I was fortunate to be traveling out of the country and watch this movie. It will take some time to hit the screens in India.
Being a fan of the old Evil Dead trilogy, was eagerly awaiting for the new version.
Spoiler alert - You will miss Sam Raimi’s direction in this one. Also, the old one is scarier.
Having said that I would not deny that the spooks are in abundance here, the only problem with them; you either know it’s going to happen or it’s not too scary.
So, the story remains by far almost similar. The only new thing in this new avatar is that we get to see what happened to the family of the doctor in the cabin. Something that was only heard through audio books in the previous versions. The formation is laid well. You certainly get to thinking that this is one ’HELL’ of a flick to watch. After the background is set, a brother sister saga is introduced.
Which is sort of a family re-union.
The brother - David, has come with few close friends to help his sister - Mia, recovering from drug addiction. Which the friends claim to be a failed practice, as Mia would give in to her addiction eventually, as she had in the past. The plot seems to be different?
Well you think so, till the time you see the cabin and feel like you have watched it so many times before. Most of the things in this movie will seem to be non-innovative. The bridge being flooded with water, the forest, the long twirling wines and shrubs, the cabin and whatever happens inside.
If anything that could have made the experience better, was the acting. Which is certainly not of the top cadre. The actors are merely howling, screaming and screeching. The male actors are just plane angry and at certain times you find them foolish. Well that displays the lack of better screenplay, dialogues and writing. The Evil Dead, released in 1981, gave me the spooks when I was a toddler and scares me up now too.
It definitely some class acting. It did not have an ensemble cast, but the new actors did a great job and created an entire era of cabin in the wood movies. In the recent times I could think of ’Mama’ where the kids have performed better than adults in any movie and not to forget ’ Cabin in the woods’ and ’Paranormal Activity’.
The movie has something certainly to boast about and that is the cinematography. The D.O.P (director of photography) has shown some great moments and made them scary enough. The one in the beginning with the Doctor and his daughter. The scenes in the rain and woods have been caught by the lens really well.
The camera movement is not jerky anywhere and gives us the required goose bumps. Something to add on to the horror genre pleasure is the sound track. The sound mixing and digital remixed sounds are something to look forward to. The sounds of this movie will certainly haunt you, if not the bad story writing.
Overall, watch it for the love of horror, evil and Raimi; anyways who expects ghosts to act!