The Very Friendly Dead.

Excuse the misleading poster

Remaking a cult classic is always likely to grind a few gears, and a few gears were certainly ground when a remake, reimagining or whatever you want to call it of The Evil Dead was announced. Anyway the 2013 version of The Evil Dead keeps the bare bones of the original’s plot in which a group of five teenagers travel to a remote cabin in order to help Mia (Jane Levy) overcome her drug addiction. The group, however, inadvertently summon something terribly evil and when Mia becomes the first victim of the evil dead, the group are in a violent and bloody fight for survival. The original works well because of the mixture of gore and comedy, the original was an utter laugh. The remake, however, plays down the laughs and ups the gore. I enjoy gore so much it is perhaps bordering the sociopathic, but parts of the Evil Dead were a tad boring despite the fact that a character saws her own arm with an electric meat knife. Perhaps because the best bits of the film were elements already used in the original (the camera tearing through the wood) or perhaps it is due to the fact that every character was a bland as bland could be. An uninspiring lead performance from Shiloh Fernandez doesn’t help matters as Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead, for all its gore, lacks frights, tension and fun.

2/5