#theevildead(1981)

Hello Ghouls and Gals! (Yes, I did have to use that pun).

To begin this journey of twists, turns, and terror I thought I would begin with one of horror’s great cult franchises: that of The Evil Dead. Directed by Sam Raimi, this gore-filled film recently saw a reawakening in the 2013 film by Fede Alvarez simply entitled Evil Dead. But, if you follow the horror world, you may already know that.

However, I’m here to walk us through frame by bloody frame the similarities and differences between these films and to give you my opinion on who did it better. Now, I must admit, when I first watched Evil Dead (2013), I was largely impressed and thought that I saw a ton of nods to the original. However, upon watching them back to back, I needed to take a second look.

First off, the cast. While the cast has about the same number of characters (five young adults: two men, three women), the characters’ similarities to their original counterparts aren’t very extensive. Yes, the lead male’s sister is artistic in both and is also the first to become victim to the evil of the woods through a traumatic rape scene in which the perpetrator is a tree branch; but, the similarities end there. Mia, unlike Cheryl, is a drug addict and, admittedly, a lot tougher than the sister who just cries and whines the entire time she is human. Eric is much more serious than his macho counterpart Scotty and certainly would never toast “party down” at this cabin. Natalie has a much smaller emotional role than Linda, but she does make up for it with the cringe-factor of her self-mutilation (to be discussed later). Olivia, on the other hand, plays a much larger role in the story than Shelly whose name, I don’t believe, is stated in the original film until at least halfway through. But I do think that the biggest difference in characters is the difference between Ash and David. In the original, Ash is the “likable one.” He is dependable and confident, only pausing to show mercy in his fight to stay alive. David, however, has a reputation for letting people down and taking the easy way out. In my opinion, though, I think that when the going gets tough, he acts more like Ash than his reputation would have us think.

Characters aside, however, there are some major similarities and difference between the films that I believe are extremely telling for the times at which they are made.

Let’s get the strangest part out of the way: the act of rape committed by the trees. In each film, the sister becomes possessed assumably through an act of sexual assault performed by tree branches after the incantation has been spoken to awaken the demons (or deadites). While the scenes convey the same thing, the actual assaults are extremely different from film to film. In the original, Cheryl is pulled to the ground, exposed, and penetrated by various branches of the surrounding trees. She then breaks free and escapes. In the remake, however, Mia is help upright by thorn-covered branches, confronted by the vision of a deadite, and is penetrated by a snake-like branch that slithers from the deadite’s mouth and completely into Mia, without apparently ever coming back out. These differences are actually very important. The rape of Cheryl was abrupt and committed completely by the trees themselves. However, with Mia it was more ritualistic and actually showed visions of the deadite before they began their massacre. This difference basically sets the tone for each film.

Actually, the appearance of the deadites before they begin to posses the cabin-goers, is a massive difference from the original film. In the original, part of the horror was that you could never know what the demons looked like in their pure form. You never knew what was coming for you next. The remake steals this mystery from us in more way than one. The remake shows us the story that the original told us through tape recorder, it shows us the horrible acts of rape, scalding, and self-mutilation that occur through the book instead of just having them be evil for evils sake, and the remake shows us the face of evil before it even truly is awakened.

And what a disappointing face evil has! Yes, most of the effects of the original film can be recreated in your kitchen; deadites vomit milk and dissolve into clay when they die. However, the makeup is unarguably grotesque. You have to admit that a pair of contacts, some fake burns, and a split tongue really just don’t scream “evil” like a full-facial makeup appliance, wig, and some gross stop-motion gore.

Even the cinematography suggests a more humanity-is-evil view in the remake of the film. In the remake, humans aren’t changed much to appear evil. Also, the film is shot with many close-ups and very few wide shots. This is extremely odd compared to the original where almost the entire first half of the film is shot at least ten feet from the characters. It conveys a much greater sense that evil is outside of us trying to get in.

One last major difference between the films was the “rules of the game” if you will. In the original, the only way to destroy a deadite was to dismember it. You could also destroy the book by burning it. I guess thirty-two years made the book more resilient and the deadites more vulnerable, though, because the book is unaffected by fire in the remake but the deadites are then susceptible to death by flame and live burial.

However, I cannot fault the remake for its various nods to the original. The necklace given to David’s sister instead of his girlfriend (a marked difference between him and Ash), is a nice touch, as is the clock on the wall that signifies the one from the original (though it was featured much more heavily in the 1981 film). Also, you can’t ignore the various nods to lost arms throughout the films. I swear, this franchise is almost as bad as Star Wars with all the lost limbs! The original film shows Shelly gnawing off her own arm after Scotty began to cut it (after she turned). In the remake, Natalie raises Shelly an arm by cutting off her own before turning (a trick borrowed from Ash in The Evil Dead 2) and losing the other to David’s shotgun after her change. However, none of these are close to Mia’s sacrifice near the end of the film. She forcefully rips off the bottom half of her left arm (which is caught under a Jeep) and uses it to steady a chainsaw and destroy the final demon. This is the ultimate nod to The Evil Dead 2 where Ash basically has a chainsaw for an arm. Admittedly, though, this is irrelevant when simply talking about the 1981 and 2013 films. Also, the ending of each film had a bit of a twist. In the original, Ash is confronted by a faceless demon right before we cut to black. In the remake, however, Mia is saved and then faced with the evil of all evils and must fight it to the death. Mia’s fight is much more brutal, I’ll admit, but it doesn’t leave the audience scared at all. The end of Evil Dead (2013) shows that evil can always be beaten back if your will is strong enough. The ending of The Evil Dead (1981) tells us that evil is always present and can always attack, even when everything else is gone.

Overall, I find Evil Dead (2013) to be an admirable remake. It captures the imaginations of what could have been for the fans of the original and gives them the gore-fest they expect of modern special effects. Even director Sam Raimi expresses a love for the remake (http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/07/17/comic-con-2015-sam-raimi-would-still-like-to-merge-the-recent-evil-dead-movie-with-ash) and how can you go wrong with that? However, I do not believe it is scarier than the original. I believe that The Evil Dead (1981) leaves out the backstory and rules of the deadites for a reason. It tells us that evil is not constrained by the pages of a book and that it will never stop hunting.