Book of the Dead

Here's a note for writers, your audience doesn't want to spend time with characters they hate. Just like real life, people don't enjoy spending time with people they despise. If you write unpleasant characters with no redeeming, complex, or interesting characteristics, your audience won't want to watch them.

This movie heavily rips off the three original Evil Dead (1, 2, and Army) movies. Yet no character is anywhere near as interesting or entertaining to watch as Bruce Campbell playing Ash. Characters are the heart and soul of entertainment. It's who the audience empathizes with and gets invested in.

I don't want to spend time with characters I can't stand. Spending money to not be entertained by them is insulting. This trend has inundated most forms of entertainment lately, and it needs to stop.

This movie's title and cover was more than sufficient to make me stop and take notice. In fact, with this movie being a horror movie that I had neither heard about before, nor obviously ever watched, of course I opted to sit down and check it out. And since I virtually had no idea what I was in for, then I suppose writer and director Mattia Sarao had every opportunity to impress me.

Wait, where have I seen this exact story before? Hmmmm... Writer Mattia Sarao just shamelessly and blatantly ripped off the 1981 horror classic "Evil Dead" movie, or was it an homage? I know not. But you have to think an Italian variation of "Evil Dead" without the interesting character, without the witty banter, and without the legendary Bruce Campbell.

Given my rather limited exposure to Italian cinema, then I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were fair. So the four young adults were supposed to be Americans? Yeah, those thick Italian accents fooled no one. The character gallery in the movie was bland, and the characters had the appeal of cardboard cut-outs, and the actors and actresses stood a snowball's chance in Hell here, as they didn't have much of anything to work with in terms of dialogue, character development, though the script was okay - if you can get past this being a blatant "Evil Dead" rip-off.

The special effects in the movie were actually rather good, which helped to keep the movie afloat.

"The Book of the Dead" is certainly a watchable movie. And if you haven't already seen the "Evil Dead" movie, then you're in for a treat here.

My rating of writer and director Mattia Sarao's 2024 "The Book of the Dead" lands on a five out of ten stars.

The Book of the Dead is a complete misfire from start to finish, a film that seems unsure of its identity and even less certain of how to tell a coherent story. It's the kind of movie that feels like it was cobbled together without any clear creative direction-every scene plays like an experiment gone wrong, every line of dialogue feels improvised without purpose, and every moment you expect something interesting to happen, it just... doesn't.

From the very beginning, it's clear that the director had no solid grasp of tone or vision. The film tries to blend horror, mystery, and the supernatural, but instead of weaving these elements together, they clash chaotically. Scenes drag on far too long, transitions are jarring, and the pacing is uneven to the point of exhaustion. You can almost sense the filmmakers trying to pivot mid-shoot, searching for a way to salvage something cinematic, but each attempt only makes things worse.

The screenplay is equally disastrous. It wanders aimlessly, offering neither strong characters nor a compelling narrative. Every time it introduces a new idea or subplot, it abandons it just as quickly, creating a dizzying loop of confusion and frustration. The dialogue lacks flow, and none of the characters have depth or reason to exist beyond moving the film from one awkward scene to another.

There's also a distinct sense that no one behind the camera trusted the story enough to let it breathe. The direction feels desperate, constantly overreaching to create atmosphere but landing somewhere between student film and low-budget mess. There's no emotional throughline, no suspense, and no clear payoff-just a series of loosely connected moments pretending to build toward something meaningful.

Even visually, the film does itself no favors. The cinematography is inconsistent, the editing is sloppy, and the effects feel outdated and uninspired. It's hard to find a single technical element that elevates the material or even compensates for the weak storytelling.

By the time the credits roll, The Book of the Dead feels less like a finished movie and more like a rough draft that somehow slipped into distribution. It's the kind of film that might have had potential with a stronger script and a steadier hand behind the camera, but as it stands, it's a complete disaster-a lifeless, disorganized, and painfully underdeveloped attempt at horror that fails on every level.

Simply put, this is not one to recommend. It's not scary, it's not engaging, and it's not entertaining-it's just one long reminder of how a lack of direction can sink even the most intriguing ideas.

Plot

In 1988, Bailey, Quinn, Keith, and Mac, a group of young students, choose to visit an old villa in the countryside to complete a school research project. Little do they realize that hidden within the mansion lies an ancient demonic text.

Cast

Creator Mattia Sarao's debut as a director and writer. The cast, really shockingly poor.

Verdict

I don't know why but I was quite excited for Book of the Dead, I mean yes the name is a bit generic but I liked the retro art style and a couple of screenshots I'd seen made me hopeful. I really really need to stop doing that? You know, having hope and expectations.

The plot is basically Evil Dead, no I mean seriously it's Evil Dead. Folks go to secluded place, find the Necronomicon, deal with possession and demons etc. It even rips off a classic scene from Army of Darkness (1992) and not in a brief homage way either.

So we have death and demons, so how in the blue hell is the movie so alarmingly boring. I found myself fighting back the urge to close my eyes and drift into something better, counting sheep would have been more entertaining so perhaps I shouldn't have fought it.

It's no exaggeration to say that very little really happens here, I'd hit the halfway mark and I realized that so far it was nothing more than poor character development, exposition of a non-existent plot and literally nothing else.

Book of the Dead is the creation of someone with no originality so they just rehashed (And blatantly ripped off) better films and by someone with zero talent behind the camera as a horror movie featuring this kind of content shouldn't be boring!

Rants

You know what this reminded me of? The internet series Horrorverse (2023) which was an attempt at a cinematic universe made up of short films and movies that brought together multiple horror universes and characters such as Halloween, Hellraiser, Friday 13th, Escape from New York, Marvel, Evil Dead and more and was truly unconditionally abysmal. It was an attempt at being a love letter to horror fans but wound up being an embarrassing slap in their collective faces. Book of the Dead is the same, it tries to pay homage to Evil Dead but does it so badly it's rather insulting to the fans and creators.

The Good

Love the cover art

The Bad

Dreadful cast Horrendous writing and direction Unforgivably boring.

It might be a guilty pleasure for a horror movie fan, but not for me. The concept itself seems more like a cinematic experiment where a group of fans pay tribute to The Evil Dead and occasionally give a nod to other horror classics. The acting isn't great at all, and the script is basic enough to stay within the intended goal. It's enjoyable to watch with a group of horror fans, and we get to scream when we see those nods to the classics.