Evil Dead (DQ)

Stars: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore, Lorenzo Lamas, Bruce Campbell, Inca (dog)

Director: Fede Alvarez

These teens, they never learn. Five go off to a cabin in the woods, but this is no Enid Blyton's children's story, but a remake of Sam Raimi's cult original, with the blood count upped fivefold.

Five young people - to be fair, they're 20somethings - arrive at that cabin to help the sister (Levy) of one (Fernandez) go cold turkey on the drug addiction that has nearly killed her. 'There's something dead - and it reeks,' remarks one as they enter. And we, who have seen the pre-credits sequence - know what it is - not the script, but the bodies of dead animals hanging from the ceiling of the cellar, to which our hapless quintet have soon opened the trapdoor.

Down below they find, besides dead cats and evidence of a burning at the stake, an ancient book bound in human flesh(!), the incantation from which has been recited by the professional guy (Pucci), releasing demons from the nearby woods who have already messily possessed Levy.

Handsaws, nailguns, chainsaws and severed limbs all play their part in the squishy mayhem that follows.

Although the plot makes little sense. the high violence level provides a field day for gorefiends, and the dialogue is frequently good for a giggle. Says Pucci, plaintively, as the awful truth becomes clear: 'I just don't want to be the Devil's bitch'. Some hope. He gets to be that and more in an exciting last 15 minutes,

For a horror film, this has some beautifully composed, usually misty shots; aside from that, however, unlike last year's The Cabin in the Woods, it adds little to the genre.

David Quinlan

USA 2013. UK Distributor: StudioCanal (TriStar). Colour (unspecified).
90 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 18.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 19 Apr 2013