It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve seen Sam Raimi’s original horror opus, The Evil Dead, and that could be a good thing when going in to the new Evil Dead remake/reboot/reimagining/sequel. Yes, it’s hard to decide where exactly this film fits in the canon of the Evil Dead franchise, because the production team, including Raimi and original star Bruce Campbell, want you to think this is a completely separate beast from the original. It’s certainly got a much slicker look (the demon racing through the woods POV is a little too smooth, for example) and higher production values, but is this a completely separate story or another chapter in the established timeline?

The original Evil Dead had five friends taking a vacation at a cabin in the woods … which would be derided today as just another horror flick that put a bunch of people in a remote location simply to be picked off one by one. The new Evil Dead actually has a clever set-up: two friends of Mia (Jane Levy), her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and his girlfriend gather at a family cabin in the woods to help Mia kick her drug habit cold turkey. This is the first time her brother has been in Mia’s life in quite some time, leaving her as a child to care for their dying mother. This also isn’t Mia’s first attempt to kick the habit.

All of these plot points really set up the story nicely because when crazy things start to happen to Mia, no one believes her because they attribute her almost psychotic breakdown to withdrawal symptoms. As the mayhem gets exponentially worse, despite David’s assurances that everything will be fine, Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) admits that he read from a book full of horrific drawings and strange phrases and that they are in deep trouble (we’re shown in a prologue that everything the five are experienced had happened before). As it becomes even more clear that Mia isn’t just having a bad reaction to her “treatment,” the friends experience their own unpleasant encounters with the demons Eric has unleashed upon them and unless they can reverse the curse, blood will rain from the sky as the “bitch from Hell” returns to earth.

Most people today remember the original film as a comedy of sorts, mixing the bloody horror with some laughs, and they would be wrong. The comedy elements were actually introduced in Evil Dead 2 and even more prominent in Army of Darkness. This Evil Dead is deadly serious, though that’s not to say that it doesn’t have a few moments that allow for some chuckles to relieve the tension (although there was a large amount of entirely inappropriate laughter during one scene at my screening). Of course, we also have to deal with the fact that Eric is the stereotypical horror movie character that does something no rational person would do in order to set the mayhem into action. When the group find a mysterious package in the basement, wrapped up in a trash bag and bound with barbed wire do they leave it alone? Of course not. And when basically every page has “DO NOT READ THIS” and “DO NOT SPEAK THIS” written on them, most people would probably follow that advice. That’s really the only “dumb” moment in the movie.

The new film really succeeds on the story elements and its cast, a much more professional and convincing group than in the original (and, be honest, the acting in the original, with the exception of Bruce Campbell, is really cringe-inducing to watch). Jane Levy, from TV’s Suburgatory, gives Mia a tough vulnerability that makes you root for her recovery while wanting to slap her at the same time for getting herself into this mess in the first place. As possessed Mia, she is a frightening force to be reckoned with as she switches from demon to scared little girl in the blink of an eye, and back just as quickly as she gets what she wants from her next victim. Fernandez and Jessica Lucas also turn in good performances, while Elizabeth Blackmore gets stuck with pretty much the most disposable of the five characters. Equal to Levy’s performance is Pucci, who has to own up to his actions while acknowledging the trouble he’s gotten them in and trying to rectify the situation. He actually becomes more of a sympathetic hero as various indignities are visited upon him (and that he survives a number of gruesome wounds requires a suspension of disbelief that gives the film some of its unintentional laughs).

Of course, the real star of the film is the make-up effects crew. In this day and age of CGI-ing everything from make-up to blood splatter, it’s refreshing (an odd term in this case, but you get the idea) to see a film that goes old school with its effects, using make-up appliances and buckets and buckets of blood to achieve the desired horrific effect. It may not be scary to some but the effects, because they do seem so real, will certainly leave many audience members cringing and covering their eyes. And for that alone, the film is a success. If you have an aversion to blood and physical violence, this is not the movie for you. Horror movie buffs, particularly those weaned on 80s blood and gore flicks, will certainly appreciate the efforts of everyone involved.

Evil Dead may not be a perfect horror film (thankfully, the director does not resort to cheap, overly loud sound effects to sell a jump moment), but for a remake of an 80s classic it has to be one of the best of the lot. Whereas most of those other remakes were forced to fulfill PG-13 guidelines (when the originals were always rated R), Evil Dead gleefully pushes the boundaries of the R-rating as far as it possibly can … and all without a single boob in sight. Fans of the original should be quite pleased with this new version (emphasis on “new” as it does not even pretend to be the original) while viewers too young to have seen the original (even on video) will be in for quite the thrill ride. And it’s a film worth supporting just to show that physical effects can be just as effective as CGI, if not more so. And be sure to stay through the end of the credits. That will only make my opening question even harder to answer!

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