To See or Not to See: The Evil Dead

Okay, I am a pretty big fan of The Evil Dead franchise; like most I began with the 1987 film Evil Dead 2, then went back to watch the 1981 original and watched the 1992 follow-up Army of Darkness in theatres.

Years later I used my love of the series to see how cool my wife was (answer – very cool), introduce my friends to something they hadn’t seen before (and the cool friends I showed it to still talk to me), and eventually even got to show the series to my youngest daughter as she began her own exploration of the horror genre (and for newcomers to my blog, relax, first I showed her scary kids movies, then scary movies from the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s, and ‘60s – not the ‘70s though, because that decade in horror was messed up – I’m still not old enough to see a bunch of those movies).

So here I am, a huge fan of the franchise, when what do you know, a new version of The Evil Dead is about to be released in theatres.

So now I’m conflicted.  The original 1981 film is one of the freakiest horror films I’ve ever seen.  Seriously.  Both original sequels move away from straight horror into a bizarre horror/comedy hybrid (which I love as well), but that first film was just got under my skin and wouldn’t let go.

The new film has the blessing of the original producers, and the reviews so far have been pretty positive, but I’m still nervous that by revisiting my own childhood experiences with horror (until I saw The Evil Dead, my experience involved TV movies and the big franchisees of Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers – all of which (except for the original Halloween andElm Street films) did nothing to prepare me for how scary a movie like The Evil Dead could be.

Honestly, I’ll probably go see it (I talk about horror a lot, so my friends may start asking me what I thought of it, so I figure I should have some thoughts), but I’m gonna be pretty careful with my expectations.  Speaking as a guy who did a month-long study into re-imaginings of horror classics I know how well, and how poorly, these films can translate.