Evil Dead (2013) movie review

Evil Dead, released in 2013 is often mistaken as reboot, but is actually considered a continuation of the first film. This is the first of the Evil Dead movies not directed by Sam Rami, nor did it feature Bruce Campbell as its star, however both were producers of the film. Evil Dead is a story about five teenagers who go to a remote cabin in the woods to help their friend Mia overcome her drug addiction. The cabin belonged to a scientist who was studying the Necronomicon, and the film starts with him killing his daughter to save her soul. As the teenagers pull up we do see Ash's car from the first movie rusting in the forest (this car interesting enough has been in almost ever Sam Rami movie). Mia keeps smelling this terrible smell in the cabin and that leads the teens to going to the basement where they found a bunch of dead cats hanging from the ceiling, and a burned pillar in the basement, they also found a book bound in human skin wrapped in barbed wire. One of the teens reads a passage from the book, and while Mia is walking in the woods she is attacked by a demon in the woods and becomes possessed. The film then becomes a gory horror movie with the teens becoming attacked and possessed. But just like Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 the teens have to fight to stop the evil demon that was summoned by the book. This movie does some things very right and somethings very wrong. First off, if you are going into this expecting to see the cartoony slapstick comedy of Ash in the previous movies, stop that expectation now, this movie is not a comedy, this movie is not silly. This movie brings in heavy emotional and dramatic elements which is a huge departure from the original series of films. The gore is there, hell at one part it is raining blood, so though the gore levels have actually increased, the comedic effect of the gore has decreased making it no longer gross for humour but gross for horror, which tends to be more uncomfortable to watch. I don't know I am not scared by movies normally, and this movie is no exception to that, I am not saying that it is bad, but it isn't really that scary, and it isn't really that funny, it just kinda seems, ok. It seems like a 2000's teen movie version of Evil Dead, with tons and tons of blood. I know that this movie got mostly positive reviews, but I don't think it deserves the praise that it has received, I don't actually like the more serious path that this film took, it just doesn't feel right. Like it feels familiar and all, as it is pretty much the same plot as the first film, and there is even some dialogue that is shared with the first two films, however it isn't right because it is taking those first two films and trying to be serious. Even the actors are all just ok, I mean there is no one in the cast who really stand out, they just seem like the same boring cliche teens that we see in so many teen horror movies from the time period, and that also kind of ruins it for me. None of the actors are really special or endearing to the audience in anyway. I know that this is a bad critique of a movie that really isn't bad, but the more I analyze it the less positives I actually see in it. I guess I would describe this as a cheap wanna be serious re-imagining of Evil Dead, without any of the qualities that made Evil Dead a great movie. Would I recommend this move? I mean not really honestly, maybe if you are a completest like myself and need to watch the whole series, sure put it in, it isn't bad, but it just isn't great either. Honestly this movie could be easily forgotten, there is just nothing about it that is memorable or worthy of the effort of watching. Yeah, sure see it, but don't expect it to live up to its name in any way, it is just a cheap imitation that takes itself far too serious.