Exactly. The remake had zombies that paused for dramatic effect.
This.
The best thing about the remake are the practical effects and the ungodly amount of blood spilled in the film. It's kind of amazing
But yeah, it has a jarring disjointed tone. Sometimes it wants to super grim and serious, other times wanting to be darkly comic over-the-top style of the original. The tones never really mesh and it hurts the overall film
This remake/re-imagining was interesting to revisit after having finally seen the original. Dispensing with both the comedic undertones of the first movie and full-fledged horror-comedy of the sequel, Evil Dead 2013 is brutal gory horror teetering on "torture porn" with its copious amounts of self-inflicted mutilation. I've seen slashers where the walls, floors, and ceiling are red by the end but this movie gives The Shining a run for its money for the amount of blood that pours here.
Besides the improved gore and effects here, one area where this remake does succeed more is using the geography of the cabin and surrounding woods more effectively; from the marsh outside to between the walls, I felt like Evil Dead 2013 explored the setting well, using each area for interesting sequences. Despite that, the original had a much eerier atmosphere. The cabin here could be any old cabin on a campground somewhere while the cabin in the original feels like an isolated nightmare of a place surrounded by oppressive fog and darkness
Raimi's horror classic was also the more entertaining and cohesive film. This new one tries to develop the characters more, subvert expectations with its protagonists, and inject some new lore but that just ended up making the movie slower-paced and less focused. A major strength of the original was how relentless its pacing was; we got a sense of the characters in the first five minutes and the rest was just increasing insanity as they tried to survive till sunrise. The remake also splits up the characters more, giving them separate set-pieces and gross moments, compared to the original where the group feels surrounded and besieged by evil, their number dwindling and turning against the others...one by one
The comedic campy vein of the original better suited the possessed's gleeful taunting nature as well; they were having fun with their victims. Whereas in this remake, the taunting feels kind of jarring compared to the movie's straight-forward tone and focus on mutilation. Is this evil trying to make them hurt themselves and kill each other or is it a devilishly playful evil that delights in psychological torment? In the original, the latter was crystal clear while here, the movie wavers back and forth depending on the scene.
(Oh, and just throwing in "one by one, we will take you" like that is the definition of a lazy homage)
New Zealand seems to have an amazing knack for them. Braindead, Housebound, and What We Do In The Shadows are all some of the best horror-comedies I've seen. I remember enjoying Black Sheep as wellHorror and comedy are two of the hardest genres to pull off, let alone do them well. Horrorcomedies are trying to do both at once.
It is known.The Thing, The Fly, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (78), are the holy trifecta of horror remakes.
Agh I need to rewatch brain dead. That movie is so goodNew Zealand seems to have an amazing knack for them. Braindead, Housebound, and What We Do In The Shadows are all some of the best horror-comedies I've seen. I remember enjoying Black Sheep as well
Texas Chainsaw remake suuuuuuucked.Man, all the good ones are taken. Unlike other genres, horror has had really good luck with remakes:
Evil Dead
The Thing
The Blob
The Fly
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The Hills Have Eyes
The Last House on the Left
I Spit on your Grave
Piranha
Dawn of the Dead
Let Me In
Halloween (if you're in the mood for it)
Even some of the remakes of the real campy Castle-type movies ended up being a fun enough watch:
The House on Haunted Hill
House of Wax
13 Ghosts
I remember watching this as an 8 year old and....
Loving all the horrific death scenes.
Whats wrong with me?
Same. What I found most impressive with The Evil Dead was how confident it felt, in its film making and cinematography, in the go-for-broke imagery and blood and gore. The "people encounter bad things in a cabin in the woods" story is a well-trodden one now but Evil Dead's onslaught of horrors and atmosphere elevates it above most others.As much as I enjoy the evil dead remake after rewatching all 3 films I actually enjoyed the original the most.
Also, I was actually surprised at how much i disliked the 3rd movie compared to the first two. It's not bad but it's wasn't even a horror movie anymore. They went a bit too far with the comedySame. What I found most impressive with The Evil Dead was how confident it felt, in its film making and cinematography, in the go-for-broke imagery and blood and gore. The "people encounter bad things in a cabin in the woods" story is a well-trodden one now but Evil Dead's onslaught of horrors and atmosphere elevates it above most others.
The escalation and relentless pacing is just wonderful. We get a quick sketch of the characters and their personalities and then they're dropped into the movie's bloody gauntlet that gets more intense and wild as the cast shrinks. By the end, the evil is so pervasive that the cabin itself becomes tainted.
One hell of an entertaining movie, up there with Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a work of low-budget horror that's punching way above its weight class and is far more effective than its imitators would be
More so than The Blob? Blob perfectly nails its balance of wholesome 50s horror homage and utterly horrific gore, while Evil Dead 2013's tone feels all over the place and never confident in exactly what kind of movie it wants to be.The Thing isn't really a remake. It's a different take on the source material.
So yeah, I might give this one to Evil Dead '13. It's an excellent movie.
Haven't seen The Blob, actually. I'll have to check it out.More so than The Blob? Blob perfectly nails its balance of wholesome 50s horror homage and utterly horrific gore, while Evil Dead 2013's tone feels all over the place and never confident in exactly what kind of movie it wants to be.
The Blob deserves extra points IMO just for taking such a silly movie monster and making it terrifying
The Beginning or the Platinum Dunes one?
I wanted a good movie. Not a movie about Texas that opens with 'Sweet Home Alabama', cribs from Deliverance, features a pro wrestler Leatherface, and worst of all removes the cannibalism. They didn't understand their source.It's okay that you feel that way, but there's not much there to respond to. It brought a dead series from an afterthought back into modern horror and made triple (~$107m) any other movie in the series to that point (and still is the top). So... unless you wanted Leatherface 2: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 4: Electric Boogaloo, not sure what you were looking for.
These three. And that reminds me, I need to do The Thing and The Blob on my horror film podcast. My friend and I already discussed The Fly and it's original film. Thanks for reminding me!
I wanted a good movie. Not a movie about Texas that opens with 'Sweet Home Alabama', cribs from Deliverance, features a pro wrestler Leatherface, and worst of all removes the cannibalism. They didn't understand their source.
I don't care how much money it made.
The first Texas Chainsaw remake was decent, but the series that followed was not anywhere close to decent. It was cringeworthy.
And that's fine, but... after TCM2, Leatherface: TCM3, and TCM: The Next Generation, do you really think it was a step down? Do you like any of those? The TCM remake brought the series back into modern consciousness. My personal opinion is that TCM: The Beginning was a step down, TC3D was a travesty and Leatherface is an interesting little sidenote. But none of those are worse than what TCM: The Next Generation 2 would have been which is some campy direct-to-video nonsense.
I'm a big fan too and it's a sad state currently, but that remake is the biggest bump the series has had since the original. I think it's hard to argue that point.
Personally as a fan of a horror series (Elm Street and F13 and Halloween included), I'll take something that's not perfect but keeps the series alive for the next round as opposed to the perfect nothing that is in my brain but doesn't exist. Jason X included.