I've said it a couple of times since Friday night, but I'll say it again anyway. It's hard living in a post Cabin in the Woods world.
Why say that now? Well it just so happens that the first movie I was truly excited about in 2013(that we got in theaters here in St. John's anyway), finally came this way. Almost a year after the greatness that was The Cabin in the Woods was released I finally got to lay my tired eyes upon the much hyped Evil Dead remake. Unfortunately, while being a good remake, it also let me down. Let me tell you why.
First and foremost, the huge issue I have with this Evil Dead remake(and it's an issue I have with a lot of movies these days) is that all the fun and shocking moments in the movie were shown in the trailer. I find that a lot of movies show just a little too much in the 3-4 trailers and countless TV spots they put out to promote their movies. I'm at a tense moment in the movie where a character is in a life or death situation, inches from having their head ripped violently from their body by some terrifying force. I should be on the edge of my seat. Sweating up a storm, gritting my teeth, praying, hoping that they make it through the next few minutes alive. Instead, I'm usually sitting back, shaking my head and slurping back some tasty beverage because I know that I've seen clips from plenty of scenes in trailers that show the character in question relaxing on a beach or getting their head lopped off in some other gruesome fashion that I have yet to see. Suspense ruined. Fuck you hollywood.
No, that was not a reference to this movie by the way. Evil Dead doesn't go that route with it. That was just an example. But one that's ruining movies for me left, right and center. I know, I could just not watch the trailers, but that's not going to happen. They're the reason people get excited for movies. They get people(myself included) into the theaters opening night. And a well done trailer does a damn good job at doing that. The reason I was so excited for the Evil Dead movie was directly because of it's trailer. Just look at it:
Awesome right? That's what I thought too. Sadly, that is the best part of the movie. That trailer right there. I would say about 75-85% of the "Holy Shit!" moments in the movie were shown in that short, 2 minute trailer. The rest of the movie just felt like it was there to fill in the spaces between those gory moments.
Now, there are good trailers out there. In fact, after re-watching The Cabin in the Woods last night, I went back and had a gander at some of it's trailers. Have a look see:
To anybody who's seen the movie, they'll know it does give a couple things away but it's pretty minimal. Otherwise the trailer does a great job of getting you excited for the movie by only hinting at the fact that there's something a little odd going on. It doesn't show it's hand up front like so many movies do. And I remember going to see this movie mostly from articles about it and the amazing reviews I read. Not the trailer. But, surprise surprise, this movie was so much better than that trailer could of ever have let on.
So, amazing trailer = ok movie. Ok trailer = amazing movie. Someone, somewhere please take note!
The trailer thing is by far the biggest issue that I have with Evil Dead. If I didn't see the trailer beforehand I'm sure my enjoyment at the time would have been much better. I wouldn't have seen a lot of the shock moments coming and I wouldn't have felt quite so let down.
But it still had other problems.
But it still had other problems.
I for one, didn't find any connection with any of the characters in Evil Dead other than the main actress Jane Levy. I thought she did an amazing job jumping from a terrified, innocent looking girl, to a possessed little demon taunting the rest of the poor souls in that cabin. I was actually rooting for her and hoped she would walk out of it all. The other actors, not so much. They did a great job of filling the cookie-cutter roles penned out for them so they can die in the most grisly fashion available, but they didn't do much else. I was quite ok with them getting killed off in a spectacularly gory mess. I know that's the point of a horror film, especially a remake of the original classic, but I still wanted to have some sort of connection.
In contrast we have The Cabin in the Woods, where I found myself rooting for pretty much all of the main cast. In the first 30 minutes it did a much better job of raising all the characters involved above the level of death-ready mannequins that Evil Dead was littered with. Most still died in entertaining displays of bloody carnage(not quite as gory as Evil Dead), but they left a much more memorable impression because I didn't want them to die.
In contrast we have The Cabin in the Woods, where I found myself rooting for pretty much all of the main cast. In the first 30 minutes it did a much better job of raising all the characters involved above the level of death-ready mannequins that Evil Dead was littered with. Most still died in entertaining displays of bloody carnage(not quite as gory as Evil Dead), but they left a much more memorable impression because I didn't want them to die.
The last big issue I have with Evil Dead is the story. It has one. It shouldn't. Both The Cabin in the Woods and the original Evil Dead start off with very simple premises. A group of good looking people go to a cabin for a good time. Good times get cancelled. The original just doesn't need any story and it works just fine without it. The Cabin in the Woods ends up adding it's own story to the latter parts of the film, but it does so in fantastic style and ends up being one of the main things that blew my mind about it. I won't dare say more because I'm sure there are still people out there who haven't seen it yet. Shame on you! But regardless, neither of those movies try to complicate things by giving them any back story to try to explain what's about to happen, or some half-assed reason to be at the cabin in the first place. The Evil Dead remake spends it's first 10 minutes or so giving audiences a back story that is incredibly unnecessary, and then spends another 30 minutes or so trying to give a reason why our poor, stupid victims are at the cabin to begin with. The only reason I could see them putting this in there was to give them a semi-plausible reason to not pack up and get the hell out once shit started getting weird. I honestly feel that the movie would have been much better if it had spent this time on a bit of character development, or even if it started the carnage a little earlier and threw in a few more scares that they wouldn't of had room to squeeze into their spoileriffic trailers.
With all that being said, I didn't hate the movie. It was well done. It had a purpose and it served it. It never stooped to the level of being considered "torture porn" and it's something I hope future horror movies take note from. Once the carnage started, it picked up the pace and didn't let up until the end. Sure, none of the scares surprised me but they were still great and better than a lot of the options churned out by hollywood today. I'm also impressed with the amount of practical effects in the film. The production value was amazing and it's nice to see the franchise get that kind support finally. I can only imagine what Sam Raimi could have done with the original if he had this kind of money to throw into it. Also, there was next to no CGI used in the film and you could tell. Everything felt real. It's the way horror should be. Bloody, gritty and real. And of course the movie even made a couple solid nods to the original that worked well. Duct tape fixes everything of course.
In conclusion, it was a solid remake of an amazing low budget classic. It dropped some of the humor for over the top gore and tried to make itself stand on it's own without using its predecessors as crutches. It didn't fall by doing that, but it did stumble a little bit. And it probably wasn't fair of me to spend as much time comparing it to The Cabin in the Woods as I did. But the fact is that The Cabin in the Woods happened. It did what Scream did for the slasher films of the 90's. It was self aware and honored all of the glorious films that came before it, while at the same time showing everybody what they did wrong. It made the genre smarter for a little while. And now, watching horror movies, I expect them to be a little smarter, a little more to the point. Evil Dead almost got it right but I still felt a little let down. Next time they should trim some of the fat and stop making trailers that are better than the films.
Thankfully they are already planning a sequel. I'm still going to expect greatness. Maybe next time I won't watch the trailers.
*I gave Evil Dead a 6/10 score on IMDB.
**In comparison I gave The Cabin in the Woods a 9/10 and the original Evil Dead a 8/10.
With all that being said, I didn't hate the movie. It was well done. It had a purpose and it served it. It never stooped to the level of being considered "torture porn" and it's something I hope future horror movies take note from. Once the carnage started, it picked up the pace and didn't let up until the end. Sure, none of the scares surprised me but they were still great and better than a lot of the options churned out by hollywood today. I'm also impressed with the amount of practical effects in the film. The production value was amazing and it's nice to see the franchise get that kind support finally. I can only imagine what Sam Raimi could have done with the original if he had this kind of money to throw into it. Also, there was next to no CGI used in the film and you could tell. Everything felt real. It's the way horror should be. Bloody, gritty and real. And of course the movie even made a couple solid nods to the original that worked well. Duct tape fixes everything of course.
In conclusion, it was a solid remake of an amazing low budget classic. It dropped some of the humor for over the top gore and tried to make itself stand on it's own without using its predecessors as crutches. It didn't fall by doing that, but it did stumble a little bit. And it probably wasn't fair of me to spend as much time comparing it to The Cabin in the Woods as I did. But the fact is that The Cabin in the Woods happened. It did what Scream did for the slasher films of the 90's. It was self aware and honored all of the glorious films that came before it, while at the same time showing everybody what they did wrong. It made the genre smarter for a little while. And now, watching horror movies, I expect them to be a little smarter, a little more to the point. Evil Dead almost got it right but I still felt a little let down. Next time they should trim some of the fat and stop making trailers that are better than the films.
Thankfully they are already planning a sequel. I'm still going to expect greatness. Maybe next time I won't watch the trailers.
*I gave Evil Dead a 6/10 score on IMDB.
**In comparison I gave The Cabin in the Woods a 9/10 and the original Evil Dead a 8/10.
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