Evil Dead remake revisited ..

Swofty

Hero from the Sky
Staff member
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Jan 20, 2008
As it's been a couple of years to allow the dust to settle and what with the upcoming new TV show, I thought it was about time to re - access the remake of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead ..

Personally, I loved it ... just like the original, it was never trying to be an easy film to watch. Fede Alvarez had the courage to make a Bruce'less ED film and tell his own story instead while also hanging on to just enough pop culture references to not alienate the old school fans. Can I remember all of the characters names ? .. No, but then I couldn't after watching the original for the first time either .. the fact that the shock factor was emphasised over character development is sort of the whole point of Evil Dead films (It's also something that I'm getting a bit nervous about that could go wrong with the new TV show .. we're getting too much back story character info for my liking.)

Back to the remake, the camerawork was top notch but not a scratch on Raimi's visual freak out of the original 1 & 2, the lighting was stunning and the whole cabin area felt wet and cold to the eye. I wasn't a huge fan of the score, it felt a bit generic and I can only remember the main theme ... the rollercoaster hooter sounds were well placed and an original idea showing that Fede was on the same page as Raimi on this project: "Let's make this a roller coaster ride!" ...   

Grandpa the dog was the Jar Jar Binks/ fly in the ointment for me though. I wanted a Deadite dog, not one that unconvincingly pulls a rug back then's just found dead later.

Has anyone else watched this then found it improves on repeated viewings?
 

Kain

Captain Supermarket
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Sutter Cane

Spinach Chin
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Jul 11, 2015
I loved the remake when I saw it in theater.  The only thing which disappointed me was the twist at the end with Mia's resurrection.  She's scalded herself with hot water, cut her tongue with a knife, but everything is ok when she coming back to life.  I know Deadites can do tricks but this was a little bit too much. So everything was not illusion except that?  Hard to believe...

I always thought the guy with the glass should have been the last survivor...Yeah you're right Swofty I can't remember their names except Mia... ;)

I still love the movie.  I watched it a few months agao.  A great remake with some flaws in the story.  I was also expecting a Deadite Dog.  ;)
 

eViL DeAdiTe

Loud Mouth Braggart
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Aug 21, 2007
I saw it in the theater with a fellow ED fan, and a packed house, and enjoyed the ride. We walked away satisfied, and impressed by Fede's go at it. This movie has guts, in more ways than one.

Years later, I have only watched a few parts of it one other time. Not sure when/if I'll end up watching the whole film again. It's a great movie, but it will never live in infamy like the original. That said, as far as remakes and their terrible track records go, this one is an exception.

I'm interested to see if they try to connect it to the original series at some point during the course of AvED. Seems they were careful to leave room for that during production, as a possible future option.

In any event, if you haven't seen it, it's definitely worth a watch.
 

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
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Mar 31, 2013
I've seen it multiple times since my original (negative) review (thank you, FX, for replaying it in the dead of afternoon while I'm trying to write) and...nope, still hate it.  I've said this before but...


I hate Shiloh Fernandez' dead-eyed performance.  Hate that the movie's about David when it should be about Mia.  Hate the Shoot the Shaggy Dog (literally) bit with Grandpa.  Hate that Eric and David get noble sendoffs when the women's deaths are humiliating and even weirdly sexualized.  Hate that Mia never gets to grow up and make choices on her own like Ash did - every bit of development she gets is forced on her by David.   Hate the muddy underwater visual style that made me feel like I was squinting up Swamp Thing's butt (sorry, Swofty, it doesn't work for me) and Alvarez' terminal inability to properly frame a shot.  Hate the weird bending of how the Deadite mirror world and the book works.  Hate the weird sense of morality that pervades Alvarez' take on the material. Hate the nonsensical 'this stuff is happening because we need it to' plotting (Your sister is a heroin addict.  Do you want to detox her in a cabin filled with the corpses of dead cats where a satanic ritual has obviously taken place?  Shit, why not?!).  You can criticize the original movie all you want, but at least watching a baby-faced, barely professionalized Bruce act is more entertaining than anything Alvarez has SF do, and at least the OT gang are screwed over by their own innocence (Seriously: THE REMAKE BOOK IS WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE AND THERE ARE ENGLISH WARNINGS WRITTEN IN IT SAYING DON'T READ ME OUT LOUD)  . 

Jane Levy, Lou Taylor Pucci, the score and the mainly practical effects (mostly, LOL I would never forget you admitting to the post-sweetening you guys did Bruce) are the only thing that elevate it up to a D to me.  It has earned its three star, C-level cinemacore with the public for a reason - it is okay in a dry-eyed, logical way, not legendary.  I was not nauseated, shocked or scared when I watched it - just annoyed.  

In short: I hate it.  Hate, hate hate it /Roger Ebert.

@Swofty - I wanted a Deadite dog

You almost got Deadite wolves but they were chopped out in favor of the vine rape. 
 

Swofty

Hero from the Sky
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Jan 20, 2008
MaidOfKandar said:
I've seen it multiple times since my original (negative) review (thank you, FX, for replaying it in the dead of afternoon while I'm trying to write) and...nope, still hate it.  I've said this before but...


I hate Shiloh Fernandez' dead-eyed performance.  Hate that the movie's about David when it should be about Mia.  Hate the Shoot the Shaggy Dog (literally) bit with Grandpa.  Hate that Eric and David get noble sendoffs when the women's deaths are humiliating and even weirdly sexualized.  Hate that Mia never gets to grow up and make choices on her own like Ash did - every bit of development she gets is forced on her by David.   Hate the muddy underwater visual style that made me feel like I was squinting up Swamp Thing's butt (sorry, Swofty, it doesn't work for me) and Alvarez' terminal inability to properly frame a shot.  Hate the weird bending of how the Deadite mirror world and the book works.  Hate the weird sense of morality that pervades Alvarez' take on the material. Hate the nonsensical 'this stuff is happening because we need it to' plotting (Your sister is a heroin addict.  Do you want to detox her in a cabin filled with the corpses of dead cats where a satanic ritual has obviously taken place?  Shit, why not?!).  You can criticize the original movie all you want, but at least watching a baby-faced, barely professionalized Bruce act is more entertaining than anything Alvarez has SF do, and at least the OT gang are screwed over by their own innocence (Seriously: THE REMAKE BOOK IS WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE AND THERE ARE ENGLISH WARNINGS WRITTEN IN IT SAYING DON'T READ ME OUT LOUD)  . 

Jane Levy, Lou Taylor Pucci, the score and the mainly practical effects (mostly, LOL I would never forget you admitting to the post-sweetening you guys did Bruce) are the only thing that elevate it up to a D to me.  It has earned its three star, C-level cinemacore with the public for a reason - it is okay in a dry-eyed, logical way, not legendary.  I was not nauseated, shocked or scared when I watched it - just annoyed.  

In short: I hate it.  Hate, hate hate it /Roger Ebert.

@Swofty - I wanted a Deadite dog

You almost got Deadite wolves but they were chopped out in favor of the vine rape. 

Was there a Deadite wolves scene written ? .. I'm getting slow .. 
 

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
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Mar 31, 2013
Mia was originally infected by Deaditeism via wolf bite after she crashes her car in the script.  Alvarez changed it after Tapert requested he film the vine rape instead.   The original (and more sense-making) result is that everyone thinks she has rabies at first, allowing everyone else to get infected.   It's a little too Cabin Fever-ey but it's more original.
 

KingRob

S-Mart Clerk
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Nov 1, 2015
I still need to revisit the film again, but off the top of my head, I want to say that I thought it did what the original set out to do - take horror and push it to its disgusting limits. There were some great cringe-worthy moments in there (courtesy of the filmmakers having the smarts to go practical as much as possible), and in the end I think that's pretty much what the goal was in the first place.

Beyond that, I remember the dialogue being extra awful and clunky, and I was also a bit confused as to why they would casually disregard a bunch of warnings written in English (versus Ash finding a tape recorder and suggesting they all check out what's on it).

As far as the focus being on the male protagonist - again, I'd need to rewatch to make sure, but I though that was done since the audience expected one of the men to be the new "ash" - so shifting focus to a female protagonist made the plot less predictable and left room for folks to wonder how it would end.

Lastly, as far as I can remember, Glasses Beard (as he shall now forever be known - so shall it be written, so shall it be done!) always seemed a bit "off" to me - not sure why. But he just sorta bugged me.
 

Nick el Ass

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Aug 20, 2007
Location
Indianapolis
I saw the movie twice in theater, and the first time the crowd was pretty good. The second time I went at like noon on a Tuesday when no one else goes to the theater, and was the only one there. Of course the theater has a lot of screens plus Imax. my opinion on it has change a lot when given a chance to look back. I mean I like Jane Levy a lot, but agree that Shilo was just not good at all... but would say that the leaked extended footage from UK tv like the extended ending would have vastly improved what we got in theater. Plus I always liked the fact that in the original trilogy left a lot to the imagination when all the remake had going for it was the visual stuff. Fede was a fresh face, and so was the gang when they set out to make the original... but the remake just isn't memorable.


/I'd give it, and Fede an e for effort.
 

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
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Mar 31, 2013
@KingRob - I'd buy the focus being more on David = the Ash/Scott POV switch, if the original movie really did feature a strong Scott POV. The original movie does a lot of telegraphing that tells us Ash will be the center of the movie; we focus a lot on Linda and Ash's emotional connection, on Cheryl and Ash's relationship as the Bad Stuff Happens. We're set up to sympathize with him. Scott gets very little focus ultimately, is portrayed as a jerkass, and after his one big commanding moment when Shelly dies and they lock up Cheryl it's pretty much an Ash show.
 

Mardeadite

Loud Mouth Braggart
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
I actually thought they did an interesting misdirection thing in the first film where Scott appears to be the heroic leader type and Ash the one freaking out... right up until Scott decides to ditch them and take his chances in the Woods and Ash found his courage.

I saw the films out of order, so.I knew things would centre on Ash ultimately but if I'd come to The Evil Dead first I might have thought it was the Scott show. From a centre man, hero stand-point, I mean. In hindsight though, I realize it really was about Ash's journey though. He had most to lose (and he lost it. ) and much to gain.
 

EvilStarsteam

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Jan 27, 2012
I got to watch this for a third time a few weeks ago. I loved the movie a lot when I saw it in theaters, actually got sick from wanting to see it again so bad, thou by the blu-ray release I had settle down.

My feelings for it are about the same, I like it but it ranks under the other three for me. Some of the lower qualities have started to become more apparent, it's still a fun gory time. Not the remake/boot I had in mind, but it worked for what it was. I wouldn't mind a continuation of some sort.
 

DyD

Spinach Chin
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Oct 31, 2015
Location
Votuporanga, Brazil
Personally, I really dislike the remake. I didn't feel like I was watching Evil Dead, I felt like was watching a very bad generic horror film. It has none of the inventiveness or the energy from the original film. The way the "deadites" mutilate themselves seems more like something out of the Saw movies than Evil Dead (does anybody other than Mia actually turn into a deadite? I can't even remember). I didn't like any of the new stuff they tried to do, like the book predicting the character deaths and that prologue. Even when it tries to emulate something from the original trilogy, it's just... Off. Like a really bland copycat. I hate the muddy, greenish cinematography, I don't like the script and I don't like any of the characters. I hate the fact that both the cabin and the book look obviously dangerous right from the start. I hate the reasoning behind the characters going to the cabin and the fact that they all seem to hate each other. It doesn't make sense for any of them to be there. The editing and structure are really sloppy. Most of the time you have no idea where each character is or what they're doing. Most of the characters have no personality whatsoever and they constantly disappear and reappear throughout the movie without rhyme or reason. Oh, I also don't like the creature makeup and the sound design. Yeah, at the very least it wasn't a giant CGI fest, but I honestly didn't care that much for the practical effects they used. None of that stuff was actually memorable (ok, the tongue slicing bit was alright). Near the end they actually touch on some interesting stuff, but by that time, it's too little too late.

But all is good, since the remake seems to be mostly forgotten already and now we have Bruce back as Ash. Even if Ash vs. Evil Dead is not exactly what I wanted, at least it has some of the spirit from the original films.
 

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
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Mar 31, 2013
@Gut0nez: Everyone turns into a Deadite, except the dog. David does it offscreen in a deleted scene!
 

DyD

Spinach Chin
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Location
Votuporanga, Brazil
MaidOfKandar said:
@Gut0nez: Everyone turns into a Deadite, except the dog.  David does it offscreen in a deleted scene!

I can't for the life of me remember what any of them looked like after they turned, except for Mia. They really didn't do much with them as deadites. Why didn't they go with the white eyes? It's the single most defining characteristic of a deadite.
 

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
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Gut0nez said:
MaidOfKandar said:
@Gut0nez: Everyone turns into a Deadite, except the dog.  David does it offscreen in a deleted scene!

I can't for the life of me remember what any of them looked like after they turned, except for Mia. They really didn't do much with them as deadites. Why didn't they go with the white eyes? It's the single most defining characteristic of a deadite.

The green eye thing was mainly because Fede has a huge thing for the Exorcist.  Seriously, during the remake's press tour I swear he talked about that movie more than the remake itself.
 

DyD

Spinach Chin
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Location
Votuporanga, Brazil
MaidOfKandar said:
The green eye thing was mainly because Fede has a huge thing for the Exorcist.  Seriously, during the remake's press tour I swear he talked about that movie more than the remake itself.

I didn't know that. I can definitely see it, now that you mention it. The deadites in the remake certainly seem to take more inspiration from Regan than from the deadites in the actual Evil Dead series. I understand the design choices better now. I still think they were the wrong design choices and I don't like the results, but at least now I can see where that came from. Even though there's a chance that Regan was the inspiration for the deadites in the original trilogy as well, by the time the remake was made, deadites had already become their own thing. It just feels wrong to deviate so much from that.
 

MaidOfKandar

I May Be Bad But I Feel...Good....
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Gut0nez said:
MaidOfKandar said:
The green eye thing was mainly because Fede has a huge thing for the Exorcist.  Seriously, during the remake's press tour I swear he talked about that movie more than the remake itself.

I didn't know that. I can definitely see it, now that you mention it. The deadites in the remake certainly seem to take more inspiration from Regan than from the deadites in the actual Evil Dead series. I understand the design choices better now. I still think they were the wrong design choices and I don't like the results, but at least now I can see where that came from. Even though there's a chance that Regan was the inspiration for the deadites in the original trilogy as well, by the time the remake was made, deadites had already become their own thing. It just feels wrong to deviate so much from that.

And I think that's why these Deadites never worked for me - it feels like a non-Evil Dead-ish possession, very Exorcist-y.
 

Swofty

Hero from the Sky
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Jan 20, 2008
The kid who first described The Evil Dead to me for my first ever viewing in about '84 said to me "It's like The Exorcist but there's loads of them and you can't kill them .. you'd have to chop them up and then nail them to the floor man!" ...

I agree with the non white eyes being a bad choice for the remake's deadites ...
 

KingRob

S-Mart Clerk
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Nov 1, 2015
...And now it seems stupidly obvious.

I still need to rewatch, but after reading Gut's post I want to say I also felt like it was a little weird that people were only in scenes where it was convenient to the (sorta) plot, rather than where it was logical. But again - need to rewatch.
 
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