Tony H Wrote:I watched the original "The Evil Dead" last night to better compare it to this film and I have to say, I think people are so enamored with Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness that they forget that the first film in the trilogy was not played as a comedy like part 2 and 3. It was played as a horror film with Ash (Bruce Campbell) not cracking wise or being a ham.
It wasn't until part 2 that Bruce was allowed to ham it up and turned the franchise into a horror comedy outing that people loved so well.
With that said, this remake latches onto the spirit of the first film and plays it straight horror. I saw several people go on about how gory it is. The original is just as gory with fountains of blood and dismemberments. Of course, the budget restraints of the original made the effects somewhat laughable albeit endearing.
I am a fan of the original trilogy and I think the remake is spot on.
With that said, yes, the deadites here were not nearly as outlandish and were rather generic. They spent a lot of time using lines that would have fit better in an Exorcist remake versus an Evil Dead film. But...in the end the film was still enjoyable.
While I agree 1 is defintely more of a horror movie, probably why its my favorite, and would agree that its not played as a comedy, it falls in a sort of black comedy category to me, just heavy on the black and light on the comedy. Between the Scotty characters apparent invulnerability, the schlocky effects, the copious amount of gore and certain other elements, I think there is a definite humor to it. Obviously 2 and AOD amp it up as those become more about Ash, personally I don't really care for AOD, though I would've loved to have seen the original darker version before the studio messed it up.
I read an interesting article that was saying that the remake isn't really that gory, its just the use of practical effects make it seem so. I'm not sure about that, but it was the use of practical effects that was a selling point for me.
At any rate, it'll be interesting to see whether it leads to the sequels both to the remake and the originals, that they were talking about.