Evil Dead Remake!

[Harsin]

I think I bought a bit too much into the hype about the levels of gore and reports of people walking out of screenings, although its probably one of the bloodiest films in recent memory, it didn't shock me as much as I expected, or I might just be desensitised to gore and violence after all the hours I've ploughed into videogames.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. It's a proper unashamedly unironic old-school horror flick of the type you don't see that much anymore, a surprising level of the goofiness of the originals is still in there, we're not talking anywhere even approaching Evil Dead 2 levels here, but it pleased me. Excellent use of nice gooey practical effects throughout. It also carries across some of the drawbacks old cheap horror films, in that the plot is pretty much entirely propelled by the idiocy of the characters, Ash wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was a PhD compared to this lot. I thought it added to the charm to a certain extent, but your mileage may vary.

A spoilery negative.

After all the build-up, the final evil is a bit rubbish, it's basically just another Deadite that goes down surprisingly easy. I was expecting an apocalyptic threat after all the ominous passages in the book.

My friends didn't want to sit through the credits so I didn't see the after-credits scene.

[Smitty]

[Mentazm]

May go to a late show tonight at Vue. Hope it's not full of fucktards.

[K]

It’s really good! The only downside I’d say was poor, on-the-nose dialogue and characterisation; they really could have beefed that up a bit, it was rather like they were just treading water until the gore commenced. But what gore!

The other thing I didn’t like was

the resurrection of the girl towards the end, which initially thought was a mega-cop out, but rapidly turned the situation even more horrific. I still think they could have handled the death / resurrection bit better, it seemed implausible even in the deranged context of the film.

[Jonzo]

Londoners, this is showing at the Everyman screen on the green in Angel all next week!

Love that place.

[Stig]

I think for a standard horror it was really good. I tried to go in with a level head and not compare it to the original and I think it did a pretty good job of not ripping/copying too much. There's the obvious stuff like being in a cabin, the trap door, the book, the chainsaw that had to be in there to make it an Evil Dead film but other than that it wasn't similar at all, which of course is a good thing. Solid horror with lots of gore but not really too many scares though.

Be interesting to see where they go with the series cause according to the director there's a sequel, an Army of Darkness 2 that Raimi is doing and then a collaboration of his and Raimis Evil Dead worlds, i.e. Mia and Ash together.

Also the after credit scene

Grovey

[Flams]

What Stig said sums it up for me perfectly. Some nice updates to and nods to the original films. Went in to this massively hyped up and it lived up to my hype. Would definitely recommend.

[cassidy]

Well seeing as Evil Dead 2 is flat out my number one movie. Then I was always going to be hard to please. And to some degree I am satisfied. It just felt like some vital spark or element was missing. Don't get me wrong there was some fantastic gore and gallows humour on display. And a real pace to the film. It was missing a small element of lunacy, I think was the issue. Lovely nods to the originals though and handled so deftly.

[Hanzo the Razor]

I was very pleasantly surprised. I went in with low expectations just because I love all things Evil Dead and dreaded this remake. It was the first film I have seen in a long time where there were walk outs. A woman and her daughter left at the tree rape scene and a couple left not long after that. My wife loves her horror but even she said it was nearly too much for her. I agree that the last act was a bit of a let down though. And I didn't know there was an after credits scene! Bugger!

[Hanzo the Razor]

Oh and

"I'll feast on your soul"

just doesn't have the same ring to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meh6DIzHpgc

[Hello Goaty ♥]

It looks too serious to me, very stylish and americanised.

Is it?

I'll be watching it soon.

[Silent Runner]

This didn't really do it for me. Quite dull and earnest - the lack of humer really hurt it. Maybe it's horror fatigue or something but the gore and scares were really tame. Another pointless remake.

[Ben]

Lots of people in my screening were laughing at what I thought were inappropriate moments, although I'm not sure if it was because they thought it was bad or just trying not to look scared in front of their girlfriends. It's a good horror film, that ratchets up the intensity very well - the last 30 minutes or so are pretty relentless and the gore does fly (although like others I didn't find it particularly uncomfortable to watch - it's doesn't venture into torture porn territory at least). I don't have a particular wish to watch it again though, whereas I could watch the original Evil Dead films countless times.

The director clearly has talent, with a better script he'll definitely be worth keeping an eye on.

I know it's a horror film about an evil book so I'm not expecting the most sensible plot but:

When he decides not to burn the cabin, why does the lead wander down with no weapons (just after she mutilated his girlfriend)? That really annoyed me for some reason, there's horror film character stupidity then that

[Podge]

I enjoyed it but it definitely felt as though the 'fun' was missing. It should have gone far more over the top than it did and it probably suffered a bit from having some of the more gruesome bits in the trailers.

The after credits thing really wasn't worth waiting for either

[Fury4k]

.

[Stig]

Ha, I loved the after credits bit because it wasn't what I was expecting at all.

[Transient Curse]

Saw this earlier, I've never been much of a horror fan and I found it very jumpy and uncomfortable at times, throughout the gore didn't bother me at all, but the way they built up to the

girl cutting her face off

was almost unbearable for me, my imagination conjured up far worse images than the film offered up, I was quite relieved at the reveal. I loved the soundtrack throughout, really well done, I loved the full embrace of classic instrumentation.

[Ben]

The sound-effects for that scene were worse than the reality, you knew that something like that was going on when he walked in and I was picturing something far worse in my mind too.

I'm sure I kept hearing siren sounds in the mix as well, especially near the end, although that may just be a by product of living in North London.

[Transient Curse]

The sound-effects for that scene were worse than the reality, you knew that something like that was going on when he walked in and I was picturing something far worse in my mind too.

I'm sure I kept hearing siren sounds in the mix as well, especially near the end, although that may just be a by product of living in North London.

That's the one thing I didn't like actually, the air raid sirens really stood out - they sounded very obvious at the cinema I was at, intended to be one of those "blend this and this and it'll make something other worldly" moments, I'm sure.

[Ben]

I took it more as adding to the unease, with the obvious connotations the sound has. It wasn't overly obvious in my screening, just something you maybe half heard every so often.

[Meh]

Absolutely splendid movie. Loses its way a little at the last hurdle, but otherwise fucking great.

[Blooming Marvellous]

As we're apparently getting a sequel maybe that will follow the original evil dead two and we'll get the over the top humour in that one.

Surely not? How can you follow Evil Dead 2, it leads exactly into Army of Darkness doesnt it?

You mean jsut a sequel to the Evil Dead remake?

[Stig]

Like I've said Fede Alvarez has stated that the plan at the moment is for him to do an sequel to this remake, Raimi to do an Army of Darkness 2 and potentially round it off with a collaboration.

[Chadruharazzeb]

Am I correct in understanding that what we have here is a "remake" of Evil Dead which doesn't even have Ash in it?

[Meh]

Yes. It's a very good remake, because it mixes things up sufficiently, and is really fucking horrible.

[Jonzo]

Decided to go along to the Everyman and watch this last night, I'd say it matched my expectations but didn't exceed them massively.

One thing that really disappointed me was the sound. The original had a kind of electronic, garbled score at times that really made it feel strange and out of place. It really added to the nastiness of the film, tumbling midi basslines and such.

The remake has more of an operatic score which lost some of that feeling for me, I felt it was much closer to a traditional Hollywood remake than I was expecting.

It is truly, truly nasty in parts. I found the scene where

Mia was licking that girls leg especially disturbing, and the hand scene was one of the goriest things I've seen in ages.

I was also really impressed with some of the props, especially the book of the dead itself. What a deranged artefact it is in the remake, wow.

It loses the feel of the original for me somewhere along the way but it's definitely the only worthwhile horror remake to come out in a decade.

Oh and for anyone wondering what happens after the end credits,

Bruce Campbell comes on for like a split second and says "groovy" and does the thumbs up

. Not really worth waiting for if you ask me but a cool touch nonetheless.

[deerokus]

This is really very good. holy fuck it's gory, mind. Pleasingly great makeup and practical effects - so much better than CG. Not as good as the originals, but still cool because it does its own thing and does it very, very effectively.

Making sure to keep the

nail-gun, electric carving knife and hammer

locked safely away, now.

If I have one complaint, it's the character other than Mia are a little bland. And the actress playing Mia has a strangely annoying manner of speaking, and an odd face.

[Blooming Marvellous]

I thought her face was excellent.

I also thought the film was excellent, even if it was a bit more traditional than the originals.

[sweetdaddyg]

I dunno. The film seemed a bit....mediocre. Kind of cookie cutter to me. The cast weren't great until the shit hit the fan, straight acting as opposed to acting terrified wasn't their strong point. I also disliked Mia, she just came across as an unlikeable shit for the first hour. I actually preferred her as a deadite. Having said that, the direction was good, the bloke with the long hair and glasses was good and I loved some of the nods to the originals. I prefer to view this as a sort of evil dead gaiden as opposed to a remake. I think thats how raimi is looking at it. Not a disappointment, but it failed to "knock it out of the park" for me. Also...."groovy"

It's all just one man's opinion though. I am sure some people absolutely loved it, and some despise it. I just kinda liked it, but didn't love it. Go see it, I would rather have a mediocre evil dead than none at all, and if this acts as a jumping off point for more ash based films Im happy.

[Roblet]

I liked it. It wasn't as gruesome as I'd been expecting, a couple of "oooh, nasty!" moments but not walkouts/vomiting in the aisles fare either. Dialogue and characterisation fell flat of course, but I guess it's a bit churlish to expect anything in that department. It was at its best when traces of the old deranged slapstick approach showed through.

My favourite part was the bit where he slips on the chunk of her face and bangs against the toilet. Slipperier than a banana skin, that's for sure.

I also liked the "protagonist switcheroo" they did with Mia and David at the end.