After a long separation, five friends meet in an abandoned cabin in a dense forest to help one of them, Mia, overcome her drug addiction far from civilization. Out of boredom, the nerdy Eric begins to read aloud from the only book in the cabin, which has “Leave This Book Alone” written on it in large red letters, thus summoning ancient demons.
Sam Raimi served as the producer of the film, so the new “Evil Dead” can be considered a kind of auto-remake.
The first letters of the main characters’ names – David, Eric, Mia, Olivia, and Natalie – can form the English word “demon.”
Bruce Campbell, who played the main character in all three original installments, was offered a cameo role in the film, but he declined.
From Ironic Horror to Naturalistic Terror: A New Take on Evil Dead
Sam Raimi’s original “Evil Dead” trilogy was distinguished by the authors’ healthy ironic attitude: with the incredible skill and ingenuity of the filmmakers, the rubber monsters and laughing maidens looked quite amusing. From series to series, the horrors became more and more insane and ironic, and evil mostly mocked the characters, just as Raimi himself mocked, shamelessly quoting Bergman when it became boring to pour syrupy blood and hit wax fingers. This new version of the legendary trilogy seems similar to the original source only in formal terms: young director Fede Alvarez, as a diligent cinephile, carefully quoted every classic move from each part, preserving the plot framework but completely changing the tone and content. Everything that used to be rubber, wax, and funny has become naturalistic, indistinguishable from the real thing, and unpleasant. The blood has acquired a healthy hue, and something truly creepy has been placed in the legendary basement instead of a squealing doll. Doubts about the seriousness of the tone, however, creep in at the moment when the evil demon penetrates the main character, intensify when the demon begins to be rude, denounce, and swear quite humanly, and completely win in the film’s grandiose finale. The fact is that the script was written by none other than Diablo Cody – the author of “Juno” and “Jennifer’s Body” – hence the inordinately expanded theme of the “devil’s whore,” and the unexpected plot twist at the end involving the main bearer of evil.
A Bloody Climax
And when the red rain begins to flood the frame completely, it seems as if the film itself is expiring with the blood absorbed over the previous hour and a half.