In the last decade we have rummaged through a littering of
horror movie remakes. Most of them have capitalized on the fact that the
majority of modern day horror ‘classics’ were once seen as geek-films with a
niche appeal. However, through the decades, the unassuming, low budget splatter
flicks of yesteryear are now being revaluated as game changers and genre
defining masterpieces.
In 1981
student filmmaker Sam Raimi (“Spiderman”, “Oz the Great and Powerful”) went out
with a few of his college friends and made a cheap gore movie called “The Evil
Dead”. The story was thin and the acting
was amateurish but it was full of audacious camera techniques and striking
visual quirks, inventing a new style of cinematic language that combined
slasher schlock with intentional humor. With two beloved sequels and a die-hard
cult following, it wasn’t going to take long for an unnecessary remake to
surface. But unlike many of the regurgitated
reboots, this one has the blessing of the original’s creator—Raimi now taking
the producers seat—and for months, early buzz from the SXSW festival has been
tingling the imaginations of excited horror fans with stories of unbelievable nastiness.
Like
the original, this film starts with a small group of friends going out to a
cabin in the woods, far away from cities or technology. What changes is that
this group doesn’t have any plans to kick back and have fun. Instead, they have
settled into this isolated location to support their good friend Mia (Jane
Levy) as she tries to kick heroin, cold turkey. While her brother David (Shiloh
Fernandez) is trying to keep her hopeful, their other friends find some
disturbing things in the basement, including the bodies of dead animals hung
from the rafters and a flesh bound, satanic text wrapped in barbed wire. Of
course, because these characters live in a horror film, the supposed ‘smart one’
of the group (Lou Taylor Pucci) reads aloud an evil spell, releasing a dark
force that enters the cabin and Mia. In what is briefly mistaken by her friends
as drug withdrawal, Mia begins to perform grotesque and sadomasochistic torture
upon herself and the others.
Viewers
should be warned; this is not a film for the faint of heart. Though I was never
really outright scared or terrified by this remake, I was genuinely shocked and
disturbed by its viscous depictions of slaughter and self-mutilation. I winced
at scenes such as our main heroine boiling her own flesh with scalding
shower-water, nail guns turning faces into pincushions, and tongues being bifurcated
with razorblades. I winced, I gagged, I repulsed and by the movies end, I
cheered.
Though
this movie does pay some homage to Raimi’s aggressive camera style, wisely it makes
no real attempt at surpassing or even trying to replicate the imagination of
its predecessor. Instead, director Fede Alvarez uses the simple structure of
Raimi’s film as a canvas to paint his own vision of terror. But if this movie
is a painting, it’s not the usual by-the-numbers remake. The interpretation
here deviates from the 1981 version like a brush-flinging, splattering,
free-form Pollack. It doesn’t include
the now-iconic character Ash (as played by Bruce Campbell), it doesn’t have the
same sense of silliness or slapstick, and its ending is a total departure—and
in some ways better.
I won’t
say that “Evil Dead” is without its faults; the first act is too slow and
somber, most of the performances are unremarkable, and the opening backstory is
unneeded and unresolved. However, what makes it work is Alverez’s anarchistic
delight in the movie’s own escalating depravity. It’s not safe and it’s sure to
profoundly gross out most of its viewers and sometimes l can admire a horror
film that takes joy in antagonizing the audience.
Originally published in the Idaho State Journal/April-2013
No comments:
Post a Comment