Mia (Jane Levy) is brought by her five friends to a remote cabin in the woods in order to kick her heroin addiction. At first, it difficult for her friends to take her wild ravings seriously, but it eventually becomes all too clear that evil forces are underfoot.
Evil Dead is a more polished, bigger budgeted, psychological remake of Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult classic horror. Unlike most remakes, this film works not only in spite of, but also because of its precursor. The back-stories of characters work well in the beginning to build up the false sense of security that Mia’s hallucinations are a product of withdrawal before swiftly unravelling into a theatrical thriller that is as claustrophobic as it is choke-on-your-popcorn terrifying.
There are also a number of stylistic pointers to Raimi’s original for those more hard-core horror buffs, with a reshoot of the infamous ‘tree-scene’ and a chainsaw making an appearance in the gruesome finale. The film bursts at the seams with eerily realistic gore and body horror.
The premise of a naïve group of teens staying overnight in a deserted cabin in the woods perhaps seems a bit too formulaic for a current movie of this genre, but a combination of side-splitting horror and humour means that this remake still manages to pack as much bite as Luis Suarez.
Fuelled with plenty of gore, rich visual direction, and a runaway performance by Lou Taylor Pucci, this film will not sink into the oblivion of Sam Raimi’s shadow. In fact, it’s dead good.
Verdict: 8/10