There had been quite a lot of dissent about Sami Rami and Bruce Campbell (not forgetting Robert G Tapert, completing the original unholy trinity) allowing Evil Dead to be re-made - or, in their words, re-imagined. To the fans, the original is sacrosanct. A glorious horror film that gave birth to many imitators over many decades. But going back? Were they mad?
Well, yes, probably. but then if anyone had the right to go back and have another go in this particular gore-splattered playground...
And it could have gone horribly wrong. Babies could have gone out with the bathwater, legacies could have been dumped on and an entire fanbase could have been alienated in an evening. And they knew that.
Which is why they kept their hands on the rudder, hand-picking director Fede Alvarez (who, along with the brilliant Diablo Cody also took on screenplay duties) and doing their utmost to ensure another generation of horror fans got a taste of what rocked the world in 1981.
And I think they may have managed it.
Now you can try and watch Evil Dead without thinking back to the original, but only if you've never seen it. If you've seen the original, it stays with you, meaning comparisons are inevitable as the opening scenes play out. And they're good. They set up what we already know - that bad things happen in them there woods. And as a possessed teen is cleansed in a time-honoured tradition, you begin to relax. This is shaping up OK.
And then those words appear on the screen. EVIL DEAD. And I couldn't help grinning. It felt good, it felt right, it felt safe (if such a phrase can be used here). The blood-soaked ball hadn't been dropped.
Essentially the story plays out as before. Group of youthful sorts gather at a cabin in the woods, a book that shouldn't be read is, all hell breaks loose, the end. Brilliant stuff. But it's how they go about it that works so well.
As before, the back stories of each of the characters is barely sketched in, but that's fine. You get enough information from the dialogue and acting (as it should be if a film is done well) to know who is who. There's the brother who's been away for ages (David - Shiloh Fernandez), his sister (Mia - Jane Levy), the friends (Olivia - Jessica Lucas; Eric - Lou Taylor Pucci) and the brother's squeeze (Natalie - Elizabeth Blackmore).
This time around, they're at the cabin to have an intervention as Mia's drug habit has got out of control again - and this is a clever device, serving as a handy and believable smokescreen for the other characters as the early stages of demonic possession set in.
And the lead-up is done brilliantly, staged in turns as events mirror the pages in THAT book that Eric knows he shouldn't be reading (but he's an academic sort, so he was always gonna). And the scares are kept relatively low key for a while, allowing you to relax (so to speak) as you wait to be made to squirm in your seat.
And then the gloves come off.
As is standard practice around here, plot points will be sketched around. No point me telling you exactly what happens when you can go see it for yourself. No. Much better you get a taste of what you'll experience. And the taste is blood.
Lots of blood.
On the gore front, this Evil Dead is off the charts bonkers nuts brilliant. And it knows it is. It's grinning from ear to ear as people cut their own arms off, survive nail-gun onslaughts, get beaten to death with broken toilet, take a hot showers... The list is pretty endless. Basically, if you spot a bit of hardware, odds-on someone is going to be on the receiving end at some point. And the tree scene is just ace.
And what hardware. Basically the business end of B&Q is put to great use (including the kitchen section) as battles are fought with the possessed. Or as the possessed set about their tasks. It depends who is wielding what when.
And there's a chainsaw.
But it's not just the screamingly wonderful gore and splatter that makes this one of the best horror films in many a long year. No. It looks the business. It is shot exquisitely. The lighting is just-so, the colouring is a delight to behold, and there is a shot near the end where I almost stood and applauded it looked so good (you'll know it when you see it. Or ask me again after you've seen it). There is serious style to the squishy substance.
And it's visceral. You really do feel every bone break, every blade cutting into every piece of flesh, every needle getting stuck into someone's eye. At times the filming is almost claustrophobic, hemming you in with whoever is under attack. At one stage, I suddenly noticed I was actually holding my breath. Fortunately this meant the possessed personage didn't find me...
This film knows what it's doing. It's not an intellectual exercise. It wants to scare the crap out of you, wants you jumping out of your seat, wants you desperately wishing you could turn your eyes from the screen - but you can't.
But, for all the dumb. bloody fun - this film has it's subtle moments. The nods to the chainsaw are one, the use of an electric carving knife to cut some meat is another. And it has some perfectly weighted jokier moments, delivered beautifully, which had the whole cinema laughing out loud.
Of course, it's not without its flaws. There are niggles. The soundtrack is, at times, laboured and - especially during the emotive climax - a smidge mawkish. In a bid to give you a feel for the rush of the fight, some scenes end up being a bit blurred, and at times the director chooses to play to the lowest common denominator (ooh, look, there's that had that got ripped off, just in case you didn't notice). There's also a debate to be had about the number of souls that are claimed.
But none of this detracts from what is, ultimately, a riotous success. The pitfalls were many, the boobytraps could have gone off at any moment, but Alvarez has delivered what he and the famous production team promised - a re-imagining of a classic, freshened up for a new generation.
As the credits rolled, a woman muttered that it wasn't as good as the original. She's wrong - on two counts.
1 - it is
2 - that's not the point (I know, negates point one. Don't care)
This version of Evil Dead should be allowed to stand alone, not in the shadow of the original. Equally, the original doesn't need to be compared to it's new sibling. It's stood proudly alone since 1981 (sequels notwithstanding), and there's no need for that to change.
Rami and Campbell (and the other guy) have succeeded where many have failed. Breathing new death into a horror franchise without desecrating a legacy. It's time to be terrified all over again.
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