A modern take on a cult horror classic, “The Evil Dead” reboot actually makes for an enjoyable view — that is, if you can get past watching one character cut their tongue open and another cut their arm off in a daze.
Where I watched: DVD
Length: 92 minutes
Prior knowledge of the film: I’ve seen the original movie once and didn’t really like it.
Sequels/reboots are never better
This is normally the go to rule with any film. Similar to the cliche of the book being better than the film, it’s for the most part agreed upon that the original film in a series is always the best. For me, I completely disagree in regards to “The Evil Dead.” I remember watching the original with my brother a few years ago, and thinking it was really stupid. This may have been because I was definitely expecting it to be a zombie movie (can you blame me? It sounds like “The Walking Dead”), but it just seemed stupid to me. With the reboot, “The Evil Dead” succeeds in having a solidly terrifying plot that kept me scared throughout the whole film.
Was it actually scary?
The film actually was pretty scary. Although I had seen the original, and the remake followed the same basic plot, it was still original enough to ensure that viewers would be scared. The film also features a lot of surprise scares, where demons and possessed people emerge from nowhere, resulting in a lot of late-night screams from me which probably alarmed my family.
Overall consensus
It was actually pretty good. I don’t know why I disliked the original film so much, but the remake seems a lot better. One of the reasons is it’s not dated. The way the demons are summoned in the first film is through listening to a possessed recording on a cassette player. In the remake, a book is used to summon instead, which is timeless — books will never go out of fashion (at least I really hope they don’t). The acting was also pretty good for a horror movie. Jane Levy is great as the evil, possessed Mia — her acting was one of the most terrifying parts of the film.
This isn’t my favorite horror film on this list by any means, and I doubt I’ll ever watch it again to be honest (after this who knows if I will ever watch a horror film again), but “The Evil Dead” was definitely one of the best horror remakes I’ve ever seen and a film that I didn’t completely hate watching, which is becoming rarer and rarer.