REVIEW: Evil Dead [2013]

“Okay. Let’s play cold turkey.” I wouldn’t say hopes were high, but I did enter Fede Alvarez‘s Evil Dead remake with an open mind. I liked the idea of bringing the series back to horror as the original Sam Raimi chiller was the trilogy’s best to me. In concert with this was my complete lack of nostalgia due to my never having seen them until my twenties. So there was literally nothing telling me it couldn’t be successful—including Raimi and star Bruce Campbell giving their thumbs up as producers. I…

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REVIEW: Army of Darkness [1993]

“Well hello, Mr. Fancy Pants” Only Sam Raimi knows how you travel from The Evil Dead‘s straight low-budget horror to the campy “ultimate experience of medieval horror” ten years later, but it’s obviously worked for him considering the series jump-started his promising career to the heights of Hollywood’s Spider-Man. Even so, that original trilogy is a curious case in cinematic history switching genres and mythology on the fly to get weirder and weirder and more loved as a result. Ask ten people and nine will probably say the cheese ball…

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REVIEW: Evil Dead II [1987]

Give me back my hand. Seven years after Sam Raimi’s low-budget horror The Evil Dead came onto the scene with ample scares and impressive special effects, its inevitable sequel released. I say inevitable because Raimi wasn’t initially interested, firmly in the belief that going back to the well wouldn’t be necessary once his latest proved a success. Well, his publicist put out an announcement for one anyway and it’s a good thing since Crimewave never quite lived up to Raimi’s expectations. So it was back to the woods, cabin, and…

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REVIEW: The Evil Dead [1983]

“There’s bodies in the cellar” It appears my friends misinformed me many years ago when my decision to watch The Evil Dead came up. I was told to skip the first because Evil Dead II was “pretty much” a remake of it anyway. Whereas the original was a straight horror, the “sequel” skewed comedic and therefore proved truer to the direction the franchise ultimately headed with the Bruce Campbell-led Army of Darkness. I took their advice and watched the second and third installment, writing off the low budget “nasty” Stephen…

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REVIEW: Drag Me To Hell [2009]

“I welcome the dead into my soul” When I heard that Sam Raimi was back onto the Spider-Man train, signed on for the fourth installment, I was a bit lost for words. We all know how the third film in the series was a pale shadow of the previous two and the rumors were swirling about a remake of the movie that made him a cult filmmaker, The Evil Dead, so why visit the land of superheroes again? At the moment, I can only think that he is looking for…

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