Is Evil Dead, the 2013 film from Fede Alvarez, a remake or a sequel? It looks a lot like a remake, but, years after release, Alvarez confirmed in a tweet that, “[Evil Dead] continues the first one.” Case closed. This flick is not a remake. I guess the original was just so good they had to make it twice, or thrice, for that matter.
Working from a screenplay he wrote with Rodo Sayagues, Alvarez made a horror flick that reportedly used tens of thousands of gallons of fake blood. If that’s not an intrinsic endorsement, I don’t know what is.
The movie follows five twenty-somethings who think they’re doing the right thing, but pick the worst place in the world for it.
Mia (Jane Levy) is addicted to heroin, and is going cold turkey. It’s not her first try. To increase the odds of success, she’s going into withdrawal at her family’s isolated cabin in the woods (filming was done on the North Island of New Zealand). She’s joined by friends Olivia (Jessica Lucas), Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), and her brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez). Mia doesn’t have the best relationship with David. The two are close to becoming estranged.
When the group arrives at the cabin, they discover that it has been broken into. At first, they chalk it up to teenagers up to some shenanigans, but soon discover a disgusting occult ritual space of some form in the basement, complete with dozens of hanging cat corpses. 
Eric also discovers a package wrapped in black plastic and barbed wire. Inside is, of course, the Book of the Dead, the franchise’s MacGuffin du jour. Eric opens the book and, despite warnings scrawled on every page, reads some of the inscriptions out loud, and a demonic presence is awakened out in the woods.
That’s bad news for Mia, as her condition is making her more sensitive to the bad vibes surrounding the cabin. Her withdrawal and her intuition leads to a serious freakout. She tries to flee in a car, wrecks it, and is assaulted by the forest. A nasty process of possession has begun, turning her into a danger to everyone in the cabin. Eventually she has to be locked in the basement. But that doesn’t end the danger for the other four. Reading further in the book, Eric discovers that this evil force, the Taker of Souls, is looking to acquire five souls so it can rise as the Abomination, and do even more evil stuff. The rest of the film are the group’s failed attempts to stem the tide, all while enduring some of the most gruesome injuries one will see in horror, inflicted on themselves and each other. It’s not top ten gore, but that wasn’t for lack of trying.
The Evil Dead franchise is known for its dark humor. It is a loud and frenetic series of movies, and rightfully considered extreme for its time. But it also has had a tone that is impossible to take seriously. Alvarez chose a different approach. There isn’t anything at all funny about his version of the Evil Dead. In fact, it can get rather bleak at points. At first that would seem to be a bad decision, possibly having its origins in what was fashionable in horror at the time. Evil Dead was released only a few years after the era of torture porn. Bleakness was the language of horror movies, discarding all the fun of the 1980s and ’90s in pursuit of realism. In that, filmmakers succeeded, but lost sight of much of what makes horror movies worth watching.
Alvarez was walking a fine line between entertaining and repelling his audience. One’s endurance level for physical injury will determine whether or not he succeeded. Regardless of how one feels about all the blood and gore, from an objective standpoint Evil Dead is a good movie. It succeeds in its intent, which is to tell a horrific story about horrific things. The craft in the movie is unimpeachable. Roger Murray and effects studio Main Reactor are credited with makeup and prosthetics, and their work is disgusting. For fans of practical effects, their work alone is worth the watch.
As for the cast, they were good. Early on I was not impressed by Levy, but that was because her character was unlikable. As the movie goes on she gets better and better. Evil Dead was mostly filmed chronologically, and viewers will see her grow into the character. By the end, she’s someone viewers can actually root for, despite her being the initial focus of everything bad happening to the characters. Pucci also did well with the material, even though at times he served as an exposition machine. As for the others, there were no weak links, although there was a ceiling to their abilities.
Whether or not this movie needed to be made is questionable. I don’t recall there being much of a desire for more Evil Dead at the time. It was a story that was wrapped up quite well with the original trilogy. If this was meant to be nothing more than a money grab, then all involved did much better than expected. So many other remakes, and this is a remake as much as a continuation of the series, despite what Alvarez says, just threw a few million bucks at an IP and expected a return on investment, and nothing more. Alvarez went and made something worth watching, as long as a viewer has a strong stomach.