Evil Dead (2013)

[Wrathborne]

Catching it tomorrow by myself, hate it when a friend backs out at the last moment.

[Kaine]

Saw it. Was good, not great.

Pros:
-Well shot and edited.
-Great practical effects. So glad there was little to no CGI.
-Interesting setup that maybe makes more sense than the original did.
-Generally competent acting.

Cons:
-Stupid or otherwise uninteresting/unengaging characters, other than Mia.
-These "friends" acted more like enemies throughout the movie.
-Entirely too serious, would have liked if they'd stuck to the wackiness of Evil Dead 2, but ymmv on this one. It's just personal taste.
-The "final boss" was completely underwhelming. I was expecting a bigger, more imposing deadite of some kind. Instead, what we got was something that made me think that they ran out of money or something.

[Wrathborne]

I haven't had as much fun watching a movie as I have Evil Dead in a long time. Though darker and scarier than the original film(messier too) it sets a standard that I haven't seen any remakes ever do. It goes above and beyond referencing the original series and expands up on it in its own small ways beautifully. Its very much its own movie, despite following the a large chunk of the original. The last little shot after the credits made me smile all the way home.

The only con I can think of is that the final confrontation, wasn't as much of a confrontation as I would have liked...but then again, remember the rules of the book, it needed a specific number, and it didn't get that number.(making sure I don't get too specific on any spoilers). The characters were well written, even though they didn't get any major character development, they got enough for you to feel for them when the shit went down as well as stand out individually. For people who complaining that they were "bland", real people are "bland" to real people, I appreciated seeing characters who weren't completely stupid and tried to be rational in the situations they were put in.

Which makes the pay off stronger in the end when people are faced against something that they cant explain.

All the references and homages to the original films were beautifully done and I think I caught about 3/4ths of them. I was literally a kid looking for Easter eggs and I got my fair share.

Anyone who is a fan of the original series, and hated this film, needs to go back and watch the originals again.This film is more serious in tone, hell is DEAD serious in its tone...But a real fan of the series is going to watch whats going on and laugh at it, because the dark twisted humor of the originals is mixed in here. Its not overt, in fact its pretty subtle at times.

But its there, Fede Alvarez blew me away and left me wanting more. Thats all any Evil Dead fan should ask for.

Definitely buying this on DVD the instant I can, I went in expecting to see an Evil Dead film, and I got one hell of an Evil Dead film.

Hope you folks in the UK don't have to deal with the 'video watchdog" anymore...Because this film is one messy mother fucker.