EDITORIAL: The Evil Dead Remake

I was originally going to make this a review of the trailer, and in the end my thoughts on the trailer will still be included, however I figured it would be a disservice to the readers to write an entire post on just a review of a minute and a half of random scenes. Instead, what I will do, is give my thoughts on the movie as a whole, and why I am either excited, indifferent, or outright opposed to the very concept of this movie. Read on, and find out what I have to say after the jump.

A brief history of why I am even attempting to write this. Last night as I worked another night in a long stretch of shifts at work, I randomly sent out a random tweet, something I am prone to do to try to stave of the rising tide of insanity. Our good friend, Amber (Follower her on Twitter @RedhandKitten ) replied, and set off a short chain of conversation that brought me to eventually promise to watch the trailer, and write out my thoughts. How that came about from a joking remark about losing my pants, I may never figure out.

The original Evil Dead was a triumph of cheap film-making, and is a cult classic. It looks cheap, and many of the effects will not stand the test of time, but I think that years down the line, people will still look at it, and realize that a fun movie can be made on a shoe-string budget, and manage to get a rather impressive fan following. The fact that the second film in the series already sort of felt like a remake, left me somewhat worried about this remake. I'm not particularly fond of the concept of remakes in general, so to say that I approached the trailer with a bit of trepidation, would be a bit of an understatement.

Seeing the trailer, I am left... torn.

On one hand, I was impressed by the visuals. It looks like the sort of horror film that I would go into, and just love every second of it. It appears as if it is an effects-heavy beast, that will leave the make-up artist in me drooling.

On the other hand... Every thing I just said.

Yes, the pros and cons for me are the exact same thing. It looks like it will be a fun flick, lots of effects, and blood flying everywhere... but the same high-end special effects that make me want to watch it, also make the whole thing not FEEL like the Evil Dead. With a projected budget that is approximately 20 times the budget of the original, I feel that the remake might be abandoning the feel of the original, and in a true modern-day Hollywood fashion, be offering up a movie that is a whole lot of style, while skimping on the substance.

I honestly can't say which way this one is eventually going to go. I can only hope that they can find the proper balance between style and substance, and offer up a masterpiece like "Cabin in the Woods". We'll find out when the film premiers on April 12th, just 3 short weeks before the official start of the summer movie season. You can expect a true review of this film... mostly because I'm sure Amber will want it.