Evil Dead Reviews
Top CriticDespite much old-school splatter, it's seldom frightening and oddly unfunny.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Five years from now, will you want to watch this bloody $14 million extravaganza or Raimi's shoestring original, which was Amateur Hour elevated to pop art? Evil Dead just bleeds money.
A stylish and worthy homage: inventive even as it is derivative, never quite jokey but never taking itself too seriously, and clocking in at an entirely appropriate 91 minutes. Any longer would be unmerciful; any shorter, ungenerous.
Though it never channels the raw DIY energy of the original Evil Dead series -- what big-budget version could? -- this polished, clever remake remains true to the spirit of the original, which was at once viscerally terrifying and weirdly lighthearted.
A gore fest that's just effective enough to whet fans' appetite for a sequel, even as it kills everyone else's appetite for dinner.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
There isn't much to do here except turn the gore up to 11; if you've ever wondered what it would be like to jam a chainsaw into someone's mouth (and who hasn't?), this will give you a good working idea.
Sure, this is a higher-budget re-tread. But a remake shouldn't exist simply to ramp up the graphic violence, even if special effects have improved immeasurably in the past 30 years.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
So long as you grit your teeth and keep your eyes on the screen, it's an enjoyable, if almost academic, exercise in bad taste.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Raimi set the bar high, and if Alvarez can't quite rise to his level, he overcompensates by drowning everything in blood. It's overkill, but in this case that's not such a bad thing.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
It's a fun spookshow - if chainsaw violence is your idea of fun - but it's sure not my "The Evil Dead." But that's OK. It's someone else's, now.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
What this "Evil Dead" gets most right is its tone, paying homage yet staking its own territory; it's scary without being downbeat, fun without being too jokey.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
The new "Evil Dead" has none of the first movie's handmade charm or hilarity, intentional or otherwise.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
While it's impossible to surpass the original - so much of its fame is a function of its time - Alvarez's version still manages to measure up.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
This Evil Dead is polished and meticulously planned, and it benefits from the attention to detail as well as from Alvarez's obvious love for the spirit of the source material.
Full Review
| Original Score: 7/10
Bloody havoc? Check. Exuberant gore? Check. Fun? Meh.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
It's not scary. It's not shocking. It just wallows in viscera.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Whether you think it's a good movie will depend largely upon your stomach for gruesome violence. Then again, if you are going to see a movie called "Evil Dead," you're probably going to be OK.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
"Evil Dead" turns Raimi's homemade horror treat into a professional-looking, overscripted bore.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
Alvarez is primarily interested in upping his corpse count, in the most gruesome ways imaginable. In this, he is undeniably successful. He also establishes an effectively breathless pace, and weaves in a steady stream of fan-friendly references.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
If it hadn't been my paying job as a critic to watch Fede Alvarez's remake of Evil Dead all the way to the end, I probably would have headed for the exit door long before the point where somebody cuts off her own arm with an electric carving knife.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
The Evil Dead was an absolute blast. Evil Dead is just a well-made gross-out, and it's kind of a bummer.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
For fans of hard-core horror, "Evil Dead" definitely delivers.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
The really scary thing about Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead is its failure to shock. Are we all now completely desensitized to movie horror?
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
You can't remake a sense of humor. Alvarez may well have one, but it'll have to wait for the next project.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
I'm bored to death and sick to death of movies that seem to have one goal: How can we gross out the audience by torturing nearly every major character in the movie?
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
The new Evil Dead is not only made with an affectionate nod and a wink to the 1981 version, it's also the bloodiest, goriest, slapstickiest horror movie since, well, The Evil Dead.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
This isn't just the scariest movie in recent memory, it's also the most viscous.
The plotting as a whole feels fresh, as does the emphasis on women strong enough to defend themselves.
What really matters is seeing these pretty people get put through the gory wringer, and once the unholy spirit comes calling, Evil Dead more than delivers ...
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Gory scares abound in a remake that will win the hearts of many of the original's fans.
The rare remake that likely will be enjoyed most by diehard fans of its predecessor.
...certainly a considerable and occasionally commendable dose of the ol' ultra-violence.
