With the ‘Evil Dead’ remake hitting theaters this weekend, critics seem to be in disagreement! Some love the gruesome horror flick, but others just think it’s a bloody mess. Read the reviews here!
The Evil Dead remake (out Apr. 5) promised to bring back the original’s terrifying premise and inject it with the all-out gore that we’re used to seeing these days. The reviews for the film are in, and while some critics totally loved the bloodbath, others thought that it didn’t come close to living up to the original. One thing’s for sure — it’s definitely gory!
The Reviews Of ‘Evil Dead’
New York Post
Truthfully, if it hadn't been my paying job as a critic to watch Fede Alvarez's remake of Evil Dead all the way to the end, I probably would have headed for the exit door long before the point where somebody cuts off her own arm with an electric carving knife. Of course, then I'd have missed another character being severed lengthwise with a chain saw while some members of the audience hooted in approval.
Los Angeles Times
What this Evil Dead gets most right is its tone, paying homage yet staking its own territory; it’s scary without being downbeat, fun without being too jokey. Jane Levy in particular is perfectly in sync with Fede Alvarez’s mix of sincerity, snark and scares. Alvarez certainly seems to have relished the chance to splatter and spray his cast with all manner of goo. His aesthetic is a few shades lighter than the gloomy grunge of other recent horror reinventions, and he never loses sight of the black comedy lurking in the story’s corners.
New York Daily News
Though Fede Alvarez keeps us watching, he takes no real chances. Buried under all those enthusiastically mangled bodies is the comfort of familiarity. He may have intended to remake a single film, but we've seen this movie countless times before.
Village Voice
In a virtuoso feature debut, Uruguayan-born writer-director Fede Alvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues honor the motifs of the original, from the camera rushing pell-mell through the woods to signal the demon’s arrival, to the deployment of a chainsaw in the final showdown. But the plotting as a whole feels fresh, as does the emphasis on women strong enough to defend themselves. Alvarez also honors Sam Raimi, who co-produced this remake, in another key way: The film’s special effects are created with old-fashioned prosthetics and buckets of blood, which lend a horrifically tactile reality to such moments as when the possessed Mia slices her own tongue in two. Dare ya not to look.
NPR
This is no horror-comedy, like Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead sequels, but it does match the original in creating occasional and surprising moments of well-timed humor amid what is otherwise straight horror. A particularly effective sequence involving a weaponized nail gun and a grisly sight gag following a self-amputation quite effectively blur the line between the two, while a cameo of the ’73 Oldsmobile from the original ends up being a laugh-worthy moment of pure fan service. Effective scares, respectful nods to its inspiration and a few new twists make the question of whether this new Evil Dead succeeds in matching its inspiration superfluous. This is one remake that succeeds on its own blood-soaked terms.
New York
The good: The actors are more professional — although you'll miss Bruce Campbell. The gore quotient is up, through the roof, to the moon. It's rousing in its way. Gasps, moans, general writhing — and that's just the audience. There's a new prologue that comes on like torture porn and takes a switchback turn: nice. I liked how you don't know who'll be the so-called "Final Girl" to face off against the demon.
Go see it for yourselves, HollywoodLifers, and let us know what you think about this gory horror movie!
WATCH: Evil Dead – Official Redband Trailer
– Andrew Gruttadaro
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