¡Qué horror! 2013 Candidate # 13

¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate # 13

EVIL DEAD

(March 2013)

So, here we are.

For the record, I loved Sam Raimi’s original, then was kind of, sort of let down that the sequel was basically a remake of the first film on a bigger budget (just as Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado was), and was even less thrilled by the Deadites meet The Three Stooges vibe of Army of Darkness.

And where does Fede Alvarez’s remake stand in all of this?

Well, it’s got a ¡Qué horror! candidate slot this year, so that should tell you something.

Is it the original though?

Most certainly not (and I never expected it to be).

I watched the original pretty much cold; all I knew going in--courtesy of a friend who’d seen it while on vacation in the States--was that a (spoiler!) girl gets raped by some trees.

I watched the original, alone, past midnight, on video.

And, well, here we are…

I’m no longer the same kid who watched Raimi’s original all those years ago.

I’m that kid, three decades or so worth of horror movies later, so this experience in no way replicates that one.

What we find in Alvarez’s remake though, is an astounding level of goreletting I don’t think I’ve seen in recent years outside of what I’ve come to think of as the French School of Bizarro Horror.

This is intense, insane, cringe- and shudder-worthy stuff.

You have officially been warned.

So if you want to get your gorehound on, look no further than this definite article-less remake. (Watch out for the audio callbacks to the original, as well as a bit of post-credits fun.)

Like the man says, “Groovy.”

(Evil Dead OS courtesy of impawards.com.)