Evil Dead (2013)

Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods.

This movie does a lot of things that The Evil Dead did but manages to change things up enough to be more than a straight forward remake. The choice to make the protagonist go through detox while at the cabin was an interesting one. It gives the other characters an excuse at least not to believe her immediately.

Cinematography and color grading is modern but not so green and yellow to be an ugly viewing. Some modern horror goes too far down this path but his film manages to walk up to it but not go too far in that direction.

This movie is not without an uncomfortable time in the woods that I could do without. The first and second movies both had some version of this and I do not think it needed to be included. The other visuals around this portion of the film are really good and I remember being very excited when I first saw the teaser poster. Which I did not grab for this post for some reason (probably because of the text and how the image will be used.). Maybe I should include it here as well.

The kills are more realistic and the deadites are less funny. They have things to say but it is a bit more like The Exorcist than The Evil Dead. This is a bit of a nitpick, if I am honest, but I am glad that this movie does not take itself too seriously.

I find it difficult to believe that one of the characters survives all the damage they take. The tongue splitting thing still makes my skin crawl, the electric knife is like a chainsaw for the home, and a naaaaiiiil gun is a nice addition as well. Reviving the main character with a car battery is silly but it is this franchise so I think it fits.

They managed to make an iconic end sequence for the film which is hard to top in modern horror let alone future Evil Dead Movies. I did not feel this strongly about the film but it has grown on me and I think it is worth the watch if you like this sort of thing.

This is day 65 of 100 Days To Offload.

This is day 12 of Blaugust 2026.