150 Words About . . .EVIL DEAD (2013)

by James Newman

     I was among the skeptical.  But they pulled it off!  Many fans complained about the lack of humor — that’s what I loved about it.  Others claimed there was too much gore — that’s another thing I loved about it.  Fanboys lamented the absence of Ash — that’s what I really loved about it!  Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead remake did something cool and different while respecting Raimi’s iconic original.  Admittedly, I see more of its flaws with every re-watch (an otherwise brutal climax is weakened by a “big baddie” that should have been bigger n’ badder), and I’ll never love it as much as I did that first time in the theater with my oldest friends in the world.  But Evil Dead is arguably one of the better remakes of the last twenty years.  It’s friggin’ scary, too.  And how many modern horror films can you say are truly scary?