I, like many people normally wince at the thought of a remake of a cult film being made (and like it or not The Evil Dead has said cult following) so I honestly wasn't expecting much from this film (then again I thought the original The Evil Dead film was overrated), but to my surprise Evil Dead was actually pretty good...
When the film begins it honestly isn't all that different to the original film; five people meet up at the cabin, chat, get to know each other yada yada, but once the Evil Dead arrive it starts to turn a corner...
OK so there are clearly some problems with this remake; the acting from the majority of the cast isn't brilliant and character chemistry could probably be best described as poor (but in defence of this film these things were not great in the original film either).
Where this film truly out does the original film is in its creation of the undead; there are some truly horrifying scenes in this film and some of the undead actually look pretty scary (particularly demonic Mia whom is simply brilliant). Another thing that is worth pointing out is that director Fede Alvarez avoided using CGI as much as he could in order to show homage/respect to the original film and to Sam Raimi; thank you sir that was a nice touch. It just goes to show that with the right imagination and the slight advantage of modern technology that you can improve on something that on the face of it seems untouchable.
I've criticised the acting, but that's been a little unfair I thought Jane Levy was superb and, in all fairness none of the other cast members were too bad either.
Those who remember the original film better buckle themselves in for this film as it is a lot more gory and horrific than the original film; then again in this modern remake we're not treated to the cartoonish and rather laughable SFX that plagued the original. Whilst I don't mean to be too unkind to the original film (I did enjoy it) Alvarez has merely put a 21st century stamp on the film and given this remake an update on what he expects modern audiences will want to see and in my book he has succeeded.
When the film begins it honestly isn't all that different to the original film; five people meet up at the cabin, chat, get to know each other yada yada, but once the Evil Dead arrive it starts to turn a corner...
OK so there are clearly some problems with this remake; the acting from the majority of the cast isn't brilliant and character chemistry could probably be best described as poor (but in defence of this film these things were not great in the original film either).
Where this film truly out does the original film is in its creation of the undead; there are some truly horrifying scenes in this film and some of the undead actually look pretty scary (particularly demonic Mia whom is simply brilliant). Another thing that is worth pointing out is that director Fede Alvarez avoided using CGI as much as he could in order to show homage/respect to the original film and to Sam Raimi; thank you sir that was a nice touch. It just goes to show that with the right imagination and the slight advantage of modern technology that you can improve on something that on the face of it seems untouchable.
I've criticised the acting, but that's been a little unfair I thought Jane Levy was superb and, in all fairness none of the other cast members were too bad either.
Those who remember the original film better buckle themselves in for this film as it is a lot more gory and horrific than the original film; then again in this modern remake we're not treated to the cartoonish and rather laughable SFX that plagued the original. Whilst I don't mean to be too unkind to the original film (I did enjoy it) Alvarez has merely put a 21st century stamp on the film and given this remake an update on what he expects modern audiences will want to see and in my book he has succeeded.