Film Review: Evil Dead

I really wanted to like the new Evil Dead remake. I promise. The red-band trailer released several months ago teased a faithfully bloody update of the cult classic, an over-the-top story of evil possession anchored by perhaps the greatest horror protagonist of all time: Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell). The original is scary fun in the truest sense—though I prefer Evil Dead 2—and what I knew about the latest installment led me to believe that this may be the rare remake to defy the odds and actually, um, not be painful to watch.

While I never felt a temptation to rip my eyes out during the film (something that can’t be said for the characters), I nonetheless left the cinema with an odd feeling of emptiness. The new film is largely faithful to the original, but it misses the mark by a few excruciating inches.

The plot: five teenagers go to a cabin in the woods where they are attacked by some evil force. If you need to know more, you’re going to the wrong movie.

Now, let’s move onto the important stuff. First, the good—the gore effects, done entirely without CGI, are remarkable and shocking. The film’s climax is a beautifully bloody affair, using one of Yahweh’s old anti-Egyptian tactics to strike fear into the characters and audience. Leading lady Jane Levy gives a solid performance. The other four actors don’t, but that was true in the original as well. Besides, this isn’t exactly the Glengarry Glen Ross of scripts.

Unfortunately, severed tongues and bloody vomit can only take a horror fan so far. While the deaths, possessions, self-mutilations etc. are often captivating in the moment, they amount to a bunch of shrieking sound and bloody fury, signifying nothing. The stupidity of the characters, though expected to some degree, is somehow worse than in the original. I’m not asking for Cabin in the Woods or Scream levels of self-awareness from my horror characters, but at least give me a reason why the teacher opens up the book covered in plastic wrap, barbed wire, and, oh yeah, HUMAN FLESH! I’m more than willing to suspend my disbelief, but I can’t expel it from my brain.

Yet it’s not plot holes that really drag this movie down. It’s the consistently dour tone. One of the things that make this type (not all types) of horror movie work is the understanding that fear can be fun for the audience, if not the characters. The original Evil Dead series has the tone of a live-action Looney Tunes, which works well with its over-the-top stylings. The new film keeps the heightened sensibility but loses the joy.

Alas, there is almost nothing to laugh or jump at in the new Evil Dead. The lack of either humor or a deeper fear engenders nothing but a nihilistically dark indulgence in the character’s pain. It’s neither fun nor lastingly scary, which makes Evil Dead a waste of its potentially viable components.