Evil Dead 2013 (Review)

Evil Dead (2013)

Evil Dead (2013)

Directed by Fede Alvarez 

Groovy.

Hollywood keeps churning out the remake machine. And we all keep eating it. Sometimes when you haven't eaten that cake you haven't had in a while, it tastes different, has more flavors and it's actually still damn yummy.

Welcome to the Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell approved Evil Dead sequel? remake? re imagining?

If you hold tried and true to the principles of what made Raimi's cabin in the woods film all so awesome, you won't fuck it up. Even when you add some Diablo Cody and some director you've never heard of, it will still work if you go with the old school makeup and gore effects and slip in a run down Oldsmobile. What you come up with is what I tweeted after seeing the flick:

There is an audience that has seen Raimi's #EvilDead and an audience that has NOT seen the original. This version works amazingly both.

Evil Dead goes for a straight take, book of the dead unleashed blood soaked horror film. Gone are the wacky hi jinks of ED2 and Army. What we have received in this installment is what noobs and hardcore veterans haven't seen in years, a demon menace wreaking havoc horror film. I have always been a fan of these films and like the cannibal movie of yesteryear, sometimes I want to see my first horror loves from so long ago.

When your nostalgia meter gets jacked to maximum and you see a few kids getting killed by all manners of weaponry, it's a fun time for all.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

 Five friends head to a remote cabin, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads them to unwittingly summon up demons living in the nearby woods. The evil presence possesses them until only one is left to fight for survival. 

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Might as well review this like I did Cabin in the Woods. With my slasher Q&A. In this case, I'll slightly modify it to be more demon-y focused.

1.) Does the movie have..... a mysterious, insanely strong, ridiculed as a child, deformed, inbred redneck slasher?

It has a Deadite that goes all Urban Dictionary while being all possessively demonic and fucked up. There's tinge of wicked humor (let's call it Cody-isms) but more so awkward evil going all crazy.

2.) Gratuitous, over the top, super fleshy nudity?

Can you believe it? Nada. Sigh.

3.) Stereotypical teenage caricatures with a few old people who die gruesome and horrific over the top deaths?
 

We got our Ash-ish final girl Mia, David the older bro who borders on final guy, the nerdy tinkerer who unleashes the evil, the black tough girl and the ditzy blonde girlfriend. And yup they die waaaay over the top deaths. Our hipster has balls of fuckin steel but we'll get to that in a moment.

4.) No Plot?

It's the same old plot so pretty much no plot.

5.) Kills by our slasher that make you go "Fuck yeah!"

Our resident deadite does go all kill happy in a variety of ways. Needle trauma, brain smashing trauma, nail gun trauma, shotgun trauma, hammer time trauma.

6.) Gore, lots of it. Like serious decapitation, dismemberment, impalement, hatchet frenzy steroid rages and blood shooting out at various penetration wounds, limbs a flailing and mindless splatter and mayhem? 

We get a version of happy molesting tree, some evil hand infection and some Ash-ing it up montage moments. Blood mayhem goes old school and I deeply appreciated it. You could tell the makeup and buckets of blood being used gave it that old timey horror glaze that we all love.


7.) Geeky leader who takes charge of the hapless group as they try to escape who befriends the hot girl who knows about the "legend" (there's always a legend no one believes)

Our nerdy hippy who unleashed the evil dead sure can take a beating. He was stabbed, nail gunned, crowbared and beaten senseless and he kept breathing. Kudos to you dude.You must have been on meth or something.

8.) Funny yet ill timed dialogue but also various quips and one liners that are funny only the first time around (yet somehow funny again when you buy the DVD and only when you're stoned)

If you laughed it was probably a Cody-ism. Thank the old gods there wasn't a hamburger phone.

9.) Gratuitous cameos of horror legends (a famous man of the box, classic Universal monsters, Kubrick tweens) that make you flash a metal sign and do the Beavis and Butthead pseudo head nodding.
 
You saw the Oldsmobile Delta 88 and the end credits scene. A few of the Raimi trademarks also show up.

10.) Wildly ambiguous ending that can be used to warrant a sequel?

Somebody will find the goddamn Necronimicon. They always do.

************************************************************

I'm not going to say Evil Dead is a perfect film, but it does its job well. It's 90 minutes of furious hellish fun that takes the cabin in the woods formula and gets all creative. I mean ever since Whedon's masterpiece, I've been scarred by the cliched woods film. But Alvarez seems to genuinely care about the source material, does his fair share of homaging and actually creates his own version that shines. Is it a sequel? a remake? a chapter?

Who the hell knows. We should be glad we got this installment of the franchise and be happy.

Groovy indeed.

Rating:
 

Check out the trailer. 

Categories: bruce campbell, deadite, demons, evil dead, horror remakes, sam raimi

Drag Me To Hell (Review)

Drag Me To Hell

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Directed by Sam Raimi

There was some ying but no yang.

That's the best way to describe my feelings towards Drag Me To Hell. I too was excited by Raimi's returning to his horror roots. So going in and finally watching this, I was a little hyped. But as I watched the movie I noticed something that bothered me.

I couldn't watch the movie without flashbacking to what I liked about Raimi's other flicks. Evil Dead series, Darkman even Spiderman.

And then it hit me. Drag Me To Hell was making me remember everything I love about Raimi's work except one thing.

It didn't have a hero (or in this case a heroine).

And this is why I'm going to give it the rating I give it. And I'll explain why.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

A loan officer ordered to evict an old woman from her home finds herself the recipient of a supernatural curse, which turns her life into a living hell. Desperate, she turns to a seer to try and save her soul, while evil forces work to push her to a breaking point.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

The critics can't be wrong right? 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is on numerous top 10 lists and praised by numerous mainstream horror sites and the blogosphere. OK here is where I become a salmon and swim against the current. I'll tell you what I liked, what I didn't like and just because I know everybody saw this, I'm not going to rehash plot and shit. I will try to just summarize my thoughts with Evil Dead quotes...hopefully you won't throw feces at me after reading this review.

"I know now that my wife has become host to a Kandarian demon. I fear that the only way to stop those possessed by the spirits of the book is through the act of... bodily dismemberment."

-Voice on the recorder

OK lets go through the awesome shit of Drag Me To Hell. The Lamia demon is pure mega-rific Universal monsters fun. All the great Raimi's angles and closeups and wicked camera movements are in full effect. Raimi going back to solid basics is always good stuff. Adding to the effect are all the awesome shock scare moments. Pure, vintage Raimi.

Rattling pans, curtains fluttering, shadowy glimpses, window breaking and the best jump scares are all back in action. From gushing bloody noses and mouths to gypsy lady in a closet and anvil droppings. All good shit. Eye popping action, flies on our lens, talking goats. Yay. I also really never get tired of regurgitation in my horror comedies. The entire sequence as Christine fights off Grandma Ganush in the car is brilliantly yummy. No complaints. Keep the poop in check for now.

Henrietta: I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!
Ash: [Aims shotgun at Henrietta's face] Swallow this.

Alison Lohman as Christine does a decent job screaming and just has that Pam Beasly look to her. Act tough! Act scared! Act concerned! Act loan officer-ish! Justin Long is OK as the everyday guy who is clueless but Dileep Rao as Rham Jas gives us a good ole seance guy and makes us believe the demonology.

"Then let's head on down into that cellar and carve ourselves a witch." -Ash

OK. Here is why I think the movie lacks. The problem lies with Christine. She never goes into hero mode. Not even an anti-hero mode. I'm not looking for her to be Ash or Spidey or Darkman but I need her to believe that the forces of evil are real. Each of Raimi's other heroes BELIEVE in the impossible, the supernatural and the tech. And then they kick the shit out of it.

With all the devlish demons of hell tormenting Christine, she still seemed surprised by it all. Oh yes, she believes eventually but towards the end Rham Jas asks her to repeat the line: "I welcome the dead to my soul" and then Jas tells her "You must believe it! It's like Christine was playing the "this is still not real" perception even after everything that happened to her.

My main point is this. Christine continues to play the victim until the very end (and we know what happens at the end). It's debatable to speculate if she deserved what happened to her but I needed her to fight back. Be the heroine, femme up and be a pseudo vintage final girl. Instead, she pays 10gs and hires backup.

But Raimi is also at fault. He built up a high octane demon vs medium seance then unleashes a deux ex machina on us which of course is to give the button to somebody else, thus passing the curse. This is what he ends the movie with which is like a roller coaster going to its highest point then dipping down at 200 mph. I mean who didn't see the envelope switch. It was rather obvious. But that's not the point.

The point I'm trying to make is were suppose to have good vs evil. It's what makes a good horror movie. Yes you can make the hero grey or muddled, possibly even non likeable but there is suppose to be a give and take. A ying and a yang. Demon attacks, hero fights back. Hero fights back, demon attacks. Ultimately good triumphs over evil (though I do love when evil wins too).

The fact Christine suffers and gets attacked and only waits until the end to metaphorically load up her chainsaw with some mediums do we get any fight from her. As a character, Lohman plays her as sympathetic but fuck it, she's not. She screwed the old lady and deserves the shit that's coming to her. She probably is the cause of the entire United States economy going into a depression. Damn banks and loans lenders can go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned (pun so well intended)

Drag Me To Hell is vintage Raimi but it shows off his rust as he comes back into the horror genre (OMG! You guys just threw poop at me didn't you?) I did love some of the moments but as I said I think we encountered a few hiccups along the way. If you step back and think about the film, you'll see what I mean. Throughout the entire movie I wanted Sylvia Ganush and the Lamia demon to drag that money grubbing bank employee to hell.

I gave her a chance of survival of about 10%. Why?It's not like she's a hero or anything.

Gore-ipedia

Vomitous Gratuitous
Ocular trauma
Stapler trauma
Feline trauma
You know the rest

Nude-ipedia

Nada

WTF moment

Ganush can kick ass

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

So I'm giving Drag Me To Hell 2 spinkicks. And no, its probably not making my Top 10 list of 2009. This is what I thought and you can brand me a Raimi traitor if you wish. I just didn't think the movie was spectacular as everyone else did.

OK, let me know what you think. I can take it. But please, no more poop. Don't you have tomatoes?

Rating:
Check out the trailer below.



DRAG ME TO HELL: Movie Trailer - Watch the best video clips here

Categories: 2009 horror dvd, 2009 horror movies, 2009 horror trailers, ash, drag me to hell, evil dead, sam raimi

Cheerbleeders (Review)

Cheerbleeders

Cheerbleeders (2008)

Directed by Peter Podgursky

I'm a big proponent of up and coming directors to tackle horror as a stepping stone to get their career moving. All the greats have done it. Raimi, Jackson, Craven.

We've all seen their first films and raved about how Evil Dead and Braindead and Nightmare are classic iconic horror. So when Peter Podgursky sent me his 11 minute short entitled Cheerbleeders, I knew I'd find it interesting to see what this generation's filmmakers are inventing for their first endeavor.

Cheerbleeders is Podgursky's USC thesis film and it's quite solid from start to finish. It's like the Breakfast Club mixed in with evil Greek mythos that turn cheerleaders into crazed psycho vixens.

We've all seen jocks and cheerleaders get their comuppance or learn their lesson when they mess with of the goths, geeks and rejects of high school. Cheerbleeders is the penultimate big cheer for the Benders of the world who always wanted to take the heads off of those big, dumb jocks. And for once, they get to do it literally.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Penny and Devon, a pair of high school outcasts, are best friends in their isolation in the small town of Blackfoot, Idaho. However, things take a nasty turn for the worst when penny inadvertently turns Devon into an unspeakable evil, the most popular boy in school.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Podgursky has to cram a lot of plot into his little short. I'm sure Raimi thought the same thing when he made Evil Dead. And yes, this little short has alot of Raimi-ish qualities to it. So the inevitable comparisons has to be said.

But it's all modern day suburbia, in Blackfoot Idaho where we meet Penny and Devon, the gothiest goth kids in this American Beauty-ish high school. Almost bordering on a parody of those trippy Bring It On movies, Penny brings her grandfather's urn with Greek mythos powers for show and tell. However, when Devon gets cursed by the ancient spirits of evil, he gets the power to control the minds of all the beautiful cheerleaders at Blackfoot high.

A nice, tightly 80s homagy montage is perfectly placed as Penny and Devon have a hoot at the now subservient cheerleaders expense. But soon Devon goes all Dirk Diggler and gets power hungry to be the awesomest guy at school.

It's every man's dream fantasy (and probably 70% of all porn movie plots) to do anything you want with a cheerleader. And yes, Devon goes all give me "S" and a"E" and a "X" with all the Hayden Panatierre lookalikes.

Soon his master plan changes from cheer cheer orgies to taking down the football team. In the short's climax, a football game is turned into a bloodbath when Devon orders the now turned cheerbleeders to go splatter the football team.
Nice gore and splatter is intertwined with some ha ha moments which make this horror comedy short work.

It's up to Penny to save the day which of course is leads to Devon's ultimate demise.

Her final words say it all: "I'm the least popular girl in school!"

It's a good start for Podgursky. He's taken a few techniques and style shots from all the iconic horror directors and added a few of his own. Hopefully, he can come up with something new that we can someday call Podgursky-ish.

Gore-ipedia

Head gets ripped apart
Axe to the chest

Nude-ipedia

Bra and panties

WTF moment

Cheerbleeders go savage

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

Cheerbleeders takes place somewhere more horrifying than abandoned cabin or a last house on the left.... it's high school. Your trapped for 4 years and everybody is like mindless zombies.

Because when you think about it, what's the difference between psycho cheerleaders and real cheerleaders....not much.

In any case, kudos to Podgursky and his crew for making something inventive and LOL for the Gen Y crowd. The thing is even though you may think your work is original, somebody out there may have beaten you to it (check out Jack Brooks or Dance of the Dead).

I'll be looking forward to seeing what Podgursky comes up next. He could be the next Adam Green.

If this is what the American filmmakers of tomorrow are up to, we are going to be A ok.

Rating:
Check out the trailer below and also the official site.

The Trailer










Tags:
cheerbleeders, cheerbleeders trailer , cheerbleeders review , horror short,

Categories: cheerbleeders, cheerbleeders review, horror short, indepentent horror, indie horror, sam raimi