What’s it about?
Five friends seek the solitude and peace of a cabin in the woods to help their friend overcome her drug addiction, but end up in a by-the-numbers reworking of an iconic cult classic.

What did we think?
Stewart says: The unexplainably delayed and ridiculously limited Australian release of this remake has finally arrived. By now all the reviews and spoilers and even camera shot bootlegs, have been available online to ruin the experience for you for weeks. Despite that I’ve been desperate to see Evil Dead since the first ‘red band’ trailer hit the net and blew my mind with its intensity.

Sadly Evil Dead doesn’t live up to its source materials legend. It’s nicely put together (aside from a few instances of confusing editing), solidly performed and has some great cringe worthy violence (having a hypodermic needle phobia is a big disadvantage). However Evil Dead suffers greatly from a confusing (although anticipated) protagonist change 3/4 of the way through, that left the final act without much-needed resonance. The swooping ‘evil force’ camera work that really defined the original trilogy is almost non-existent and I think ultimately the film’s biggest failing is feeling like it belongs to the world of its famous namesake. The much touted ‘all practical effects’ was very obviously not in one or two instances.

I didn’t like the score by Roque Baños. Often heaping on unwanted schmaltz in key emotional/character moments.

Evil Dead works as a fun time at the movies, but I feel ultimately fails as an Evil Dead film.