I can imagine that in 2013 a horror film so traditional and proudly confident in its genre roots surprised audiences, more so considering this is a remake in a time where the remake was something of a dirty word already, for good reason probably. The horror/terror genre of films is something of a personal blindspot for me, even when I was younger there was something that the genre or format of "modern" horror films never appealed to me, the always boring and flat digital look of things and the performances, so I skipped on now popular franchises such as Final Destination and Scream, whether they're good or not I won't know for the time being.

I like the original Evil Dead, it's a charming movie where San Raimi flexed his muscle as an auteur of the genre; I personally think it comes closer to an action/horror movie covered by a blanket of dark fantasy with touches of humour. Carries the same thrills and mood of something like an "escape room" flick, a lot more surreal and absurd than truly terrifying, aided by Bruce Campbell's equally iconic and naturally cartoon-ish facial structure. Also copious amounts of gore and practical effects. This remake by director Fede Álvarez revels in the gross, nasty, dirty, body fluid fueled and exploitative origins of the genre as if out of a sketchy VHS tape. Fede Álvarez and cinematographer Aaron Morton clearly love the original film, enough to understand they can't replicate the magic of Raimi, so instead they focus on stripping a lot of the cultural baggage it's accrued since the release of Raimis's trilogy, particularly the main character and flashy fast paced camera movements, of which there are a few clever callbacks to. As a side note this has more Sam Raimi in its DNA than what Sam Raimi did with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

I applaud how it plays with expectations, starting out like a by the numbers ordeal, but the image has some texture to it, even n the morose and grey color palette which helps highlight the change in pace and tone in the conclusion. In the age of the genre deconstruction, Evil Dead is faithful to the cliches and tropes without the need to callback or comment on itself and its inherent repetition, the dialogue is absurd as demons launch coloquial expletives and propositions of sexual acts as brief instances of comedy, beyond that the cast plays it pretty straight. I'll be the first to say that Jane Levy was positively charming as Mia by the end, but her presence as a protagonist only goes as far as less than the mid point of the films' runtime, any arc in her story of addiction is left beside, you could gleam some sort of meaning in her literal downward spiral as she's possesed and eventually released from her demons as commentary and maybe it has some value, but as I've heard some say, Evil Dead is strictly "no story, only vibes".

And what vibes, Fede Álvarez wastes no time in getting to the fun bits, frantically rushing to the intense setpieces and practical effects, if you're not scared for sure some will walk out grossed out. Playing with some of the original film's toys such as the sexual assault tree, the cabin itself is not as memorable but still feels like s real place, dark and dusty an sppropiately haunted archetype in itself. Evil Dead 2013 does have the benefit of hindsight, it could pick and choose what to keep and what to do away with, and in that it's a better built project and not without a vision of its own, clearly wanting to build a larger universe a-la Mad Max: Fury Road, as confirmed by the recent-ish relesse of the trailer for Evil Dead: Rise as of writing this.

It's a metal kind of movie, balanced between tradition and modernity, keeping the physicsl aesthetics and being self aware and absurd without falling into self-deprecation and parody, it trusts it can still entertain using the old ways while paving a path of its own.