[7]

As much as I hate remakes on the whole, this new Evil Dead movie greatly surprised me with how well made it is and how genuinely scary and tense it is. It also avoids contemporary horror pitfalls — the characters aren’t douche bags and there is none of that bullshit monochromatic photography going on, for starters. Maybe the bar is just really low now, but I fully enjoyed the first 3/4 of this movie. My score would be quite a bit higher if it weren’t for several missteps in the last 20 minutes that betray the tone and tension of everything director Fede Alvarez builds up to that point. As jarring as the last 20 minutes are for me, they definitely deliver some good visceral thrills. I commend Alvarez for bucking tiresome trends and giving me something new. The cast all do admirable jobs, and the cinematography and score are also memorable.