Directed By: Fede Alvarez
Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore.
What It’s About: Five friends venture out to a remote cabin in the woods and unexpectedly awaken an ancient evil.
Rated R (for strong bloody violence and gore, some sexual content and language)
Runtime: 91 minutes
By Aaron Sanders, Diversions Editor
The self-proclaimed “most terrifying movie you will ever experience,” to put it simply, sucks.
The so-called “rebirth” of the Sam Raimi classic diverges slightly from the group-of-attractive-twenty-something-year-olds-go-to-a-cabin-in-the-woods-to-party-only-to-be-killed-by-a-demonic-entity plot of the original film and instead depicts a group-of-attractive-twenty-something-year-olds-go-to-a-cabin-in-the-woods-to-cure-a-herion-addict-only-to-be-killed-by-a-demonic-entity plot. The heroin addict in question is Mia (Jane Levy), who is taken to a family-owned cabin in the woods for rehabilitation after a supposed overdose. By her side are her three friends Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), Olivia (Jessica Lucas), Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore) and her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez), all of whom play their characters with the charisma of a wood plank. While cleaning the ravaged cabin, Eric finds a Book of the Dead and unleashes the wrath of a demon.
Now, the setup of the Evil Dead films (minus Army of Darkness) has never hindered their impact, but in this iteration, it simply comes off as tired. Director Fede Alvarez tries much too hard to inject a serious tone and fails to create any legitimate drama, giving the impression of a movie that takes itself too seriously.
Not that the first Evil Dead had the greatest acting either, but Bruce Campbell’s Ash from the original trilogy had enough personality off the bat for us to care about his fate. Here, we have no reason to root for anyone to survive (I even rooted for some characters to kick the bucket). None of the characters stand out as the “new Ash.” I didn’t even know the name of most of the characters, which is pretty bad considering there’s only five actors in the movie.
Even the film’s gore, which has garnered it so much attention, is as stale as week-old popcorn, save for perhaps the final kill.
What was supposed to be the first actually “good” horror remake has turned out to be another uninspired Hollywood “borefest.” (See what I did there?)
Courtesy of www.aceshowbiz.com