Evil Dead or Evil Dud?

Tori P. Coelho 4/12/2013

Evil Dead

Release Date: 2013

Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas

Color

Horror, Thriller, Slasher

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

 

Your typical bloody, gory slasher film. The recent remake of Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead lacked originality and the key element to a horror movie--the horror. A quick synopsis of the film consists of a group of five people traveling to a rotted out cabin in the middle of nowhere in an attempt to rehabilitate the movie's main protagonist, Mia, from a drug addiction. However, a reeking stench lingering in the cabin leads the group's dog to find a hatch that leads to a basement, which so happens to be filled to the brim with dead, decomposing cat corpses. Nevertheless, unlike any sane mind, the group did not leave. Elicit--and at times explicit--roars of outrage and bitter disappointment of diehard fans filled the theatre.

 

Of course, the many obvious questions still lye to those who have seen the film. Why choose a desolate, rotting cabin in the middle of nowhere to treat a drug addict? Especially one as run-down, sketchy, and filthy as this? Also, why in the name of everything logical would Olivia, who verbally claims to be a registered nurse, have such a miniscule amount of medical supplies on her when she knew Mia failed to go cold turkey during her first attempt at quitting drugs?

 

Then there is the racher clichéd presentation of the fashion in which the film was shot. There was even a scene where the camera flipped to have the ground as the sky, and vice versa. If anyone has watched 2011's Cabin in the Woods, they would see the remarkable, and somewhat questionable, similarities between the two movies. Both films feature a group of five people traveling to a deserted, desolate cabin in some forest, where they discover a creepy, hidden basement. Both movies also feature the group finding a strange book with suspicious Latin phrases, and, like every cliché horror film, there's always that one group member that simply can't resist reading from the seemingly malevolent words. They always do this despite the warnings and protests given to them by the other group members, and the evil is released to rain mayhem upon the cast. Too bad the recent Evil Dead lacked the dry humor Cabin in the Woods managed to grasp. It may have had something going for it at that point other than gore. Honestly, how many times must we view people rip and saw their own extremities off before we willingly throw ourselves to the demon just to escape the repetitive and cliche plot?