Evil Dead Review

Evil Dead review.

Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell move to the producer’s chairs and let a new generation take over in Evil Dead. Call it a remake…call it a re-imagining…call it a loosely connected sequel. The canon of the series is so muddled that it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that Evil Dead is another great installment for the franchise…and a return to its roots of gore and blood splatter.

Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.

Evil Dead

Directed by Fede Alvarez

Written by Fede Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues

Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore

Evil Dead Review

For the purposes of this review, we are going to consider Evil Dead a remake.  I have no idea what it is.  It can exist just as easily as a standalone story set in the same universe.  While it hosts a completely different cast of characters…there are so many nods to, and reworking of ideas from, The Evil Dead that it would be very strange if they did exist in the same continuity.  I’ve seen it called a re-imagining.  Sure.  That just seems like a word that means a remake with different characters.

The story of Evil Dead is very similar to the original film in its structure.  Five friends head to a remote cabin in the woods and accidentally unleash hell.  There’s a brother/sister combo again as well as a couple in a relationship and a fifth wheel.  That’s the same setup as The Evil Dead…but the remake applies them differently. 

With no Ash Williams to fight off the rising evil…Evil Dead needs a new hero.  It takes a long time to reveal who that is going to be.  Mia (Jane Levy) assumes the role in the end but not before she is put through complete hell.  For most of the film her character, having arrived at the cabin to try and quit her heroin addiction, is the antagonist of the film.  She is the character who ends up running into the frisky trees in the woods and becomes a Deadite. 

For a moment it seems that her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) is going to be our hero.  Like Ash before him, David is faced with having to deal with a possessed sister and the evil infecting everyone around him.  He does his share of heroic things…but the movie twists the expectations by restoring Mia to the mantle of hero after David saves her.  It’s not the only beat that Evil Dead changes to play on expectations…but it’s easily the biggest one.

The main expectation you would probably have in a remake of The Evil Dead is a lot of blood, gore, and violence.  That expectation isn’t just met by Evil Dead…it surpasses even the most optimistic hopes of gorehounds everywhere.  This is as bloody and violent as movies get.  Interestingly, much of the violence that befalls the side characters is done by their own hand as opposed to a risen Deadite.  It saves the Deadite action for when it matters most…and fills the gaps with some of the most intense self-harm you’ll find anywhere.

Levy gets to do everything in this movie, and she is one of the main reasons that it succeeds as fully as it does.  Mia goes from terrified victim to terrifying demon.  From scenery chewing antagonist to strong willed hero.  She puts her friends through hell while going through it herself.  The analogy to her heroin detox is never pushed so hard that it becomes a distracting commentary…but the metaphor is fully weaved into the character arc.  Mia fights for her life in a monsoon of blood and walks away stronger in the end. 

Unfortunately, she has to lose everything first.  Her brother, her friends…no one makes it out alive.  Even Mia herself briefly dies.  Before the Book of the Dead is, once again, read aloud…we learn that Mia had already briefly died once due to an overdose.  She dies again in Evil Dead to be freed from her possession.  One she is back to herself…clean, so to speak…she finds the strength needed to combat the evil head on.  She grabs a chainsaw, loses a hand, and takes her place as the heir apparent to Bruce Campbell’s iconic character Ash Williams.

This is the only film with the Mia character that we’ve gotten.  When you think about the character arc that Ash went on throughout the original trilogy…it’s a real shame Mia’s story ended here.  We saw three different versions of Ash (and later a fourth in the Ash vs. Evil Dead tv show).  Who knows where Mia would have gone next.  I’m confident Levy would have delivered no matter what the situation called for. 

Evil Dead came out in 2013 and was, until this week, the final film set in the Evil Dead universe.  As the fourth movie in the series that is no less than great…the Evil Dead series solidified itself as the most consistently high-quality franchise in the horror genre.  One masterpiece, one classic and two great movies.  Evil Dead Rise‘s release will test that claim once again.  Early returns suggest it will maintain its crown.  Come back tomorrow for our official (non-spoiler) review. 

And don’t forget to check out our Evil Dead Week podcast covering all things Evil Dead…out now wherever you get your podcasts.

Scare Value

Evil Dead returns the series to its bloody, violent roots. Whether you consider this a remake or not there is no denying that it has the most in common with The Evil Dead. Five people drive to a remote cabin in the woods and inadvertently unleash hell. It’s the exact same plot as the original with different characters. Jane Levy also gets a lot more to do than Bruce Campbell did in the first one. She serves as both the main antagonist and main protagonist…and crushes both roles. Evil Dead is a movie that surprises people with how gory it gets…which makes it as pure an Evil Dead movie as can be.

4/5

Evil Dead Links

Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu

Rent/Buy on VOD from Amazon

Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon

Evil Dead Trailer

If you enjoyed this review of Evil Dead, check out Project Wolf Hunting