Evil Dead offers full on horror without any camp

Well they certainly didnt skimp on the gore.

Not that there was ever much doubt about that. If youve got the guts to tackle another version of The Evil Dead youd better be prepared to spill some well guts. And in Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez spills plenty. Whether you think its a good movie will depend largely upon your capacity for stomaching gruesome violence.

Then again if you are going to see a movie called Evil Dead youre probably going to be OK.

Seeing Sam Raimis Evil Dead trilogy isnt required to enjoy this new take. Indeed Evil Dead II was more a funnier slicker remake of The Evil Dead than it was a sequel. Although if you havent seen them you might wonder whats causing the nervous laughter in the audience when Alvarez shows us a chainsaw.

Alvarez who co wrote the script offers yet another take on Raimis story. But all traces of camp and humor have been removed. This is full on horror relentless and if youre into that sort of thing bracing.

But you do have to be into that sort of thing.

The set up is similar to the first two Evil Dead films and to any number of other horror films. Five friends head out to a remote cabin in the woods where events will conspire to keep them stranded. In this case its the drug addiction of Mia (Jane Levy). She has come with her friends and her semi estranged brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) to go cold turkey.

Thats a pretty good set up. Whatever craziness Mia sees and experiences and eventually causes can be written off to kicking heroin. At least for a while. And there is plenty of craziness.

The catalyst for all of it is as in the other films the Necronomicon or book of the dead. Ancient text written on human skin with blood. Its wrapped in barbed wire and there are warnings all over it to not repeat its chants aloud.

Well yes. But this is a horror movie. As Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) studies the text he of course repeats the chants and evil is unleashed and we are once again treated to impossibly fast tracking shots through the woods as the demons race toward the cabin and the people inside many of whom they will possess and cause to do unspeakable (at times nearly unwatchable) things.

There is nothing about Evil Dead as original or as groundbreaking as Raimis films (particularly the first two).

But its smarter and better done than a lot of whats come since those movies were made which is to say there is at least some thought behind the killings. The thoughts belong to Raimi as much or more than they do Alvarez but at least theyre there.

One further note Stick around till the credits are done. Its worth your while.

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