Supposedly set in the same continuity as the original trilogy, but the tiniest bit of scrutiny makes it obvious that it's just as much of a remake of 1 as 2 is. For example how would that be her parents cabin after the original owners died and it was demolished in the rift. Did they just squat in this rotten old shack in the middle of nowhere? In the end that doesn't really matter though, this films problems are mainly tone, tempo and originality. One of the best and most impressive things about Evil Dead 2 is how it manages to go full throttle after it starts off just 10 minutes in and the first not being far off. This doesn't really get started until 30 minutes in. Even then it never really goes all out and it has a lot of lulls. This does have a bit to do with another point though, the tone of the film. Taking breaks to try and be emotional or possibly create tension. I really couldn't tell if it actually was. But the more dark comedy tone of the others is the main thing that makes it work. The premise is crazy, no one could realistically be alive or at least lucid enough to do anything with those wounds and there are no real rules to anything that happens. The more serious the tone the more those things come off as flaws. As far as originality goes it might seem hypocritical to say I like 2 more than 1, but that was the same director remaking his own script and vision with the budget to back it up. Having a new director and writer doing the same thing in the same cabin with the same book almost 30 years later just seems pointless and little more than a pay day.

It's not all bad, the effects are great and the first Evil Dead had its own share of problems. One of them being the acting, while these people aren't fantastic they at least sound like they've acted before. And in some ways this films positives weigh up for its negatives in comparison to the first. But what was slightly cliché then is now 30 years more cliché. The dropping of keys and caps, them thinking for no real reason that the danger was over among others made the ending especially almost unbearably annoying. The complete lack of a charismatic lead doesn't help either. And the rehab angle changes or adds nothing to separate it from the rest. Maybe without the rest of the series in the back of my mind it would have been a different experience, but as it is it feels more like a studio thinking the original was too silly and wanted to edge it up.