Uruguayan writer-director Fede Alvarez's gruesome but unremarkable remake/reboot/sequel to the seminal 1981 indie horror film The Evil Dead provokes a curious reaction: a longing that it be a more fundamentally broken work of cinema. If the 2013 Evil Dead—the new film drops the The—were a complete mess of a film, it might at least have kindled a compelling discussion among horror aficionados about where exactly things went wrong. As it is, Alvarez's debut feature is merely a functional and unmemorable seat-squirmer, one that is distressingly eager to clumsily exploit viewers' affection for Sam Raimi's original film and its two sequels.
The fact that '81 Dead director Raimi, star Bruce Campbell, and producer Robert Tapert all lent their clout to Alvarez's remake only makes the new film's underwhelming character all the more dispiriting. Consistent with the original, the film presents an agreeably simple scenario: five college students are trapped with a violent, demonic force in an Appalachian cabin. Unfortunately, the script by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues is thick with vacuous characters, careless plot turns, and paint-by-numbers shocks. Worse yet, the screenplay lacks the sense of knowing playfulness that might have redeemed such offenses.
As a showcase for stomach-churning practical makeup effects, Evil Dead is undeniably arresting, and Alvarez here and there exhibits an affinity for drawing out the agonizing prelude to a jump-scare or horrific reveal. Overall, however, the film has the flavorless squish of a remake in search of a reason to exist. It's too slapdash to function as a fussed-over exploration of the original film's particulars, and too stodgy to serve as a successor to its namesake's spirit of X-Rated creepshow lunacy.
