Movie Discussion: Evil Dead

Scott Hardie | April 1, 2013
Erik, you're a big fan of the original Evil Dead films, right? Do you plan to see the new one? Evie, knowing your love of horror movies, I bet you're a fan too. Anybody else?

Me, I don't care for the originals at all. I don't bring that up often, because telling other movie fans that you dislike the Evil Dead films is like admitting your NRA membership at a gun control rally. Part of the problem is that I was told the first movie was hilarious, so I watched it expecting to laugh. It's just a really terrible cheapo horror flick with a few clever shots that made Sam Raimi's career, nothing humorous about it (intentionally or accidentally). By the time I saw the sequels, which actually do attempt to be funny, I was so burned by the original that I had a hard time getting into them, and I'd call them marginal improvements at best. Thus, I've never really understood the enduring and widespread popularity of the series, which has sometimes seemed like it's based more on the way that people remember the films to be rather than the way they actually are. For all of these reasons, I'm not looking forward to the remake, but I'll probably see it for this discussion. I chose it because I thought it would give us the most to talk about.

An odd thought: Isn't Evil Dead 2 already a remake of The Evil Dead? As I recall, it repeats the events of the first film without any apparent mention that they already happened. Many sequels lazily go through the motions of their predecessors, but they are intended to take place after the predecessor chronologically, and I don't think that was the case for Evil Dead 2. Given that the new film seems all-horror and zero-comedy, I'd guess it's a straight remake of the original with no interest in the sequels.

I'm tempted to debate whether the inevitable sequel to this film would be a remake of a remake, or a sequel to a remake, or a remake of a sequel. But the "king" of those connections is The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption: A sequel to a prequel to a spin-off of a sequel to a remake of a classic. Ha!

Erik Bates | April 4, 2013
Alright, I had absolutely no idea that this was happening, and now I'm crazy excited about it.

The original movies were a bit confusing in how they were done.

Evil Dead featured five kids going into the woods.

Evil Dead 2 was what I would call a re-boot sequel. The beginning of the movie re-capped what happened in the first movie, but somehow managed to forget 3 of the characters completely. Instead of 5 kids, it was just two.

Army of Darkness just goes off the deep end.

What I would be more excited about would be an actual sequel to Army of Darkness instead of a re-boot of Evil Dead.

Scott Hardie | April 5, 2013
Your wish is Sam Raimi's command.

Erik Bates | April 5, 2013
Amazing.

Evie Totty | April 7, 2013
Yay, a ScreenRant reference, I love them!

I'm glad I can honestly say I didn't particularly see what was so special about Evil Dead. I've seen it once and it's been ... at least 8 years maybe as many as 10 years since I've seen it.

I don't remember seeing ED2 at all. And AoD was crazy silly. I did enjoy that but not as a scary film but as a... crazy silly film.

That said, I've been looking for a good scary movie (yes, still gotta watch the 2 DVDs) for quite some time. There have been a few that were well done (I actually enjoyed the Halloween remake by Zombie - but it didn't scare me) but I haven't had one make me hold my breath or look through my fingers or the big one - have nightmares - in a long time.

I thought ED Remake would do that. The trailers looked sufficiently scary, they SAID they were purposefully making it scary etc etc.

And although I wasn't really scared, I WAS impressed by the film. I thought it was very well done and will give it an 'it ruled' result... but I highly doubt I'll get nightmares.

Scott Hardie | April 8, 2013
So it wasn't "THE MOST TERRIFYING FILM YOU WILL EVER EXPERIENCE" as the poster promises? :-)

What is the scariest movie you've ever seen (Evie and everyone)?

Erik Bates | April 8, 2013
I still have nightmares.

Ok, but really? I have a hard time getting scared in movies. The Ring was a pretty eerie one, though.

Scott Hardie | April 8, 2013
I've written about some movies that scared me. The most recent title that unnerved me was Prometheus, with one particularly over-the-top scene. Lately, I've been trying to finish a gross Korean flick called Doomsday Book, that I put down the first time because it was too revolting while I tried to eat dinner, and the second time because it was too boring. I don't know if that combination makes it a success or a failure.

Erik Bates | April 8, 2013
Speaking of revolting, but possibly for different reasons, the extended rape scene in The Last House on the Left was completely unnecessary.

Evie Totty | May 10, 2013
I rate scary movies by nightmares. And the last film to give me nightmares was Jurassic Park back in '93 or something.

Scott Hardie | August 12, 2013
After seeing Evil Dead, I don't have much to say after all. It was a very unpleasant experience, and not in the way that the filmmakers intended: They would be happy if I said I was nauseated and terrified, but in fact I was bored and irritated by the idiotic nonsense of the whole thing. One Netflix commenter got it exactly right: "It felt like a speed metal band that only knew 2 chords, so they play as loud as they can and hopefully you wont notice they really aren't that good." Stay away from this movie.