Right up front, I'm going to stick a big fat "Will Recommends" on this. If you haven't seen it yet, go do so; don't read this review, and don't read any publicity materials. In fact no: make sure you have seen at least the first 2 original Evil Dead
Still here? You've hopefully already seen the film then, so this will be less of a review, and more my side of a discussion about why it was clever / great.
One more thing - did you watch the closing credits? All of them? If not; back you go... I'll wait.
First up, the reason my opening paragraph says to avoid publicity material; being the kind of person who reads Dread Central, Bloody Disgusting, and so forth, I already knew that the hero of the movie is Mai. This is a crying shame, because well over an hour into this 90 minute move, it looked certain that her brother was 2013's Ash.
Having Mai become the new version of the "Cellar Witch", only to have her recover and be sole survivor was a stroke of genius, playing with our expectations and using our knowledge of horror films (generally) and the previous Evil Dead films (specifically) against us to keep things new.
Indeed, keeping things new is this installment neatest trick; despite the laundry-list of iconic moments being re-worked, it never feels like we've seen this before.
The male-lead's sister is first to be possessed, and is locked in the cellar, A possessed had is chopped of by its (former?) owner with an electric carving knife, male-lead had to bury someone he loves while she pleas with him, there's a tree-rape, the bridge goes down, all the trouble is caused by a creepy-ass book found in the cellar... That it manages to hit all if these points, but make them new is borderline genius!
It's all so similar-yet different that it works as both a reboot and a new story set in the same universe (more on that later).
As we know though, Mai is our "new Ash" and man does she suffer! Ash was famously put through the ringer more than any horror-survivor should be, but his ordeal was a walk in the park next to poor Mia, who has a car-crash, gets possessed, bisects her tongue with a craft-knife, gets scalded, shot in the face with a nail-gun, beaten, burried alive, suffocated, stabbed in the heart with electrified needles, and has to tear (not cut) her hand off! All while undergoing cold-turkey for a drug addiction!
Back to the idea that this film is as much a sequel as a remake; did you notice that the cabin (despite looking like the original and having Ash's car going rusty in the yard) was in a different state? Or that the Necronomicon is a different book - not only in appearance, but it has a new name?
That's because, box office willing, the plan is to have Mai and Ash's stories cross over in the 7th Evil Dead movie (after a sequel to this movie, and then a planned Army of Darkness 2).
Groovy!
Showing posts with label Necronomicon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Necronomicon. Show all posts
Saturday, 31 August 2013
Evil Dead 2013 - Lisa's Review
This week, the 2013 remake of Evil Dead, again starring Bruce Campbell. A group of young attractive types who go to a cabin in the woods and upon stumbling across the Necronomicon (book of the dead) they manage inadvertantly to release evil spirits. All kinds of hell, possession and murder ensues.
That's not to say this is a bad movie, it is far from it. It is enjoyable enough as a stand-alone movie. It's when you start to compare it to the original that we encounter problems.
Sadly none of the cast (apart from Campbell) are memorable and although the movie is not played for laughs like the original, there are parts which will genuinely make you giggle (which certainly was not the intended effect). The gore is a bit OTT and what a human body seems able to take before expiring is indeed inhuman! I suppose believability is not something one should expect from a movie about possession and the evil dead, sadly though, I do.
I didn't find anything was added to the movie by this remake, apart from the obvious updating of it for a modern audience. The cinematography was beautiful in places, but the general 'feel' of the movie, effects and performances just didn't leave me with the feeling of unease that it should have.
The feeling I got from the movie was similar to that of when watching a teen slasher movie and wondering who is going to be next (not difficult to do at all it seems). I felt that the original movie deserved a little bit more than that.
Its quite sad really as this isn't a 'bad' movie. I suppose there was just something 'missing' in what made the original special. That je ne sais quoi just wasn't captured here. I wouldn't go so far as to either recommend it or suggest you avoid it. I could however give it the green light to any younger horror fans who were yet to watch the 1981 original.
That's not to say this is a bad movie, it is far from it. It is enjoyable enough as a stand-alone movie. It's when you start to compare it to the original that we encounter problems.
Sadly none of the cast (apart from Campbell) are memorable and although the movie is not played for laughs like the original, there are parts which will genuinely make you giggle (which certainly was not the intended effect). The gore is a bit OTT and what a human body seems able to take before expiring is indeed inhuman! I suppose believability is not something one should expect from a movie about possession and the evil dead, sadly though, I do.
I didn't find anything was added to the movie by this remake, apart from the obvious updating of it for a modern audience. The cinematography was beautiful in places, but the general 'feel' of the movie, effects and performances just didn't leave me with the feeling of unease that it should have.
The feeling I got from the movie was similar to that of when watching a teen slasher movie and wondering who is going to be next (not difficult to do at all it seems). I felt that the original movie deserved a little bit more than that.
Its quite sad really as this isn't a 'bad' movie. I suppose there was just something 'missing' in what made the original special. That je ne sais quoi just wasn't captured here. I wouldn't go so far as to either recommend it or suggest you avoid it. I could however give it the green light to any younger horror fans who were yet to watch the 1981 original.
Saturday, 25 May 2013
Army Of Darkness - Lisa's Review
*** SPOILERS ***
If I were to review this movie as a sequel to Evil Dead 1 & 2, then it probably wouldn't fare too well with matters such as consistency. I had never seen Evil Dead 1 nor 2 until recently, but I remember watching 'Army of Darkness' many years ago and enjoying it then. Such is the level of fog in my brain, I remember absolutely nothing about the movie apart from the fact I liked it, so I sat down again this evening to re-watch.
I was glad not to be disappointed and found that I still enjoyed the movie. For me, if taken as a standalone movie it is excellent, but you have to leave most of whats gone in the first 2 movies behind when you watch this one as the contradictions are endless. Ash's character (although still played by Bruce Campbell) has completely changed, although IMO most definately for the better. Where we start the movie with Bruce in the middle ages does not tally with the situation we left him in at the end of the second movie. Although he was sent back to this time, we left him hailed as a hero by villagers for slaying a demon. Army of Darkness has him pulled through a time portal and kidnapped by Lord Arthur, suspected of working alongside Duke Henry, who he is at war with.
We see Ash thrown into a pit to his assumed death, but he manages to fight his way out and even kills a Deadite who crawls out of the pit after him. Hey Presto, he is celebrated as a hero. The movie follows his search for the Necronomicon again as this is the only way he can get back to his own time. Obviously all hell breaks loose (quite literally) mostly down to Ash's inaptitude. When he forgets a magic phrase which should enable him to retrieve the book safely he has to battle with a host of evil he unwittingly releases.
What I loved about this movie is how much the humor is ramped up. You can't look at it as a horror at all. I loved the one liners and tongue in cheek jokes. You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching 'The Holy Grail' in places during sets in the village. Its just good all round entertainment. Although it was probably not intended, it reminds me of something you could sit down with your family and a couple of older kids and watch on a bank holiday. An early but more amusing 'Mummy' movie for example.
There is Ray Harryhausen style effects in spades again with skeleton soldiers and a scene where Ash is cloned and spends a brief amount of time as one half of a conjoined twin. The lack of effort in places though was hilarious - i'm thinking of a scene where a skeleton attempts to punch Ash in the face as an example.. it looks like someone just flung the skeletal arm in the right general direction and it just flails about.
Its most definately a 'punch the air' movie with lots of excuses for 'yays' and celebrations. It has lots of laughs and a fantastic script. In my humble opinion it is far superior to the other 2 movies, at least I enjoyed it tenfold in comparison. If you're a fan of an awesome movie quote, you'll probably get all the one's you want in this movie.
What is somewhat disappointing is the ending to the US version. This version see's Ash take a potion to sleep and wake up in his own time. He does so and he is shown working at a supermarket and boasting to women about how he could have been a king. A creature inexplicably appears and he kills it... THE END.
The UK version however has Ash oversleep and wake up Post Apocalypse, which is just fantastic and surely is how the movie should have ended. Apparently though they wanted a 'positive' ending for Ash's character for the american audience, even though Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi preferred the oversleeping storyline.
That aside a most definate thumbs up from me and this one gets the 'recommended' tag slapped on its backside!
If I were to review this movie as a sequel to Evil Dead 1 & 2, then it probably wouldn't fare too well with matters such as consistency. I had never seen Evil Dead 1 nor 2 until recently, but I remember watching 'Army of Darkness' many years ago and enjoying it then. Such is the level of fog in my brain, I remember absolutely nothing about the movie apart from the fact I liked it, so I sat down again this evening to re-watch.
I was glad not to be disappointed and found that I still enjoyed the movie. For me, if taken as a standalone movie it is excellent, but you have to leave most of whats gone in the first 2 movies behind when you watch this one as the contradictions are endless. Ash's character (although still played by Bruce Campbell) has completely changed, although IMO most definately for the better. Where we start the movie with Bruce in the middle ages does not tally with the situation we left him in at the end of the second movie. Although he was sent back to this time, we left him hailed as a hero by villagers for slaying a demon. Army of Darkness has him pulled through a time portal and kidnapped by Lord Arthur, suspected of working alongside Duke Henry, who he is at war with.
We see Ash thrown into a pit to his assumed death, but he manages to fight his way out and even kills a Deadite who crawls out of the pit after him. Hey Presto, he is celebrated as a hero. The movie follows his search for the Necronomicon again as this is the only way he can get back to his own time. Obviously all hell breaks loose (quite literally) mostly down to Ash's inaptitude. When he forgets a magic phrase which should enable him to retrieve the book safely he has to battle with a host of evil he unwittingly releases.
What I loved about this movie is how much the humor is ramped up. You can't look at it as a horror at all. I loved the one liners and tongue in cheek jokes. You could be forgiven for thinking you were watching 'The Holy Grail' in places during sets in the village. Its just good all round entertainment. Although it was probably not intended, it reminds me of something you could sit down with your family and a couple of older kids and watch on a bank holiday. An early but more amusing 'Mummy' movie for example.
There is Ray Harryhausen style effects in spades again with skeleton soldiers and a scene where Ash is cloned and spends a brief amount of time as one half of a conjoined twin. The lack of effort in places though was hilarious - i'm thinking of a scene where a skeleton attempts to punch Ash in the face as an example.. it looks like someone just flung the skeletal arm in the right general direction and it just flails about.
Its most definately a 'punch the air' movie with lots of excuses for 'yays' and celebrations. It has lots of laughs and a fantastic script. In my humble opinion it is far superior to the other 2 movies, at least I enjoyed it tenfold in comparison. If you're a fan of an awesome movie quote, you'll probably get all the one's you want in this movie.
What is somewhat disappointing is the ending to the US version. This version see's Ash take a potion to sleep and wake up in his own time. He does so and he is shown working at a supermarket and boasting to women about how he could have been a king. A creature inexplicably appears and he kills it... THE END.
The UK version however has Ash oversleep and wake up Post Apocalypse, which is just fantastic and surely is how the movie should have ended. Apparently though they wanted a 'positive' ending for Ash's character for the american audience, even though Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi preferred the oversleeping storyline.
That aside a most definate thumbs up from me and this one gets the 'recommended' tag slapped on its backside!
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Evil Dead 2 - Will's Review.
***Spoilers for the original Evil Dead***
Many people consider ED2 to be a remake of the original; I don't think that's entirely fair. It ovens with a remake of the pertinent points of the first movie (This time the croup is gone, with only Ash and his girlfriend Lynda traveling to the cabin), but by the 7 min mark, Ash is the only survivor, and an unseen force is rushing towards him - the final shot of the first movie.
For most of the rest of the first hour, Ash is more or less on his own; Bruce Campbell does some amazing slapstick work, when his hand becomes possessed and tries to kill him.
On the subject of slapstick, the humor has been cranked right up this time around, and if people think they have a favorite line from Evil Dead, you'll usually find that it's actually from the sequel.
This time, the cast is rounded out by the daughter of the cabin's owner, her husband, and a couple of local who help them find the cabin (for a price) now that the bridge is out.
The acting is good enough (save for a couple of bad screams) with only Cambell really shining; particularly in a scene where the events have taken their toll and he has an extended fit of manic laughter.
Effects wise, despite the bigger budget, there is no massive step-up in quality from the first movie, save for a couple of very Harryhauseneque stop motion bits.
All in all, if you enjoyed The Evil Dead, you should get a kick out of Evil Dead 2.
Many people consider ED2 to be a remake of the original; I don't think that's entirely fair. It ovens with a remake of the pertinent points of the first movie (This time the croup is gone, with only Ash and his girlfriend Lynda traveling to the cabin), but by the 7 min mark, Ash is the only survivor, and an unseen force is rushing towards him - the final shot of the first movie.
For most of the rest of the first hour, Ash is more or less on his own; Bruce Campbell does some amazing slapstick work, when his hand becomes possessed and tries to kill him.
On the subject of slapstick, the humor has been cranked right up this time around, and if people think they have a favorite line from Evil Dead, you'll usually find that it's actually from the sequel.
This time, the cast is rounded out by the daughter of the cabin's owner, her husband, and a couple of local who help them find the cabin (for a price) now that the bridge is out.
The acting is good enough (save for a couple of bad screams) with only Cambell really shining; particularly in a scene where the events have taken their toll and he has an extended fit of manic laughter.
Effects wise, despite the bigger budget, there is no massive step-up in quality from the first movie, save for a couple of very Harryhauseneque stop motion bits.
All in all, if you enjoyed The Evil Dead, you should get a kick out of Evil Dead 2.
Evil Dead II - Lisa's Review
So, I finally check out the sequel (or remake with a bigger budget as some would have you believe) to Evil Dead, aptly named Evil Dead 2.
From the get go, I'll say I really didn't like this movie AT ALL. I know that possibly seems like a complete contradiction given that I really enjoyed the first Evil Dead movie, but this one didn't grab me at all. I hadn't seen it before tonight and I expected something akin to the first movie with better effects. Speaking of effects, while you can clearly see there is a bigger budget with this movie, I felt the effects were needless and in places ridiculous. Looks like Buffy looked here for some of its ideas. All the charm of Evil Dead seems lost in the attempt to bring this one up to date for the time. Ironically it manages to date this movie even more than the first Evil Dead installment.
We have the same premise, albeit without the group of teenagers this time round. A recorded message, which was meant as a warning is played, which contains passages from the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead). This unleashes a demon which sets to possessing various people and inanimate objects throughout the course of the movie.
Bruce Campbell is an iconic character but I found even him irritating in this movie. Its the original Jim Carey of enthusiastic over acting. Also the scream we hear over and over from the lead actress is probably the worst I've heard in any movie EVER. No fear, trepidation, horror, nothing! Just an attempt to be as loud as possible. I didn't care about any of the cast, so any deaths were a bit meh for me.
There were a few slight chuckle moments ('A Farewell to Arms' for anyone who has seen the movie), but no belly laughs were I think they were intended. I just didn't feel anything watching it at all. All in all it seems a bit of a waste of time to attempt to improve the first movie with this offering. The special effects are dated and lack the original charm of the crude effects in the first movie. I was surprised to not see Ray Harryhausens name in the credits at the end given some of the effects in places, I'm thinking especially the dancing decapitated corpse near the start of the movie.
I don't know what else I can say really. I didn't like the effects, especially what felt like overkill with the transformation of the old lady in the cellar under the trapdoor. I didn't like the 'feel' of the movie. I didn't like the characters. In fact I found it quite hard to stay awake, which is saying something from a person who suffers from regular insomnia.
I would definately not recommend this one, but would say avoid and just enjoy the original Evil Dead instead. This one adds absolutely nothing in my opinion and just feels like a waste of time to me.
From the get go, I'll say I really didn't like this movie AT ALL. I know that possibly seems like a complete contradiction given that I really enjoyed the first Evil Dead movie, but this one didn't grab me at all. I hadn't seen it before tonight and I expected something akin to the first movie with better effects. Speaking of effects, while you can clearly see there is a bigger budget with this movie, I felt the effects were needless and in places ridiculous. Looks like Buffy looked here for some of its ideas. All the charm of Evil Dead seems lost in the attempt to bring this one up to date for the time. Ironically it manages to date this movie even more than the first Evil Dead installment.
We have the same premise, albeit without the group of teenagers this time round. A recorded message, which was meant as a warning is played, which contains passages from the Necronomicon (Book of the Dead). This unleashes a demon which sets to possessing various people and inanimate objects throughout the course of the movie.
Bruce Campbell is an iconic character but I found even him irritating in this movie. Its the original Jim Carey of enthusiastic over acting. Also the scream we hear over and over from the lead actress is probably the worst I've heard in any movie EVER. No fear, trepidation, horror, nothing! Just an attempt to be as loud as possible. I didn't care about any of the cast, so any deaths were a bit meh for me.
There were a few slight chuckle moments ('A Farewell to Arms' for anyone who has seen the movie), but no belly laughs were I think they were intended. I just didn't feel anything watching it at all. All in all it seems a bit of a waste of time to attempt to improve the first movie with this offering. The special effects are dated and lack the original charm of the crude effects in the first movie. I was surprised to not see Ray Harryhausens name in the credits at the end given some of the effects in places, I'm thinking especially the dancing decapitated corpse near the start of the movie.
I don't know what else I can say really. I didn't like the effects, especially what felt like overkill with the transformation of the old lady in the cellar under the trapdoor. I didn't like the 'feel' of the movie. I didn't like the characters. In fact I found it quite hard to stay awake, which is saying something from a person who suffers from regular insomnia.
I would definately not recommend this one, but would say avoid and just enjoy the original Evil Dead instead. This one adds absolutely nothing in my opinion and just feels like a waste of time to me.
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