Evil Dead (2013) Review

 

Evil Dead (2013) is a supernatural horror film, and the fourth film in the Evil Dead franchise. It was produced by TriStar Pictures, FilmDistrict, and Ghost House Prictures and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Evil Dead (2013) was written by Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues and directed by Fede Álvarez.

The story is four young adults are taking their drug addicted friend Mia to a remote cabin up in the woods to help her through her withdrawals. Things take a horrifying turn when of them reads an incantation from the Book of the Dead. Now an evil force is coming after them, and all five of them must try to find a way to survive.

• Negatives

Now some people probably aren't gonna agree with them of this, which is fine, but I really didn't care for the post-credit scene. Sure, it wasn't spent on something stupid like most post-credit scenes seem to be doing. But I feel as though, in the grand scheme of things, it really didn't add anything to the movie.

• Mix

The slight issue here is the same slight issue I had with The Evil Dead, and that's the characters. Really the only two who have any sort of character was Mia and her brother David. Some of fine as who they are, but others you just don't care about. The latter are clearly there just because it's important to the plot and/or because they're just there to raise up the body count.

• Positives

One truly amazing thing about this film were the effects. Thankfully this film continues the film series tradition of practical effects. There's stunning makeup effects and of course the more gory effects not help making the carnage look realistic, but are done to a top notch level. The only time there was CGI was just for touch ups, but even then you can't really find it anywhere. It just perfectly blends in.

What also made this film worth watching was Fede's directing. He shot a truly horrifying film. Filled to the brim with great creepy shots, and of course, very bloody images. Not only that, but he gave the film a nice dark look to it.

Another great thing about Evil Dead (2013) was the tension. To be honest, I was expecting this film to be nothing but blood and guts. Yes you still get that, but first you had to wait. Because the film takes it time setting things up and building suspense. We want the characters to leave the cabin, but because they have someone detoxing, they don't believe her. So you're left terrified because who know that's not the case, and you're left wondering "Okay. So where's the evil spirit, when is it gonna show up, and who's gonna get possessed?"

Like I said previously, this franchise is known for being gory, and this film delivers on that. Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were the producers on this film, and anytime someone just got covered in blood, all I can to is imagine them behind the director, and giving a big round of applause. What I also liked was the Deadites' designs. In the older movies, they were either skeletons, a bloated looking corpse, or just looked like demons. Which is very good designs, and I did like. But here, what made them look creepy was how infected they looked. Whenever someone got possessed by these things, it makes the person look like they caught a disease. Again, great design choice, but at the same time whenever I looked at them, I felt like I needed to take a shower afterwards.

Evil Dead (2013) may not be a perfect film, but I feel like this is a movie where the good, outweighs the bad. You got great effects, fantastic directing from Fede, great tension, and some nicely delivered gore. The characters could've used some work, but nothing to damaging. The post-credit scene on the other hand, I'm sorry folks, I know a lot of you like it, but I just didn't do it for me.

My final rating is Good.

So, that's going to do it for me. Come back on Monday, Oct 30th for part eight of Looking Back at the Films of 2021. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.