I’m not a big fan of films that come pre-parodied. And this Evil Dead is exactly the film Cabin in the Woods mocked a year ago. Doesn’t make it bad, necessarily, but when another film calls your idiocy out in pre-production stage, aren’t you required to change the plot?
Five kids decide to spend some time in a secluded cabin in the woods. Stop me when you’ve heard that before. Following the smell of rotting corpses, the quintet discovers a trap door to a basement. What does the basement contain? Oh, just your standard arrangement of bloody tools, decomposing cats swinging from the ceiling (more swinging dead cats than you can … er … swing a dead cat at) and a book with handy-dandy instructions for summoning evil. Naturally, the genius [read: moron] of the group lets curiosity get the better of him. STOP! Do you not see the evidence of where curiosity got a certain mammal? Hint: It’s attacking more than one of senses right now. And evil is summoned. Yay.
I suppose without the summoning of evil, you really don’t have a film. Of course, without Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead, you probably don’t have a film, either.
Geographic isolation remains and will always remain the key to successful horror. The catch in this Evil Dead is main fodder Mia (Jane Levy) is a drug addict choosing rehab in remote cabin form. She has already failed one intervention, so her friends have determined that Mia will stay in this awful cabin no matter what transpires. And, check it, Mia is the one having visions; are they drug induced or not? What we see on screen is a blood-letting fiesta. One guy in particular gets punctured 20? 30? (I lost count) times in four separate attacks. Rest assured; anything in Evil Dead 
that can be used as a weapon will be used as a weapon. Anyhoo, the friends are quick to chalk up Mia’s rantings as crying wolf because of the nature of rehab. By the time they all realize that Mia doesn’t usually assault her friends with a nail gun even when she is in detox, it’s kinda too late.
Fede Alvarez’ direction isn’t bad, but it lacks the hyperbole and humor of the Sam Raimi Dead we’re used to. The best part of this particular Deadheading was the psychological duality suggested by the intervention. What if the evil is all in Mia’s head? What if we the audience are privy to hallucination? What if, in fact, all we see is hallucination? There is no Evil, only Zuul. Huh. I think I wasted an afternoon. Wouldn’t be the first.
Five friends decide remote would be swell
Cold turkey had left Mia feeling unwell
The treatment impure
Not rehab, fer sher
That’s just no excuse for summoning Hell
Rated R, 91 Minutes
D: Fede Alvarez
W: Fede Alvarez, Diablo Cody, Sam Raimi, Rodo Sayagues
Genre: Gore
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Horror junkies
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The squeamish
