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Showing posts with label Evil Dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Evil Dead. Show all posts

October 2, 2013

Movie Review: Wither (2012, Artsploitation Films)


 ...ya know?? This viewer gets a fairly good kick out of eager and ambitious young filmmakers who, over the years, have attempted to inspirationally emulate the unconventional and amiably engaged quirkings, which have long set the standard...the alluring bar, as far as embraced genre and cult films. It's a filmmaker's exercise, not unlike that of trying to marry specific chemicals together in a science experiment, based solely on the success of what has been seen before, rather than adhering to a concise list of chemicals, and their concise measurements. Tip the scales on one or more of the elements, to the greater or to the lesser, and the whole outcome might well change...sometimes for the better, and unfortunately, at times, for the worse. Such is the case, as far as director Sam Raimi's unflinching and visceral 1981 horror classic, "The Evil Dead", and the resulting 'homages', alternate takes...and let's face it...knock-offs and copycats, over the ensuing years; after all, some very interesting...and well, at the very least, very peculiar things have been done with the old 'awakening an evil, while in a secluded cabin in the woods' scenario. Most can site the obvious...2012's "Cabin in the Woods", 2002's "Cabin Fever", and of course, the recent remake of the Raimi classic. However, who out there, has seen the emulative 2010 horror oddity, "Primal"?? Or how about the clever and surreal, albeit relatively gore-tame 1990 effort, "Demon Wind"?? And who genuinely remembers the insanely crazed, creepy and bizarre 1970 horror entry, "Equinox", which predates 'Evil Dead' by a decade?? Some, quite memorable...some, quite forgettable...and some, rather under-appreciated. And with the recent homage to "The Evil Dead"...a 2012 Swedish import, simply titled "Wither"?? Eh, Monty Hall...I'm afraid we're gonna have to take (...trap) door number two, on that one, please...

April 6, 2013

Movie Review: Evil Dead (2013)

by John Beutler

Given the seasoned respectability, unnerving style and uncomfortable eeriness of the original 1982 horror classic, "The Evil Dead", I must say that I was probably one of a countless mob, who cried 'foul', when it was even suggested, years ago, that a remake of the film was being batted about. A seemingly unheard-of possibility, nearly and untouchably equating to that of remaking Hitchcock's "Psycho" (...and we all know how THAT turned out, don't we??). Eventually, after countless false starts, tantalizing rumors and a meager smattering of successful remakes of '80's horror films...alas, it was assumed that SOMEONE would finally take up the task.