Dan Abel’s review published on Letterboxd:
31 Days of Horror 2021 - Film 24
A group of friends arrive at a cabin in the woods owned by one of their families. They're there to help their friend Mia as she kicks her drug habit cold turkey and enters the first few days of detox. Under a rug in the living room they discover a hatch that leads to a basement. In that basement are the bodies of dozens of dead animals, a shotgun, and a mysterious book. When one of them reads a passage inside the book it awakens a great evil. A demon that can possess humans. A demon that needs to claim five souls in order to return in his own body.
2013's remake of The Evil Dead starts off even heavier than the original, giving the viewer an idea of what's in store for the friends when they arrive for their weekend getaway at the lonely old cabin in the woods. Fede Alvarez is the director this time around but Sam Raimi is still a producer via his Ghost House Pictures studio. Good move. I love the fact that they left the car from the original film as a rotting relic in the woods. I always look for these little Easter eggs in remakes, and this one didn't disappoint. There were quite a few.
Although the original film did take itself more serious than it's sequels, this one is straight up horror and I love that. There are no intentional laughs. There are no dopey looking FX. Sure, they're CGI FX this time around but they're very well done for the most part. This is by all means a gore-fest just like it's source material. Speaking of source material, this remake didn't just use it's source material it also borrowed from The Exorcist and a few other films in ways that were tasteful. Paying homage as opposed to a ripoff. They did it the right way. They did pretty much everything the right way.
One of these characters takes way more abuse and bodily harm than Bruce Campbell did in the original and that's saying a lot. He's not even the star of the film but he's still my favorite character. The ending not only pays homage to Ash but is also features one of my favorite kills in horror history. This is one of the best remakes of all time and it's very much on the same level as the original. It twists the original plot into something that stays faithful yet also leaves it's own mark. Evil Dead is a shining example of the right way to do a remake. What a film. Make sure to watch the end credits see the Bruce Campbell cameo at the very end. The perfect way to close one of the best remakes of all time.
The Evil Dead Films Ranked
31 Days of Horror 2021
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