Apr '23
I didn't want to believe the heckler at the early screenings, but he's the real hero for calling it like it is. This movie is garbage. Right away, you can tell it was more inspired by the 2013 movie than by the real series. Hell, this movie makes the 2013 movie look good, even though it suffers from the same flaws as that turkey, only they took those eye-rolling tropes and turned them up to 11. It's like they didn't learn anything from that movie.
I mentioned in another post about remakes failing so hard that they have to go back to the original to recalibrate. Ash vs. Evil Dead was the perfect recalibration, going back to the right tone, but here, we lose all of that. Here, we aim for straight horror again, and we fail hard. Again.
I'm assuming this movie is set in Michigan due to the inclusion of another cabin in the woods as well as our main location, that of a delinquent high-rise apartment. Wiki says Los Angeles, but I'll debate that. The aesthetic is grim, and by that I mean it's so dark, it's hard to see anything. Our characters are completely forgettable and our deadites are again inspired too much by that J-horror jump scare bullshit. If this is the future of the Evil Dead franchise, I'm out.
What a fucking disappointment. Also, there's a whole parking garage they could have put the oldsmobile in, but nope. I guess Sam Raimi, despite producing this mess, didn't want to include his trademark in a subpar product. Gory? Yes. Fun and scary? No and no. They need to stop giving these movies such big budgets, because that shit ruins the magic. Fuck this movie.
I mentioned in another post about remakes failing so hard that they have to go back to the original to recalibrate. Ash vs. Evil Dead was the perfect recalibration, going back to the right tone, but here, we lose all of that. Here, we aim for straight horror again, and we fail hard. Again.
I'm assuming this movie is set in Michigan due to the inclusion of another cabin in the woods as well as our main location, that of a delinquent high-rise apartment. Wiki says Los Angeles, but I'll debate that. The aesthetic is grim, and by that I mean it's so dark, it's hard to see anything. Our characters are completely forgettable and our deadites are again inspired too much by that J-horror jump scare bullshit. If this is the future of the Evil Dead franchise, I'm out.
What a fucking disappointment. Also, there's a whole parking garage they could have put the oldsmobile in, but nope. I guess Sam Raimi, despite producing this mess, didn't want to include his trademark in a subpar product. Gory? Yes. Fun and scary? No and no. They need to stop giving these movies such big budgets, because that shit ruins the magic. Fuck this movie.
Anyway since when does an Evil Dead movie not deserve a bigger budget? Why can't an Evil Dead movie be "straight horror" and why does it have to have a "camp" tone? Why does it have to feature Ash Williams battling deadites over and over again? We have/had the TV series for that and yeah it was great and I wish there was a season 4, but we don't really need another movie about it. You're never going to recapture the magic of Evil Dead 2 so why bother trying to here in 2023. Like Vince says, it has to have a more serious tone or it's going to fail. Why can't it be told from the perspective of a different bunch of characters in a different setting? The characters, whilst not particularly memorable as you say, were all more likeable than in the reboot/remake and the performances by the two lead actresses were pretty great. I liked the mother a lot.
And I don't get your complaint about it being so dark you can't see anything either. I could see everything going on perfectly fine, the "dark" aesthetic was brilliantly utilised so perhaps it has something to do with the projector in your theater, I really have no clue.
There were inventive scenes or at least scenes "borrowed" but given a different spin, such as the keyhole scene, the lift wiring being used in place of tree branches and more than a few nods to the originals (one obvious eye ball scene) and there was even a nod to The Shining (not just the lift).
Gory? Yes. Fun and scary? Yes and yes.. well, perhaps more creepy than scary. And the final