Evil Dead (2013)

NIGHT 19

     "I can smell your filthy soul!" 

 

Evil Dead (2013) is an attempt to remake the low budget, horror film classic The Evil Dead (1981) with a higher budget and more gore. This film is director Fede Alvarez's first feature film and it is produced by the creators of the original film: Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert G. Tapert.

Five friends decide to spend the weekend at a cabin to help Mia kick her drug use. All goes to hell though when your stereotypical nerdy guy of the group finds a strange book of the dead and starts reading from it. While this sounds like it could be funny, it's actually completely serious and a return to the series' origins as straight horror.

There's a couple things that this film did better than the original. By way of making the events a little more plot based rather than the madness and haphazard way the events unfold in the original. I liked how in this film you can actually follow the evil possessing each member of the group one at a time. It actually starts with the tree rape scene (which gives that scene slightly more meaning than in the original) and then as Mia gets possessed/infected it slowly passes on to each of the other characters as they come in contact with the gruesome version of their former friends.

I also liked the change to the premise of this film, having all the main characters come to the cabin to help a friend detox is actually a really smart change (and I'm guessing the original pitch that made anyone actually consider making this film) Unfortunately beyond the pitch the film doesn't really do anything with this, it could have been used in a really interesting way through out the film as Mia (the girl who is detoxing) is the first one to get possessed and start acting strangely and they could have carried this into the plot of having the other characters really not believe her and have drugs as a bigger element of the plot (thinking they've all been drugged or something) when shit gets really weird but the film doesn't. Instead it just gives us a little bit of an interesting change at the beginning and then drops it almost immediately after that.

Okay lets talk frankly here for a moment, I understand that to make a film these days it's a lot easier to get financial backing by making a remake or a sequel of something else that was successful. I don't like it, but I understand. That's fine and all all: you're a hot young filmmaker just starting your career and you get the opportunity to make a multimillion dollar film with a lot of hype around it. You have to use the title, sure. But after that you pretty much have free reign to make whatever film you feel like. What I don't understand is why you would literally cling to the events that happened in the original [and the original remake: Evil Dead II (1987)] like they were your bible! Do your own thing! This is a solid example of the worst way to make a remake: by doing everything the original did but trying to make it edgier and more "modern."

Another thing this film does is the "who's the protagonist" game that the original Alien (1979) does but, you guessed it, this film does it far worse. Now lots of people have seen Alien so many times that it's easy to forget (and the sequels don't help) but one of the cool things the original Alien did was one by one start killing off characters until you were left with the most unexpected character as your protagonist. This film tries to do that also, one by one killing off all the characters in attempt to make you guess who is the new "Ash" of our series. The only problem? The first character they kill off is our protagonist! Way to make us care about our character film, kill her off (and make her possessed and evil) very early on so that we automatically don't care anymore! By the time she comes around again, I really couldn't care less about this character.

Okay nit-picky sure, but I hated the design of the Necronomicon in this film. [Oh sorry it's the "Naturom Demonto" in this film because it was called that in the original and this film decided to copy that film down to useless details like this.]  Yes the illustrations were cool, but they surely didn't look like they were etched in blood. And unlike the original, they had what appeared to be English translations of the book all over it, right on top of the pages ...in what appeared to be red ballpoint pen!

Probably the worst thing about this film is the Logic. Everything that The Cabin in the Woods (2012) was poking fun at with the way characters act in horror films, is right here in this one. So much so, that I was quoting lines from The Cabin in the Woods while watching this one: "Ok, I'm drawing a line in the fucking sand here. Do not read the Latin!" The original didn't even have it's characters read from the book, they play a tape of a man reading it! Also the funny thing about having the Necronomicon translated is that you can read ahead to what's coming! But of course, it takes most of the film before the characters realize that the linear events that are happening in real life are also in the book you've been reading one page at a time.

This film has really bad writing, I've briefly mentioned the logic problems, but worse are the characters and the dialogue. Admittedly, this maybe the result of English being the second language for the director, but the actors have as much responsibility to make their lines work as anyone else. Such cookie cutter horror characters, and blatantly obvious mistakes they make really bring this film down big time.

And finally this film has such an excess gore and almost every bodily fluid you could imagine for really no reason. At first I was thinking this was a tribute to the Italian horror flms like the original kind of did, but unlike those this film tried to make all the bodily fluids as realistic as possible? What is the point? Is it really all just for simple gross-out moments? Come on director, you're better than that! On a brighter note, you could probably play bodily fluid bingo with this film and everybody would be a winner! Hows that for a drinking game?

Despite everything else there's a couple of moments in this film that I felt had a really good sense of suspense and horror, but with such bad characters and dialogue it's hard to think anyone would actually be scared by this movie as a whole. It's just super jarring to have such laughably bad lines next to intensely serious moments. Here comes a tangent, but to me this really shows off how good The Cabin in the Woods was, because that film nailed the bad lines next to horror thing. Oh, is it not fair for me to look at The Cabin in the Woods in comparison with this film? They're the ones who decided to make a remake of the original immediately after The Cabin in the Woods was released which literally calls out all the clichés and lesser parts of the horror genre.

Scares aren't the only great thing about this film either, there's some genuinely "cool" moments I found as well (at least as a horror fan). I actually liked how it started raining blood in the third act, and there was this awesome shot at the very end where a body kind of sinks or gets absorbed into the bloody/muddy ground, it's a downright awesome looking visual. All of this kind of depresses me because if this obviously very talented director was given the chance to make his own original feature there's enough here to prove to me that I would have loved it. But instead he jumps on the chance to make a completely unnecessary remake!

Evil Dead (2013) is pretty much everything The Cabin in the Woods (2012) was trying to make a statement and warn against, and yet here it is one year after The Cabin in the Woods was released. Pretty depressing actually if you ask me.

1.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




That's it for my Evil Dead streak on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies, tune in tomorrow for a brand new indie U.K. horror film that is getting a lot of hype, The Borderlands (2013).

But if you want more Evil Dead goodness check out my friend Daimeon's reviews of the the whole Evil Dead series!

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Army of Darkness (1992)

NIGHT 17

     "Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun."

Army of Darkness (1992) (Also known as Evil Dead 3: Army of Darkness or Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead) is the conclusion to the to original Evil Dead trilogy following The Evil Dead (1981) and is a direct sequel to Evil Dead II (1987). Like those this film is directed by Sam Raimi and also stars Bruce Campbell as our hero Ash Williams.

Army of Darkness picks up right after the conclusion of Evil Dead II with Ash stranded in Medieval England in 1300 AD, where he must quest for the dreaded Necronomicon to defeat the evil deadites and return to his own time.

I love how simple and straightforward the story is in Army of Darkness. It also works almost completely on it's own. So much so that when you ask if people have seen any of the Evil Dead movies most people have no idea what you're talking about but if you bring up Army of Darkness, suddenly they know exactly what you're talking about. There's a very brief recap at the beginning for anyone who hasn't seen Evil Dead II, but even this is done very cleverly because it even adds elements to the backstory and gives us a little more about Ash's past than we've know previously! And it all works just to add a couple more hilarious jokes into this film! "Shop smart, shop S-Mart!" Not many filmmakers would have done this.

Really the only negative things I could say about this film is some of the practical effects can be very obvious that they are on the lower end of the budget like rubber skeletons and such, but most of it is not distracting to the point of actually affecting the scene negatively. Also story-wise some of the slapstick humor tends to lead story astray or on long tangents that could have been cut down but that kind of is the nature of that type of humor. No one really complains That Three Stooges doesn't stay on topic do they?

The thing that always astonishes me with this film is the creativity. First of all the jokes and humor of this film isn't something that was came up with over night this is an amazing combination of slapstick, puns, references and jokes half of which probably started with, "wouldn't it be funny if we..." or "what if we tried this." This film is a passion project and the film's unique sense of humor is where I think it shows the most.

I also love the creativity and ingenuity in the way this film mixes mediums. As for the different types of practical effects, this film uses the whole gambit. There's scenes where Sam Raimi seamlessly uses puppets, stop motion, actors in suits, and just regular props all in one sequence to bring to life the undead villains that the knights are fighting. This takes a such a high level of planning and skill, I really marvel at these things when watching this film. This is the result of a low-budget filmmaker given a larger budget and proof of how different his sensibility is than the rest of Hollywood. Awesome.

All of the dialogue in this film is absolutely hilarious. They started to get to it with the last film but this is the film it really hits its mark. There's countless lines that are very quotable and memorable, it's no wonder this became such a cult classic. And as promised, I really gotta hand it to Bruce Campbell in this one. This is full-blown, hail to the king-Ash Williams. He takes that character he was starting to become last film and really just hits a home run with it in this film. His acting alone makes me wish there was just tons more movies that followed this one.

Army of Darkness (1992) is a film the likes of which will probably never happen again. It's the last hurrah of the era of practical effects and a very smart filmmaker creating a hilariously memorable slapstick horror film.

5/5 Stars.

 Happy watching!



Even though we just finished the original Evil Dead trilogy, tomorrow we continue with more Evil Dead-related goodness (and it may not be what you're expecting!) here on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies.

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Evil Dead II (1987)

NIGHT 16

     "Groovy!"

Evil Dead II (1987) (sometimes referred to as Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn) is the comedy horror sequel to The Evil Dead (1981) also directed by Sam Raimi and like that film this film also stars Bruce Campbell.

This film is a loose remake of The Evil Dead like that film it involves a group of people spending a night in an abandonded cabin with an evil book of the dead.

There's two major differences story-wise between this film and it's predecessor. First it's very clear, right off that Ash is the protagonist in this one. I liked the way it was done before, but I admit I don't think it would have worked as well a second time so I'm okay with this change. Also letting Bruce Campbell take the lead from the very beginning allows him to really take on his amazing hero Ash persona from the beginning which really helps in the rushed first act and kind of ties the whole film together as an epic hero legend. The second difference is that the Necronomicon seems to possess the house in this one, not just people. Although this may technically make less sense, this helps in two ways: it allows better explanation for anytime something surprising happens in the film (like bursting windows that were pretty much unexplained in the first film) and it helps with this film because this film has less characters to possess and turn evil from the beginning. Not to mention it makes for a great third act!

Even though this film has somewhat of a comedy aspect, the horror of this film is really quite decent.  They rely on soundtrack jump scares a bit too much for my taste, but other than that it's an excellent blend of comedy and genuine horror.

Another improvement is that this film, unlike the original, really seems to know what it's doing with it's grotesque horror. These same types of seemingly senseless gross-out scenes that seemed out of place in the original now are actually hilarious thanks to the added comedy element. For example after some effort, Ash slices off the head of one of the transformed gross witch deadites and then her head is on the floor screaming "I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!!" to which Ash aims his shotgun and says " Swallow this." Then blows up the disembodied evil head in an explosion of fire and guts. If that's not entertainment, I don't know what is.

I kind of wonder why this was labeled a sequel? There's almost no direct ties to the original story-wise. This probably has to do with the fact I'm not actually sure this film really works on it's own? Mainly because the beginning is a rushed bunch of random crap and really feels like it's running through of the events of the previous one (which feels really repetative if you've seen the first one anytime recently... like me...) just to get to lots of time with Ash going insane. So if you're watching this film, they added the intro to the film to explain the Necronomicon right off for you, but then after that almost the entire film is our protagonist going crazy, killing his girlfriend and then struggling with becoming possessed himself and fighting the evil for almost the entire first act. I feel like if you haven't seen the first one, you'd be sitting there going, what the hell am I watching!?

The dialogue can be pretty bad at times, for example, "it's like someone just walked over my grave." Some of these are intentional. And a lot of them work as comedy. But the films wont fully land what they're trying to do with these types of lines until the next one.

If you thought the direction in The Evil Dead was good (which believe me, I do), you may be surprised to find the direction even more solid here. You can really see the transition in only about a decade from a talented amateur who was very inventive and creatively trying things to a well executed professional, with each camera move being planned out and used for a precise reason. Even though this one is a comedy the horror is again really good, and it's debatable which film has better horror moments. Also one of the things that makes this tolerable as a remake is it doesn't really even follow the original more than the basic premise. And it certainly doesn't follow a typical Hollywood screenwriting format, this film wanders all over the place but then ends on a very precise and well planned out footing, something I attribute entirely to Mr. Raimi.

Unlike previous film, Bruce Campbell is the main event here. Here's him really figuring out the role of his career (and setting up the awesomeness that is the sequel). It's hard to imagine this film even remotely working with any one else in the lead here. It definitely makes the film worthwhile.

Lastly I gotta mention how much I love the ending here. Even though it's a twist ending it ties into an earlier part of the film you may not catch on the first viewing an has such a classic creepy feel very akin to an older style of horror or science fiction like The Planet of the Apes (1963) or Soylent Green (1973).

Evil Dead II (1987) is an enjoyable comedy horror. In a lot of ways it's improved from the original, but the best part about it is how it really paves the way and sets the standard for it's sequel...

4/5 Stars.


 Happy watching!




Tomorrow on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies we find out what happened to Ash with the end of this film with the end of the original Evil Dead trilogy, Army of Darkness (1992).

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The Evil Dead (1981)

NIGHT 15

 

     "No! It was the woods themselves!"

The Evil Dead (1981) is an independent horror film and the first film directed by Sam Raimi.

The Evil Dead is about 5 friends that rent out an abandoned cabin in the woods for a weekend adventure. Something is not right about this cabin from the begining and when the kids find a demon book and other creepy things in the basement, they're going to wish they never came at all.

The premise of this film is good. So good that a TON of films have stolen it to the point that it's become cliché, but this is the original. The fact that so many other films have ripped off this one doesn't take anything away from this one, it really just makes those others look bad. And if the premise isn't enough, think about the other thing this film does really originally story-wise: this film reverses the classic horror film trope of the "scream queen." Instead of a female protagonist who rises out of all her friends getting killed and survives to the end we have a very wimpy male lead! This is a super original spin on a classic idea and it works really quite well!

Another really solid thing in this film is the acting. And surprisingly enough I'm really not talking about Bruce Campbell! He's not bad in this film, but he's young and really hasn't found his strengths yet as an actor. It's all the other nobody actors that really sell the horror of being possessed and turning into deadites that really make scarier parts of this film work. This is about as good of acting as you can get on an independent low-budget film.

Besides the premise, the story is not the greatest part of this film. There's a lot of events and weird things that happen that just don't make a ton of sense and up just being really gory and gross just for the hell of it (which in later films these end up being used for comedy but not so much here). Did I mention there's an obsessive amount of gore? It seems like Raimi was on an Italian horror film, "video nasty" kick when he made this one. Which is fine, it just doesn't do much for me or the story.

I don't love the ending, never have... I mean, it's fine... it kinda works, but it just doesn't seem to be enough closure for my taste.

The direction is why this film is really amazing. Sam Raimi's vision and execution is really something to marvel at. A majority of this film works not because of the story or the acting but simply because of the amazing direction. This goes hand in hand with the camerawork too, this film has such a creative and inventive way of finding the most interesting places to put the camera. There's a ton of shots that I look at and just absolutely love every time I watch this film. Just the fact that Sam Raimi started here with an independently financed horror film as a nobody and now is one of the biggest directors in Hollywood (for better or worse) is a tribute to how good the direction in this film really is.

Also the editing in this film is really top notch. This is what most separates this film from any other independent horror film. It may be un-noticable upon first viewing but there's lots of times when the editing is what is actually doing the most work in the film! 

And the final element that I need to mention is the soundtrack. Sure the score is good too, but I'm actually talking about the films use of sound. A lot of the noises and sounds in the film were done in post which I think adds a whole level of extra thought put into them that other films don't have. But its the use of these sounds that really are the last piece to making all of what we see on screen work.

The combination of all of these things: direction, camerawork, soundtrack and editing all add up to some of the most clever filmmaking and the most memorable scenes in a horror film ever. This film has a lot a young filmmaker can study and learn from.

The Evil Dead (1981) is a contemporary classic, independent horror film. This film has influenced so many filmmakers and films and still today it's easy to see why.

4.5/5 Stars.

Happy watching!




Tune in tomorrow on the 31 Nights of Macabre Movies for this film's comedy sequel/remake Evil Dead 2 (1987).

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Drag Me To Hell (2009)

DAY 22

"This time, try not to piss off any old ladies."

Drag Me To Hell (2009) is a morality tale about a girl named Christine who works in loans at a bank. She's up for a promotion and is at a crucial point in her life with a lot of good changes seemingly around the corner. A woman approaches her about getting a third extension on a loan and it looks like turning it down could convince Christine's boss that she's worthy of the raise. Unfortunately the woman is a gypy and she puts a curse on Christine giving her three days until a demon will consume her soul.

I really liked the casting in this movie, like everyone seems like a perfect choice. And major props to Alison Lohman who plays Christine, the lead, she plays such a wide range of emotions in this movie and pulls it off wonderfully. It's a sight to see, for sure.

There's a couple of times where the "shock value" of grossness is used to it's limit, but most of the time it's done for a purpose so this didn't bother me too much.

This is a beautiful script. I love how simple and original it is. There are very few movies like this, and expecially made today. I like how the script keeps you guessing right until the last minute, I love how well developed the characters are and I really like the richness of the story, how well grounded and simple it is, yet unlike anything else.

And as much as I love the script, I love how well carried out it is. Sam Raimi's direction is masterful and I really enjoy how playful and creative the camera work is in this movie it really puts it on another level.

Drag Me To Hell (2009) is one of the greatest horror movies that's come out probably in the last twenty years or so. It's a good script that is carried out beautifully and I highly reccomend it to anyone who hasn't seen it. 5/5 stars.

Happy watching!







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