Evil Dead is a vile, gore-filled remake of the 1981 cult classic, The Evil Dead, and turned out to be an all around quality horror movie.

The Evil Dead, directed by Sam Raimi (Spiderman trilogy), was released October 1981 with a budget of just $350,000.00, and became a sleeper hit and eventually was raised to cult status. In The Evil Dead a group of five college students stay at a cabin isolated in the middle of the woods. They find “The Book of the Dead”, written in blood and bound in human flesh, along with a tape recorder that reads the  book, unleashing all sorts of demonic creatures. The campy low-budget gore, and the eerie atmosphere of the cabin make The Evil Dead a very entertaining watch, and a “so-bad-it’s-good” movie, and spawned two comedy sequels, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.

The 2013 remake, Evil Dead, pulls a complete 180, and creates a high-budget blood-bath that takes itself a bit more seriously. Once again five young adults venture up to a cabin in the woods, but this time to help one of the girls quit heroin, cold turkey. And once again they find “The Book of the Dead” in the basement, and one character, who is a high-school English teacher, reads a passage out of it, once again releasing demons. Insanity ensues as the characters must battle each other as they one-by-one are possessed by demons. “I thought it was layered with many references to the original,” exclaimed senior Matthew Chauby. “It was entertaining for a horror movie, but I thought that the ending could have been better.”

            Evil Dead tries to incorporate a plot more than The Evil Dead does, with the added subplot of heroin and actually showing the remorse of the characters as they kill their friends. Also in Evil Dead certain things needed to happen, and five souls needed to be collected to bring on a prophecy of raining blood and “The Abomination” rising from the dead.  “I thought the horror came off as ridiculous,” explains senior Brett Bender. “But that’s what made it kind of funny.”

            Evil Dead is unapologetic for its violence. Evil Dead would not be recommended for anyone who is not entertained by jump scares and graphic scenes of gore. Evil Dead is not the movie for. For horror fans, it is one of the best horror films in recent years and is a very entertaining watch.