The movie Evil Dead premiered last Friday, and no one was more excited to see it then my thrill-seeking, horror-movie-loving boyfriend Brandon. He dragged me there – literally after I decided it wasn’t such a great idea after all at the last minute. He pulled my arm and told me not to be a baby, and soon I found my self dragging my feet to theater room 12. The truth is I hate scary movies, and was less then thrilled to go see a horror film.
The movie began as you’d expect any other horror film to start: scary music playing, a foggy setting and a pretty girl running away with fear. I dislike horror films, but not because they are stupid or not well-made, but because I hate not knowing that there’s something behind the corner, or hearing the sound of something evil in the next room over. If you are into that unknown feeling, that feeling of never knowing when something bad will happen next, then this movie is for you. If you enjoy the ultimate blood bath in a movie, with more then enough gory scenes and hard-to-watch close-ups, then this is your kind-of movie.
With an original story and plot, the movie starts off with a gruesome flashback, one that will make more sense later on in the movie. A pretty young girl is tied up and being prepared to be burned, with an old lady murmuring some kind of witchcraft. Her father is about to light the match as his daughter begs for his mercy, and she quickly changes from desperate pleas to a scary demonic voice. The father tells her she is not his actual daughter, and lights the match setting his daughter on fire, comforting himself with the knowledge that his daughter’s soul is saved and now at peace.
The story then moves to a new scene, in the present time where old friends are meeting up at a cabin, in order to help their friend Mia kick her cocaine addiction. As she begins her withdrawal journey, her senses are heightened and she smells something dead. The other characters eventually smell it too and come to find the room in which the young girl was burned, long ago. The addict’s brother David and their friend Eric decide they will have to clean up this mess, and come to the conclusion that someone must’ve broke into their old cabin and performed some weird form of witchcraft. They also find a mysterious book, bound in old skin, contained by barbed wire. Eric later becomes curious about the book and opens it, reading the ancient and evil writings he finds inside. When he says the evil words, he somehow unleashes the evil and the demon within, which then enters the weakest character at that time, Mia.
A creative and original story, “Evil Dead” is definitely a new take on the usual possession and demon story found in many other horror films. Personally, I couldn’t stand this movie, for they showed too many scenes of dismemberment and gruesome and gory situations. Hearing the rest of the audience, most people were a bit disgusted watching these particular scenes. On the other hand, I do know people who love these kinds of gore-fests and to those people, I applaud you for you bravery. On the popular movie reviewing website Rotten Tomatoes, 63 percent of movie critics enjoyed the movie, with a 76 percentage of all audiences liking this movie.
“A stylish and worthy homage: inventive even as it is derivative, never quite jokey but never taking itself too seriously, and clocking in at an entirely appropriate 91 minutes. Any longer would be unmerciful; any shorter, ungenerous,” critic Christopher Orr posted on Rotten Tomatoes.
Omaha World Herald critic Carey Darling gave a critique that I believe best describes the movie.
“It’s hard to care too much about what’s going on as the bloodletting escalates into bloodbath and ‘Evil Dead’ becomes less a film and more of an exercise in shock tactics,” Darling wrote.
I recommend this movie if you want to see some extremely brutal scenes and gory, over-the-top details. But to those like me, who can only watch scary movies when pressured or on Halloween, I advise you to save your $10 and rent this at Redbox if you’re still interested.