Movie Review – Evil Dead (2013)

This weekend marks the nationwide release of Evil Dead, a remake of the classic 1981 horror film, The Evil Dead.

Evil Dead takes us back to the 1980s as a small group of five friends spend some time at an old cabin in the woods.  Just like the original film, some of the people are Michigan State University students, and yes, Sam Raimi’s trademark Oldsmobile car is parked outside of the cabin.  It’s beat up, covered in weeds and other growth, and it has clearly seen better days, but that small tribute is part of this newer version of the classic horror film.

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Evil Dead stars Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore as the five friends who encounter an evil presence at an old cabin out in the woods.  2013′s Evil Dead was produced by Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert G. Tapert, all three of them being connected to the original The Evil Dead film as the writer-director, main star, and producer of the film trilogy.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Evil Dead begins with an injured young woman running through the woods.  She’s quickly captured by two men.  She later wakes up tied to a post in a building.  After her blindfold is removed, the woman is shocked that her father is one of the people who trapped her.  She pleads for her life as her father douses her with a flammable liquid, telling her how sorry he is to do so.  While he’s doing that, an older woman is reading from an old book and urging him to continue with the ritual.

The father tries to strike a match when the young woman suddenly reveals that she’s possessed.  She screams and rants at her father, taking responsibility for killing her mother.  Her father lights a match and the woman burns while still tied to a post.  After she’s burned for a few moments her father raises a shotgun and shoots her point blank in the head, killing the young woman.

Fast forward to today.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Five friends meet at an old cabin in the woods.  They are: Mia (Jane Levy), Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), Olivia (Jessica Lucas), David (Shiloh Fernandez) and Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore).  Mia is David’s sister, and Natalie is his girlfriend.  Eric and Olivia are both friends with Mia and indirect friends with David.  It’s later revealed that David abandoned his friends years ago and Eric still carried a grudge about it.

The story between David and Mia is that a few years ago their mother died from complications of mental illness.  David chose to run away from the problem while Mia stayed with her mom and witnessed the horrors as she sank closer and closer to death.  That stress led to Mia’s addiction to marijuana.  When Mia mentions her mother and the song that she used to sing to Mia and David when they were children, David doesn’t want to hear about it.

It turns out that the reason for the trip to the cabin is to help Mia kick her marijuana habit.  She has a small ceremony where she drops her last bit of the narcotic down a well and swears to never touch the stuff again.  Her friends are all there to support Mia and help her kick the habit, especially during the first twelve hours.  Eric and Olivia tell David that Mia tried to quit last year, but after eight hours she went crazy and jumped back into the drug, overdosing it and actually dying at the hospital.  The doctors had to use a defibrillator to restart her heart and bring Mia back to life.

Knowing that Mia is going to be going through a very hard time, Eric, Olivia and David make a pact that no matter what happens, they are to keep Mia here at the cabin as she goes through withdraw.

The gang settles into the cabin and they’re not exactly impressed with the condition of the place.  Dust covers everything and it looks like somebody broke into the building.  David has to use a nail gun to reattach the lock to the cabin’s front door.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

That afternoon, Mia complains about the smell of death in the living room, but nobody else notices it.  They believe it’s just Mia’s senses being extra sensitive from her withdraw from drugs, but their dog also senses a disturbance.  A rug is pulled back to reveal a trapdoor to the cellar, a trapdoor that’s covered in blood stains.  David and Eric descend into the cellar and enter the room at the back of the structure.  Inside the back room are about a dozen or so dead cats and animals, all of them hanging from the ceiling as if they were killed in some sort of ritual.  They also notice that the main support beam has been charred.  On a shelf is a mysterious package along with a shotgun and several rounds of ammunition.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Eric takes the package to his room in the cabin, and while the others are away and helping Mia deal with the stress of withdraw, Eric opens the package and discovers the Naturom Demonto, the Book of the Dead.  It’s an ancient book bound in human flesh and written in human blood.  He opens the book and despite warnings telling him not to read anything or mention any words in the book, his curiosity pushes him further.  Eric reaches a page with the words scribbled out, but the words themselves are still there.  He takes a piece of paper and makes an etching, speaking the words out loud as he reveals each one.  These words trigger the release of a demon and ultimately the downfall of the five people in the cabin.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

After Eric unknowingly releases the evil forces, Mia begins to see images of a strange girl (we’ll refer to her simply as Demon Girl).  She tries to convince everybody that there’s a strange presence in the cabin, but nobody believes her.  They think that she’s hallucinating as part of her withdraw.  A storm is over them and Mia goes more and more crazy about the disturbance, going so far as running outside and using a station wagon to flee the cabin.  Naturally, everybody else thinks that she’s faking the images and is crazy to get back into the drug again.  They give chase but Mia is already speeding down the dirt road.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Mia’s trek only goes so far.  She turns on the windshield wipers and is startled when seeing Demon Girl standing in the middle of the road.  Mia swerves and crashes into a muddy ditch.  She regains consciousness and climbs out of the half submerged vehicle to hear her friends calling her name.  Mia returns to them but is shocked when she sees Demon Girl again.  She turns and runs through the woods but quickly becomes entangled with vines.  The vines actually wrap around her arms and legs and hold the young woman captive.  Demon Girl then appears directly in front of Mia and we see as something resembling a slimy vine slides out of Demon Girl’s body and then makes its way up between Mia’s legs and into her body, becoming part of the girl.

Mia is quickly found and returned to the cabin.  Olivia, a registered nurse, gives her friend a sedative to help her calm down from that explosive outburst.  Once Mia is in bed, Olivia returns and explains that she thinks Mia is faking everything so that they’ll let her go home and start taking drugs again.  She believes that Mia is so obsessed with the drug that she’ll cause herself bodily harm to help tell a more convincing story.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

David goes outside to look for the family’s dog and discovers him hiding in a hole underneath the tool shed.  A quick flashback shows Mia in a possessed state and beating the dog to death with a hammer.  He’s devastated by the dog’s death and that’s the last we see of the pet.  No, the dog does not come back as a zombie / demon and attack anybody.

Inside the cabin, Mia has locked herself in the bathroom and stands underneath the shower in a trance.  The other grow worried about her, and she turns the water to its highest setting and lets it burn and scald her skin.  David breaks open the door and shuts off the water, but by this point Mia’s face and arms are covered in serious burn marks.  There’s no doubt about it now.  They have to get the girl to a hospital for treatment.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

David uses the jeep to drive his sister to the nearest hospital.  Unfortunately, it’s been raining hard all afternoon and the river has risen to flood across the road.  They’re trapped.  David is forced to take Mia back to the cabin and wait out the storm.  Once the rain stops the water level will slowly recede and then they can leave the woods.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Olivia gives Mia some treatment though she’s clearly concerned about the wounds on her friend.  They’re discussing their options when Mia enters the living room carrying a shotgun, surprising the gang.  She takes aim and shoots David in the shoulder from across the room.  Before she can fire again, a strong gust of wind blows open the front door and a possessed Mia yells at the people, warning them that they will all die.  She then faints and collapses onto the floor.  Olivia approaches Mia and Mia suddenly comes back to life and wrestles herself on top of Olivia.  She then vomits a bunch of red blood / mucus / slime onto Olivia before Olivia kicks Mia off of her and into the cellar.  Mia is locked in the cellar and David tells Olivia to give her more sedatives, even if it puts her into a coma.  They hear Mia thrashing around and trying to kill herself in the cellar.  Olivia reluctantly agrees and heads to the bathroom to prepare another dose of sedatives.

Eric has grown more concerned about the ordeal and warns David that no amount of sedatives will help his sister.  He’s been reading more of the Naturom Demonto and has seen the similarities between Mia’s antics and drawings in the ancient book.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

In the bathroom, Olivia is visibly shaken as she tries to wash the blood off her face and then load a syringe with the sedative.  She becomes possessed and is terrified when she sees Demon Girl in the bathroom mirror’s reflection.  The glass shatters and the room goes dark.  When Eric checks on Olivia, he’s horrified to find her crouching in a corner and cutting off her face with a piece of glass.  She jumps up and attacks Eric and the two get into a bloody fight in the bathroom.  Olivia manages to stab Eric in the chest with a piece of glass and use the syringe to stab him many times in the face.  Eric pushes her away and uses a broken chunk of the bathroom sink to pound Olivia’s head, bashing it until she’s dead.

David helps Eric and tends to his wounds.  He has lost a lot of blood from the stabbing and David sends Natalie to the kitchen to get a cup of water for Eric.  While she’s gone, Eric reveals that he’s responsible for reading the Book of the Dead and unleashing the evil force.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Natalie is in the kitchen when she hears Mia crying down in the cellar.  She sounds normal and is questioning why she’s locked down there.  Natalie, acting like she’s never seen a horror film, stupidly goes into the cellar to comfort Mia.  Of course it’s a trick and the possessed Mia attacks Natalie, pulling her back into the cellar when she tries to escape.  Natalie awakens a few moments later and is paralyzed with fear as Mia approaches and climbs on top of Natalie.  Natalie tries to hold Mia back with a razor blade, but Mia bites her in the hand and snatches the knife.  Mia licks the razor blade, splitting her tongue in half.  She then reaches up and gives Natalie a bloody kiss.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Natalie manages to escape from the cellar, but when washing her hand in the kitchen sink, she realizes that there’s more to Mia’s bite than it seems.  The demonic “poison” quickly spreads and she feels it affecting the rest of her body.  Natalie takes an electric knife and cuts off her own arm above the elbow to stop the flow of poison.  When David finds his girlfriend in the kitchen the rest of her arm falls to the floor.  He quickly wraps her wound and places her in a bed to rest.

Meanwhile, Eric tries to burn the Book of the Dead, but the book won’t burn.  David enters the room and Eric shows him the book.  He tries to explain what’s been happening to them but it’s hard to translate the ancient language.  So far he’s deciphered that there’s an evil demon loose who needs to devour five souls before emerging back into the world of the living.  The demon has already attached itself to Mia’s soul, and the only way to save her is to kill her in one of three methods:  burning her, burying her alive, or dismembering the woman.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Natalie has awakened and is now in a possessed state.  She surprises David and Eric and shoots them both with the nail gun, wounding Eric many times.  The guys separate and Natalie pursues Eric, continuing to shoot him with nails.  David knocks down Natalie and she loses the nail gun.  He tries to get it but Natalie has disappeared again.  She surprises Eric and begins attacking him with a crowbar.  Just as she’s about to strike a fatal blow, David uses the shotgun to blow off Natalie’s other hand and she’s ultimately killed.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Now David is convinced more than ever of the supernatural evil, and he tries to burn down the cabin.  He takes Eric outside and then douses the house with gasoline.  Just before he drops his lighter, he listens to Mia’s pleas from the cellar and stops.  He can’t do it.

Outside, a bolt of lightning strikes a nearby tree, igniting it in a fiery blaze.  David looks at the burning tree and quickly thinks of an alternate way to help his sister.

David takes a tranquilizer and enters the cellar.  He makes his way to the back room and is startled when the room looks empty.  He spies a pool of water and thinks that Mia is hiding in there, but when he approaches it she suddenly appears from an opposite corner and attacks him.  There’s a bloody struggle as Mia attacks David and tries to drown him in the pool of water.  Eric appears and saves David at the last second, but Mia attacks David and he finally dies from his wounds.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

David carries Mia outside and dresses her in a red dress.  He then digs a shallow hole and starts burying his sister while she’s still alive.  Mia wakes and pleads for him to stop, but David convinces himself that it’s just a trick and he keeps burying his sister.  Once she’s covered in dirt the tree that was burning is suddenly extinguished, and David takes this as a sign that the demon has left Mia’s soul.  He reaches down and quickly pulls Mia from the ground.  He then uses a makeshift defibrillator that he constructed from a car battery and attempts to restart Mia’s heart.  His efforts fail and David walks away, but when he turns around one last time he sees his sister standing.  She’s alive and no longer possessed.  We’re anticipating it being a trick, but it’s true.  She’s her old self again, her wounds have healed, and Mia is more thankful than ever for her brother’s actions.

Now it’s time to leave the dreaded cabin.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

David goes inside to get the jeep’s keys and he’s suddenly attacked by a possessed Eric.  It turns out that he became infected when Mia stabbed him with a bloody knife while in the cellar.  David is bleeding heavily at the neck and throws the keys to Mia, yelling for her to turn and leave.  He then slams and locks the door, keeping his sister outside.  Eric approaches David and warns him that others are coming.  David then uses the shotgun to detonate the container of gasoline and burn down the house, killing himself and Eric.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Outside, Mia is knocked back by the blast.  As she’s watching the fire it begins to rain blood, just as Eric warned David from his readings in the Book of the Dead.  To make matters worse, Demon Girl crawls out of the ground and begins to attack Mia.  Mia tries to escape in the jeep but she fumbles with the keys and Demon Girl breaks the window and tries to grab her.  Mia escapes out the other side of the jeep and crawls on the ground.  She finds the hole by the tool shed and uses it to escape from Demon Girl, but the demon follows her.  Mia crawls through the hole and enters the tool shed.  There she finds a chainsaw and tries to start it, but it needs gasoline.  She manages to put some gas inside the cutting tool when Demon Girl enters the tool shed.  Mia keeps out of reach and crawls backwards, staying away as Demon Girl uses a machete and tries to stab Mia through the walls.  She slices her a few times before Mia is able to break a hole in the tool shed’s flimsy wall and escapes outside with the chainsaw.

Evil Dead (2013) – (c) TriStar Pictures

Outside, Mia hides underneath the jeep and finally starts the chainsaw.  Demon Girl is standing outside the jeep and Mia cuts off one of Demon Girl’s feet.  This enrages the demon, and after Mia crawls out from underneath the jeep, the demon flips over the vehicle and tries to crush Mia.  Mia scrambles away but the top of the jeep pins her left hand to the ground.  Her arm is broken and Mia panics as Demon Girl slowly approaches.  In an act of desperation, Mia finds the strength to push herself away from the jeep and rip off her hand.  She then uses the chainsaw and cuts Demon Girl in half in a horrific and bloody mess.  The remains of Demon Girl decompose and sink back into the Earth.

Evil Dead ends with a shot of the Naturom Demonto closing on its own.  The end credits have the recorded voice of Professor Knowby from The Evil Dead as he shares his research of the mysterious book.  A final scene after the credits has an older version of Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) turning to us and saying, “Groovy.”

So is Evil Dead any good?

As a whole, Evil Dead is a fantastic reboot of the classic horror-comedy series that began back in 1981.  This newer version is more intense than the original, and as one would expect, the budget is significantly bigger and the film has much better special effects.  As a plus, there’s very little CGI in this horror film.  Most of the bloody effects are created from good old fashioned make-up and other special effects.

Personally, I didn’t believe that Evil Dead was anywhere near as terrifying as the advertisements lead you to believe.  If you’ve seen the first two Evil Dead films you generally know what to expect.  When you remove the sudden bursts of loud sound effects, and expect the unexpected, there’s very little that can scare you in this film.  The most disturbing part for me was the speed at which Mia moved when she crossed the room in the cellar and attacked David.  That was a blend of bring both freaky and cool.

Evil Dead sets up the viewers to expect that David is the new version of Ash for this version of the movie.  This proves to not be true when Mia is cured and David is mortally wounded by Eric and he kills them both in the fireball, leaving Mia to be the hero despite her being the possessed villain for most of the film.  The last ten or so minutes convert Mia into a makeshift action hero as she battles Demon Girl, loses her hand, and shows us that chainsaws are still really cool weapons when battling the forces of evil.

Evil Dead (2013) – movie trailer

Fans of the Evil Dead trilogy are going to enjoy this newer telling of Evil Dead.  The producers have done the original film some justice and this newer version both looks beautify and tells a great story.  I was pleased with this version and am eagerly awaiting the next films in the Evil Dead series.  Word has it that both this version and Army of Darkness have sequels in the works.

Mia [talking to David] – “You don’t understand.  There was something in the woods . . . and I think it’s in here with us . . . now.”

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This article was originally published on April 7, 2013.