evil dead

[theconcerned]

Just for an alternate perspective, I saw it (with my brother and his wife) and I was actually surprised how much I liked it. From what I had read ahead of time, it was meant to be less a remake and more a homage to the original, and I found it delivered perfectly.

First, I despise CGI (to the point where I'm really not interested in seeing a movie if its main reason for existing is as a CGI showcase), and I love the fact that this movie is essentially CGI-free. Brice Campbell is quite proud of this fact -- it was done "old school" and you could totally tell.

Second, like I said above, I don't believe it was ever meant to be a remake. I think that people forget how shocking Evil Dead was when it came out -- it was meant to be scary. Evil Dead 2 was the funnier one. A lot of the "funny" parts in Evil Dead are funny because the effects are so bad, a result of it being shot by a very young director on an absolute shoestring budget. Apparently, they'd always talked about "doing Evil Dead with a budget." We'll, this would have been it.

It's exactly what it's supposed to be -- scary as hell and uncomfortable. People forget that a horror movie is supposed to horrify you . . . it's kind of the whole point.

Cabin in the Woods (which I consider a masterpiece) really opened my eyes to this type of movie. Within the constraints of a typical (or the typical) "cabin in the woods" movie, this new director managed to keep it feeling fresh, with a few new twists.

As for the torture porn criticism, it really didn't strike me that way. I think of torture porn as Hostel of any of the Saw movies (none of which I've seen, but I know the premise -- get people into impossible situations and then watch their heads explode). Those type of movies purposely create a situation for the reasons of creating gore. I more saw the gory scenes in Evil Dead as a reaction to being in a confined area with a demon. I know, it's a very similar idea but somehow didn't strike me as torture porn.

Now, of course, with all that being said, the joy of art (in this sense, a movie) is tht some people will like it and some won't. There's no right or wrong answer to these questions, just varying opinions. This was mine.