‘Evil Dead’ remake is perhaps the most gruesome movie of all time

After a recent screening of Evil Dead, the 2013 remake of the Sam Raimi horror classic, a fellow moviegoer said something to the effect of: “I feel like going to church.”

The palpable dread in this dreadfully serious movie is like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The blood and guts that are spewed throughout these 90 minutes are relentless and realistic. The gore factor is 15 on a scale of one to 10, and I’m not sure I can ever sit through another viewing.

The reason the movie works so effectively is because the director (Fede Alvarez) and stars (led by Jane Levy) are quite good at what they do. The movie would be so easy to discard if the acting was atrocious or the scares felt cheap. But that’s not the case with this horror film. The acting is believable, and the scares are less jump-at-you scary and more suffocatingly intense.

The premise is painfully typical: A group of 20-somethings head to a deserted cabin in the woods for a weekend of commiserating. Their instigation for the trip is to help Mia (Levy) overcome her drug addiction and detox.

The old cabin has seen better days, and it appears these wooden planks have a long string of evil history. In the dark, dark basement, the group finds an old book with ancient text that can unleash an evil spirit. This being a horror movie, one of the characters (Eric, played by Lou Taylor Pucci) reads the text and does exactly what he shouldn’t do.

The evil spirit is unlocked from the depths of the woods and enters Mia’s body. Not only is this young woman dealing with the painful process of addiction, but now she’s inhabited by a malignant force that sets her ambitions on homicide mode. One by one, Mia attacks her friends and brother, and one by one, they begin to fall. But unlike other horror stories, the “evil” presence is almost like a contagious disease. If it touches you, it begins to grow and causes similarly vile behavior.

The gore in the film is too much to handle (chainsaws, knives, amputations). Genre fans may be able to sit through the film’s duration and not look away, but the average viewer will need to close his or her eyes multiple times. And it never stops until the final credits roll. Just when you think the gore couldn’t get any gorier, the bar is set higher.

For those who find the old giallo films of the 1980s needlessly carnivorous, wait until you experience the Evil Dead remake. Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci are amateurs compared to this bloody affair.

It’s difficult to assess a horror film like this. It left me terrified, queasy and unsettled. I have very little respect for its carnage. And yet, wasn’t that the exact purpose of the filmmaker and his actors? After all, the film is called Evil Dead. There wasn’t going to be teddy bears and lollipops. I signed up for this amusement park ride, and bemoaning its accomplished intentions seems hypocritical.

Evil Dead is the best movie you’ll never want to see again.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Evil Dead

• 2013

• Directed by Fede Alvarez

• Written by Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues; based on the original film by Sam Raimi

• Starring Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas and Elizabeth Blackmore

• Running time: 91 minutes

• Rated R for strong bloody violence and gore, some sexual content and language

• Rating: