Review Tuesday: EVIL DEAD

When I first saw the trailer for EVIL DEAD I wanted to see it. I wouldn't say I'm a huge EVIL DEAD fan, even though I've seen the three movies, saw the musical adaptation on Broadway, and follow Bruce Campbell's career, but I like it enough to see this.

Five friends go to the family's cabin in the woods to help one detox only to unwittingly unleash a demon that will kill them all.

The concept is simple - kids go to a cabin in the woods in which evil awaits - and very much like the original movie. But it becomes distracting trying to figure out how, if at all, the movies are related. Is this a sequel? A reboot? In the beginning Mia is sitting on rusted out hulk of Ash's Oldsmobile. But, wasn't the car pulled back in time in ARMY OF DARKNESS? They pulled the same out of control hand trick, but it didn't have the same outcome. There was an enormous amount of blood, gore and violence, as you would expect in this this type of film. Evil Dead has always been kinda over the top with blood. This one had blood geysers and blood rain.

There were enough inconsistencies from the original movies to this one that we were left scratching our heads. Is this some completely new movie? A reboot? Something that isn't related to the previous flick in any way, shape or form? But why would they still use the flesh bound Necronomicon? The same cabin? The Oldsmobile? The boom-stick? The chainsaw? It seemed like a new movie paying homage to the original, but then, why the surprises during and after the credits?

If you can forget the title, and the history of EVIL DEAD, you might like this better. Otherwise you might be left asking a lot of questions that might ruin the experience. It was a typical horror movie. Fun for what it was. You have the expected gore and violence, but not the meaninglessness that horror seems to enjoy these days (eg: Hostel, Saw, etc.). There was a blood thirsty demon on the prowl, that at least makes some sort of sense. The special effects are good. The story makes sense in a horror movie way. The characters and casting were good. A fun ride if you can handle it.

If you wanted to see it on teh big screen, get in sooner than later. It dropped to #8 last weekend and hasn't hit $50 mill yet. That's valuable screen real estate being taken up by a movie with limited draw at this point.

More on IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1288558/