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Nato And Remy’s Last Stand: Why Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead Bitch-Slapped Horror

With gasps and shudders and clenched fists curled up tight in the pockets of my hoody, the Evil Dead remake reminded me in one blinding flash why I adore the horror genre. It's down right scary, unsettling, relentless, and brutal. It's also engaging, interesting, incredibly well shot, and perfectly executed (I'll take "poor word play" for 100, Alex). Alvarez's film was a painstakingly crafted love letter to the original and fans of the original, and it also did something most people might have missed if they left early: it bridged the original series with the new series in an attempt to combine them both further down the road. How f*cking awesome is that? So now, for your reading pleasure, Matt and I will discuss some of the things that really stood out to us regarding this awesome reboot. Awesome and reboot are two words we never use next to each other, so you should be aware how big a moment this is for horror.

Remy: PRACTICAL EFFECTS

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HUZZAH, let us all rejoice for a moment over Evil Dead‘s jaw-dropping practical effects.

Make no mistakes about it, bad CGI has become the bane of horror. Animated blood splashing from animated creatures makes me feel like I am watching a rated R Pixar movie, but the Evil Dead remake was like “f**k that noise, we want all our effects to be practical.” Yes, you read that correctly. Outside of the “burning” scene at the start, and the “vine slug”, all the effects in this movie were done with fake blood and prosthetics. While that may not sound too impressive, to see the movie in action proves otherwise. It is visceral, realistic, and in your face. It even left me with a few moments where I was wondering how they did it – flabbergasted and amazed.

The face slicing scene, for example. How the hell was I seeing her teeth from inside her cheek? Sssh, don’t tell me, it was pure magic. But the practical effects alone took the movie from awesome to, in my opinion, the new horror benchmark all other horror films (and their effects) will be measured against.

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