one of the characters has technically already 'saved' their soul, so she shouldn't count to the tally either! Even if you count the dog, you're still a couple of souls short here... And when the Abomination DOES finally show up, talk about a pansy-ass demon! And for all of it's blood-drenched 'realism' (and some of it is very wince-inducing) it looses much of its credibility when the heroine walks away from the final showdown with an amputated arm but without so much as a grimace: seriously, she has to rip her fucking arm off from under fallen wreckage and she seems perfectly comfortable- her only concession to this hideous injury is to tuck her stump discreetly under one arm. I fucking kid you not.

Despite this, there are some nice touches to be found in Evil Dead. The intensity is raw and the pace, when the supernatural elements finally come into play, is never slow. Although the film clearly borrows heavily from a wide range of horror styles (most notably Japanese-Horror, Giallo and Torture Porn), it almost manages to mold them together into something new and consistent. Almost. The downside to this is that more savvy audiences will find themselves playing "which film did they steal this idea from?", distracting your core audience and taking them 'out of the picture'- a big no-no.
Anyway, that's probably enough for this review- although I will end by saying (shock / horror) that this is probably a better film than the original Evil Dead- a film which is wildly overrated by an army of overzealous horror fans. Unfortunately, this remake does little to improve on the original's many faults; instead, this is more a glossy face lift with modern-day styling than a whole-heated reboot.
In short; less than the sum of it's individual bloody parts...