"The key to Alvarez’s success is his CGI-free approach which goes back to the golden age splatter and at the same time brings the genre to a new level of technical proficiency"

20 years after Army of Darkness the Evil Dead franchise comes back again with a new installment.

Shot in 1981, the first Evil Dead was a landmark of DIY filmmaking and made a virtue of its poor means through sheer creativity. It established its creator Sam Raimi as a visionary director who, with increasing budgets, would direct two sequels in 1987 and 1993. Now an A-list director, Raimi had the opportunity to revision his first work and allow it a big production treatment, and enlisted newcomer Fede Alvarez to handle directing duties, with Bruce Campbell – the leading star of the first three films of the saga – as co-producer.

A quintessential internet success story, Uruguayan-born Alvarez went straight from posting his short film Panick Attack! on Youtube in 2009 to being selected by Raimi to direct the big budget remake of the original Evil Dead.

These premises set the new Evil Dead apart from the current trend of remakes of classic horror flicks, and for once the operation actually makes sense. The new film is a reimagining more than a remake of the original and is better enjoyed if viewed as a standalone work.

The plot stays pretty much true to the original: a group of youngsters gather in a cabin in the woods where, after the evil power of a black magic book is unleashed, gore ensues. However a couple new twists help the story make more sense this time around: a short prequel explains the presence of the book, and we have a female protagonist named Mia who is a heroin addict that is sent to the cabin by her friends to help get rid of her drug dependence.

Mia is played with brilliance by Jane Levy – a kind of ballsier Kristen Stewart if you will – who proves herself a charismatic presence in what is her first leading role in a feature film (she is best known for portraying Tessa Altman in the comedy show Suburgatory).

We don’t get much insight on the other characters, something that in horror films is often done on purpose: we’re not going to care very much when they get brutalized in all sorts of ways, we just sit back and enjoy the gore-ride. Hence the movie whose tagline read “the most terrifying film you will ever experience” isn’t in fact very much scary... but it’s definitely entertaining!

The key to Alvarez’s success is his CGI-free approach which goes back to the golden age splatter and at the same time brings the genre to a new level of technical proficiency and engagement. Not only all of the original scenes receive an advanced re-enactment, but almost every gore staple is revisited in a number of new sequences that segue one another at high speed, conveying a growing sense of helplessness and leaving behind buckets of blood.

This new generation Evil Dead makes a welcome exception to the bad rep of classic remakes. As a no-frills movie that should be enjoyed for pure entertainment, it stands as an unparalleled proof of the engaging power of practical horror.