Feast on Evil Dead

It was with caution that I entered the theater for the remake of the 1981 cult horror/comedy classic "The Evil Dead". So many great horror franchises like "Friday the 13th", "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" have recently been ruined by Hollywood by not caring about the script and hiring a young music video director making his feature debut and throwing the casting net over any random show currently on the CW or ABC family. it is with great satisfaction and somewhat surprise that I can report that the new "Evil Dead" is both a fine addition to the franchise but also easily the best horror movie I've seen in years.

First a brief history: The Evil Dead first came about as a low budget movie directed and co-wrote by a then unknown director, Sam Raimi (the original spider man trilogy, Drag Me to Hell) and starring future B movie king Bruce Campbell (Bubba Ho Tep). The Evil Dead got enough of a following that two sequels came out, each more successful than the last (Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness). Army of Darkness was released in the early 90's so Dead fans and Brucefiles alike have been clamoring for something-anything, at one point there was even talk of a "Freddy VS. Jason VS. Ash" franchise launcher which unfortunately never came to fruition. So now more than 30 years after the original we have a "reboot" of "The Evil Dead". The story is the same as it was originally, 5 friends are in a remote cabin in the woods when the stumble up a book of the dead. Soon after reading from said book bad shit starts to go down.

"Evil Dead" is bloody, dirty, disgusting and hilarious in parts. Limbs are lost and blood spurts out at a rate that makes "Kill Bill" look PG-13 in comparison, obviously if you are squeamish about those sort of things you may want to cover your eyes. With the train wrecks that have been other rebooted horror remakes its comforting to know that both original director Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are both on board as producers. The cast is surprisingly strong, the most recognizable is Jane Levy from TV's underrated sitcom "Suburgatory". Levy has a great screen scream and without ruining the end it will be interesting if there is a sequel to see if her and Ash team up in anyway. There are a lot of nods to the original "Evil Dead" which will make my fellow dead heads squeal with delight (tip: stay til the end credits for an even bigger surprise). First time Hollywood director Fede Alvarez does a great job as well, there are signature "so evil dead" camera zoom in's but also the director puts his own spin and I cant wait to see what he can do with an original property.

Saying the new "Evil Dead" is the best horror movie to come out in some time unfortunately isn't a hard statement to make. Hollywood has deemed cheap, PG 13 "scary" movies as the future. Gone are the days when big name, respected directors such as Stanley Kubrick or William Freidkin would take on what would become horror classics (The Shining and The Exorcist). Though "Evil Dead" is a remake with Raimi now a big Hollywood franchise director this should hopefully show that even a hard, hard R rated film can stand out and entertain both the masses and the cult diehards. For lack of any other term "Evil Dead is "groovy", now go see it you primitive screwheads!