Honourable Mention: EVIL DEAD (2013) and EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

 

For this instalment of Brain Bites I thought I would make a slight deviation from the norm. I wanted to do this purely because this movie franchise is just as dear to my heart as zombie movies are. In fact, when I was a kid I thought that Deadites were zombies. Yes that's right... I would like to talk, for a moment, about our lord and saviour Sam Raimi who brought us his vision of a gory, splattery possession movie about a cabin in the woods, a book bound in human skin and a hapless doofus that becomes an unlikely hero. He created an unapologetic trilogy of humour, slapstick and horror with monsters, madness and a whole host of inventive camera work and practical FX. The first movie THE EVIL DEAD (1981) got banned in most countries for its depiction of a woman getting violated by foliage in the forest plus various acts of violence and scenes of people getting dismembered, EVIL DEAD II (1987) is a kind of reimagining of the first movie but with less tree rape, instead revamping the campy slapstick, monsters and general insanity. Cementing Bruce Campbells portrayal of Ashley J. Williams, as one of the greatest and most iconic characters in horror movie history. ARMY OF DARKNESS (1993) (celebrating it's thirtieth anniversary this year) sees Ash travel back in time to battle witch craftery, thwart a skeleton army and an evil version of himself. The franchise in a nutshell captures the humour and imagination of pretty much every horror fan! As with many cult horror movies the EVIL DEAD franchise has not escaped the remake/reboot culture of the modern horror scene and these are the focus of my attention this month. Maybe they are not exactly zombie movies but they were made after the year 2000 so I don't consider this a complete violation of the blogs original remit.

I am going to try and give an overview of both these recent takes on the EVIL DEAD movies, commenting on the similarities and tributes to the originals that makes these movies so damn awesome!!

EVIL DEAD (2013) 1hr 31mins 

Director: Fede Alvarez

Fede Alvarez was mostly an unknown director before scoring a deal with Ghost House Pictures that landed him the EVIL DEAD remake gig. He describes his movie as a "reimagining" rather than a remake of the first movie as it takes place at the cabin where Ash and friends first discovered the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. Alvarez's movie follows Mia (Jane Levy), an addict who goes to her family's old cabin in the woods with a group of friends, her brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) and his girlfriend, to go cold turkey. On arrival at the cabin they discover it has been ransacked and find remnants of some kind of satanic ritual burning and witchcraft in the basement with dead cats tied to the ceiling and a mysterious package bound in barbed wire. Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), being curious takes the package and cuts away the barbed wire revealing the Necronomicon. Intrigued by the warnings in the margins ("Don't say it , don't write it...don't hear it!!!"), the scribbled out passages and the disturbing images in the book Eric reads aloud the words... "Kunda, Estratta..." (I'll stop myself there) summoning the demon which finds its way into Mia, in turn infecting her friends and brother leaving only one survivor. 

Tributes

The infamous Oldsmobile Delta 88 from all three of the earlier movies makes an appearance almost straight away as it is out in the yard where Ash had left it and Mia can be seen sitting on its bonnet waiting for David to arrive. 

The way in which Mia is possessed plays out almost exactly the same way as in the first EVIL DEAD complete with forestry violation and her and Davids journey from the cabin to discover the bridge is out and all escape routes are inaccessible. 

The way they deal with the possessed Deadite Mia is very similar to the way Cheryl is handled especially when thrown into the basement. 

The incantation words read from the Necronomicom Ex-Mortis. These are different then the original but then they never seem to be the same in any of the movies.

The tool shed out back looks to be an exact replica of the the original shed.

The necklace David gives Mia is the same style of necklace Ash gives to Linda.

There is a great scene where Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), Davids girlfriend,  does a budget Ash Williams on herself and chops her arm off above the elbow with an electric carving knife. this is reminiscent of EVIL DEAD II (1987).

David buries Mia in a shallow grave out the front of the cabin as Ash did with Linda.

Once possessed Mia turns her friends into Deadites by vomiting on them and/or biting them.

Lots of chainsaw action!!

Characters

An obvious difference between Raimi's first EVIL DEAD movie and Alvarez's version is that Alvarez has his version played dead straight. There are no camped up, overly hysterical or schlocky slapstick moments that lighten the mood. The characters are likeable enough and well acted but they are way more serious and I don't recall any "funny" moments at all. That being said I don't have a problem with this in any way and it adds to the atmosphere and keeps it feeling very dark. I think it was a clever move to not try to replace Bruce Campbell and create another Ash Williams character as doing something like that could have been it's downfall. I think Alvarez knew better. Shiloh Fernandez and Lou Taylor Pucci's characters do not have the presence, charisma or qualities to match Bruce. This is not a criticism of them directly...as everyone knows you cannot replace Bruce!! Jane Levy as Mia kind of takes on the roles of both Cheryl and Ash. She goes through the worst of the possession and she is the last one standing yet at the same time she is neither and takes on a role of her own.

As an extra treat you have to wait til you are past the end credits to catch a quick shadowy nod of approval from the man himself, Bruce Campbell, as he utters a final "groovy"!

The FX

The Necronomicon itself looks really good and very similar to the original book which is in keeping with the first movie and making you think that it has never left the cabin. Due to modern developments in practical special effects the make up for the Deadites is a lot less bulky and cakey and gone are the huge white contact lenses.  Instead they now look like how you would imagine them to look like if someone that is not Sam Raimi was to make them. They do kind of just look like the living dead with discoloured skin, vacant eyes and usually some kind of hideous, fatal wound on them. Raimi would later come to rectify this by making the Deadites in ASH VS EVIL DEAD (2015-2018) look more like the original Deadites only slightly more refined.

Alvarez takes great pleasure in saying that there is no CGI in this movie. All of the effects are practical. I don't know how true that is but there certainly has been a huge effort made to make sure the gore is as practical as possible. This movie is every bit as bloody and inventive as the first movie, maybe even a little bit more?!! I have read that they used 70,000 gallons of fake blood in EVIL DEAD (2013), 50,000 gallons used in the end sequence alone! Vast amounts more when you discover they only used 200-300 gallons in THE EVIL DEAD (1981). There are some very creative weapons and squirmy scenes of young women been burned alive, one of the friends, Olivia (Jessica Lucas) cuts chunks off her face off with a broken mirror, Natalie cutting her arm off with the carving knife, there is a close up shot of Mia licking a stanley knife which is particularly wince inducing. Poor old Eric does seem to bear the brunt of the attacks whilst managing to make it out the other end of the majority of them. He gets stabbed in the eye with a hypodermic needle, treated like a pin cushion in a brutal nail gun attack and gets his hand split in two with a crowbar to name a few things. Let us also not forget the finale of the movie where it is raining blood for pretty much the entire time Mia has to face off with the abomination of herself and that ouchy degloving moment between a truck and her arm!!

EVIL DEAD (2013) is a great reimagining of the first movie for modern times. It doesn't try to better or make drastic changes to the ideas of the original but brings a fresh out look on possession movies and Raimi's story. It was a bold move from Alvarez and luckily for him was a huge hit with us fans. The same can be said for us, the fans, in that we were lucky to have someone like Alvarez that possessed the talent  and creativity to make sure that this movie didn't completely suck! Knowing that Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell were amongst the producers of the movie went some to help alleviate worries as we knew they would be keeping an eye on things.

A mere ten years later (almost exactly, as Alvarez's EVIL DEAD came out on 18th April 2013 and EVIL DEAD RISE was released on 21st April 2023!!) and thirty years after ARMY OF DARKNESS (1993) comes Lee Cronin's EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) set as a direct sequel to Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD franchise is next up ...

EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

Director: Lee Cronin.

EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) predominantly takes place in a condemned apartment block in LA as Beth (Lily Sullivan) goes to visit her estranged sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three kids. Shortly after Beth's arrival the building is hit by an earthquake which cracks the ground beneath the building (which used to be a bank), uncovering an underground vault. Ellie's kids on their way back from getting pizza discover the vault and Danny (Morgan Davis) goes down to investigate leaving his sisters Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) up top whilst he pokes about. Discovering a set of three records and a dusty old book he takes them back up to their apartment thinking he could sell them and give the money to his mum. This Necronomicon has a set of very sharp teeth that Danny cuts himself on trying to open it. Once it has absorbed his blood it opens perfectly happily revealing its disturbing content. After being warned by Bridget not to do something stupid he decides to play the records that came with the book. They are recordings made by a priest who talks about the three Naturom Demento, or Books of the Dead. On the second recording the priest recites an incantation that begins "Kanda, Estrata..." (here I go again!). Ellie in the meantime is hit full force by the presence whilst in the lift after innocently doing some laundry. Being the first one possessed Ellie goes back to her apartment and sets about terrorising her family and neighbours with fatal and gory consequences. Leaving Beth to try and protect what is left of her family and get out of the building.

Tributes

As with EVIL DEAD (2013), EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) is chock full of easter eggs and tributes to the movies before it:

I knew I was going to love this movie from the first moments of the opening scene. The drone flying over the lake at the beginning mimicking the shots through the woods/swamp in EVIL DEAD (1981) is just the perfect intro to an EVIL DEAD sequel in my opinion!

The pizzas the kids come back with are from a pizza place called "Henrietta's Pizza"!!

The scene in the lift when Ellie first gets possessed feels like it is going along the same lines as the forest tree rape scene as Ellies limbs are restrained by wires from the lift much like the vines however this time it does not go that far instead choosing to bend and snap her arms and legs in different directions. 

The use of voice recordings in the form of vinyl rather than cassette tape provides a retro version of events that has come full circle.

The events that unfold in the opening sequence also hark back to the 1981 movie as the possessed girl starts to read aloud from Wuthering Heights which her cousin is reading from the other side of the room.

There is a scene out in the hallway where Ellie sucks the eyeball out from one of her neighbours and proceeds to spit it into the open mouth of another victim.

A lot of the dialogue is very quotable and some of it a great throw back to THE EVIL DEAD (1981) and EVIL DEAD II (1987). Ellie declares that "I will swallow your soul", which I also think Mia quotes in the 2013 version and chants of "Dead by dawn" will have you grinning from ear to ear.

Alyssa Sutherland as the possessed Ellie is fantastic and combines new and old Deadite traits throughout the movie. One part when she peeps over the edge of the bath does really remind me of Cheryl and Mia peeking out from the trapdoor of the basement. 

Again, the chainsaw is key when it comes to a fitting finale!

Characters

The cast and characters are spot on here. For a movie that has two annoying teenagers and a younger kid as characters you would think this would weigh it down but it really doesn't. In all honesty the kids are not that annoying plus they are not the main feature here so there is time in between to concentrate on other characters. Again all roles are really well acted. I like these characters a bit more, perhaps its because they are just normal people trying to get by rather the the slightly pretentious well- to- do characters in EVIL DEAD (2013). For me, Alyssa Sutherland steals the show. She down plays her role to begin with but really ramps it up when possessed. She has a great way of being placidly unhinged as well as prone to outbursts of violence. A truly fantastic performance throughout. Young Nell Fisher as Kassie is also really good and her characters imagination is funny. She does bring a well needed innocent childlike humour to the movie, "you'll be a good mum some day Auntie Beth... you know how to lie to kids". This also helps to lighten things up. Like the 2013 version this is played very straight and serious with no campy humour or anything but I think because the kids are there it does make it feel a bit more light hearted which I enjoyed.

Lily Sullivan as Beth is not the only person to survive this onslaught but as she is the one to wield the chainsaw, out of all the characters I see her as the closest approximation to Ash but again, Ash's character is not being imitated. Beth as a character has no traits that would make you think she is the new Ash, but she does have to put up with being stabbed with scissors, glass and gets a cheese grater to the leg plus she almost drowns in a lift full of blood so she certainly has a run of bad luck in her efforts to survive. The character of Mr. Fonda, one of Ellie's neighbours, is played by Mark Mitchinson. Mitchinson played the role of Crosby in season one of ASH VS EVIL DEAD.  In this he is the owner of the van and wood chipper that is so integral to the films finale and is also a tribute to the FARGO series. 

Bruce again has a small part to play, his voice can be heard on the records that Danny plays as one of the priests. I liked seeing him at the end of EVIL DEAD (2013) but felt it was a little disjointed. At least here he is involved with the movie as a whole.

The FX

The Deadites in EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) are very similar to the ones in EVIL DEAD (2013). Some CGI was used in this but there is also a lot of great practical FX as well. In fact, I have it on good authority (the audio commentary on the blu ray) that 90% of the FX are practical. Kassie makes herself a protector early on by decapitating a doll and attaching the head to a broom handle, declaring her name as Staffnie who comes in very handy later on in the movie as a weapon. Scissors, tattoo needles and a cheese grater are utilised as effective weapons. Glass and mirrors play a part too but this time instead of being used to cut chunks off people, Ellie uses a large shard from a mirror to stab Beth through the hand with and there is a particularly uncomfortable scene with Bridget eating glass as she starts to turn. Both movies follow the trait that once you have been infected by blood or vomit of the possessed you also will turn. A number of Ellies kills are observed through the peep hole viewer in the door of the apartment which makes the whole experience pretty trippy.  I may have already mentioned the eye getting sucked out but it deserves to be mentioned twice. Beth manages to half dismember her sister by shooting off her arm and one of her legs which triggers a transformation in the Deadites the likes of which we have not seen before. It has been dubbed The Marauder and is an amalgamation of Ellie and her dead family as they all fuse together for the final showdown. It's pretty fucking cool and looks like something straight out of John Carpenters THE THING (1982)! The amount of blood begins to ramp up as Beth and Kassie make it out of the apartment,  with the stair way out of action their only option is the lift. The lift begins to fill with blood ending with a scene similar to the iconic scene from THE SHINING (1980) which will never cease to be entertaining. With that plus the bloody wood chipper/chainsaw ending it means that once again the end of an EVIL DEAD movie is thoroughly blood soaked. Whilst all the blood in EVIL DEAD RISE is very effective and plentiful the total amount of fake blood used in EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) was 1,720 gallons, so that means Fede Alvarez's EVIL DEAD (2013) wins by a long way!!! 

Whilst EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) is certainly gory and bloody I would have to say that Alvarez again beats this as his movie does go that wee bit further and is a bit more graphic. The cheese grater moment was hinted at in the trailer and I was keen to see where Cronin went with it as just that tiny glimpse of what may happen was enough to make me squirm. However, when that scene happened (even though it did still cause me to take a sharp intake of breath) it was over far too quick and I cant help thinking that Alvarez would maybe have lingered on that moment for longer making it even more effective and squirmy.

That being said, if I were to pick a favourite out of EVIL DEAD (2013) and EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) then I would have to say that it is EVIL DEAD RISE (2023). Mostly because I enjoyed the characters more and the way the movie opens just blew me away. I loved the clever thinking behind it and the way it went full circle by changing the time line and the way we see the story unfold. 

They are both great movies with pros and cons on both sides. The directors involved played to their strengths in different ways and the main thing about is that neither of them are bad in any way. It is always a worry when you hear the words remake or reboot of one of your favourite movies as there have been so many made over the last twenty years or so, especially zombie movies (namely Romero's), that are often just made to cash in on the name and are nothing to do with the franchise they have chosen to copy. EVIL DEAD fans have been spared this embarrassment twice as both EVIL DEAD (2013) and EVIL DEAD RISE (2023) are fantastic movies. Fede Alvarez and Lee Cronin have painstakingly and lovingly created these movies to fully embody all that is THE EVIL DEAD!!!