The Evil Dead Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Evil Dead - Essay Example The film released in the year 1981, under the direction of Sam Raimi, who created this masterpiece on a very low-budget; which becomes quite obvious with the screenplay and special effects. However, the plotline was quite novel, which caused the original release to quickly rise to fame and it was also dubbed as one of the ‘best cult movie’. Besides the plotline and the eerie scenario that the film was shot, other reasons for its success included outstanding monster design and its subtle and witty sense of humor in the script. The Evil Dead was originally meant to have only two films, but with the ever-expanding fan base, the number of movie installments was increased as well. With the fan following increasing at such a rapid pace even in the face of contemporary horror movies, it was only a matter of time before a contemporary remake was on its way. The remake was not entirely based on the original series and considering the bigger budget, the special effects were far more superior to the previous one. The original release included scare tactics that turned out to be more comical in nature than scary for the contemporary audience, which can only be explained through the lack of funds for the first film. Even the plotline was slightly different, as in the original plot the group of friends head there for leisure activities during spring break, the remake includes a group of friends trying to help one of their friends recover from a drug addiction. There a number of factors that can be taken against this entire franchise; for instance, there is no consistency between of the remake with the original film, which can be quite boggling at times. The original has strict acting with the use of humor from time to time and the lack of sophisticated CGI effects can be attributed to obsolete technology and low budget. The remake follows the same storyline, except for the fact that the beginning involves a vague reference to the back-story of the demonic possession. Similar to the original, the movie has a number of twists and constantly shows the possessed characters going back and forth between their normal forms to their possessed form. However, the characters have more depth than the origina l release as the characters seem to have a valid reason for not believing Mia, which was quite obscure when Cheryl claimed that there was a supernatural presence in their midst. Besides the extremely eerie premise of the movie, there are plenty of parts in the movie that is quite terrifying, but sometimes the excessive use of blood makes one cringe in disgust rather than scream with fear. The displaying and exaggeration of wounds and cuts is an over-used scare tactic throughout the movie. For instance, when one of the characters licks a box cutter and cuts her tongue in half, and there is one another scene where the character’s eyes are stabbed with needles and limbs are detached with an electric carving knife (Evil Dead, 2012). On the more positive note the action choreography was outstanding. The effects seemed real and animate enough to be believable that gave the movie a much-needed advantage at the box-office. For once, the directors did not simply rely on the tried and tested techniques used by Hollywood, which involved frivolous college students, who find themselves trapped in a haunted cabin. The characters were all quite believable and their reactions were that of serious adults; which showed that the vacation was not simply a pretext for their sexual trysts, but they had gone to the cabin in order to help their friend, which enabled the audience to sympathize with them as well. The actors were able to