A valiant effort was given to reboot a franchise to which I stopped watching after the original 3. People would consider that canon and the rest just derivative. I've not seen the others though I've seen clips and they seem very anemic. When the original popped onto the screen, it was done with such low rent glee and raw force by director Sam Raimi, that the audience felt the craft behind the filmmaker. Here, the movie is polished to a gloss.
The story is of two sisters, one who returns back to Los Angeles to meet up with a distanced sister who has three kids. L. A. Sister supplements her living with presumably tattoo artistry (how hipster of them). The three kids are aged 14 to 6 (I think). They have their own idiosyncrasies. One seems to want to be a DJ. One is a gothy girl who seems to have questions of her sexuality. The youngest is a tow-headed blonde who is movie adorable. All seem to be oblivious to their lot in life. Which is fine, since L. A. Sister is about to be evicted from her re-purposed old bank home. The production design here probably requires another look to see the neat former bank things.
Clearly this isn't Los Angeles, since it rarely rains. Here, it is pouring.
Any way, the building also seems to house random oddballs but kind ones which seem to fit L. A. Sister and her sleeves of tattoos. Groupie Sister who visits has been away following a band of some kind. Not sure the estrangement and you never get a sense of why their distance, but it doesn't play. Never mind that, because there is an earthquake that opens the Earth to a hole in the ground in the garage. Where the Son (presumably the oldest) goes down and finds...The Book Of The Dead! Seems this should be the reveal in which legacy viewers, such as myself, throw up their hands in excitement. Nope. Fell flat. And also, what ultimately happens to them doesn't have that sense that they deserve such brutality foisted upon them. It felt cruel. There should've been a pause of humanity between sisters before the chipper took her out (what's that doing in an apartment parking lot in L. A.?)
The incantations are read through some vinyl that the Son finds. Since he is a DJ, naturally he plays it which awakens the book. Chaos ensues. And...boy was I bored.
The L. A. Sister is possessed. And then attacks her family. I want to believe that the moviemakers here wanted us to feel the dread. Not really. I felt the people were too dumb to figure out that the grey skinned person is obviously out to kill them. Most notable irritating person is the littlest Blonde kid. Man was she obnoxious. Having seen her Mom die, resurrected THEN kill everyone in the hallway, naturally she wants to open the door. Ugh.
The Groupie Sister sustains horrific violence on her and yet...things like having a glass shard through her hand doesn't have her react that much. Or having a cheese grater across her calf just gives her a limp. If this were done as camp, I would love it. But the music and their reaction doesn't indicate that. It falls flat. The characters reactions to ANYTHING seemed misplaced or just flat out wrong. You see supernatural things, you expect the characters to run. So many stick around and you just wish the demons would just end them all.
The Goth Daughters multiple deaths and attempts to kill seem like it should be more fun. Having the broken end of a wooden pole go through her throat seemed like a good idea, but they linger on her removing it that I grew bored...again.
Perhaps I'm just more charmed by the low-fi version of the originals. And the terrific mugging of Bruce Campbell that this felt less like a "Evil Dead" flick and more like a standard Blumhouse B. S. To be clear, I also didn't watch any of the television series. Any and all of them.
I wanted to feel a tinge of nostalgia for the Sam Raimi touch. You saw a little of that in the last "Doctor Strange" flick. Here, they elected to go very by the book.
While it's true they can't keep doing "Cabin In The Woods" level nonsense (in fact, they fool you into believing that is what was going to happen). The ideal of a metropolitan area where the entire building has zero foot traffic is a hard leap of logic that is too much to bear.
The concept was good, but it doesn't surprise me that this was originally suppose to be straight to streaming. It felt like it. While the effects were solid and the gore was plentiful it still felt REALLY cheap. Perhaps not having any stars gives that impression.
I knew what I was expecting going in, and purposely lowered my standards ahead, but it still did not prepare me to be so disappointed.
The story is of two sisters, one who returns back to Los Angeles to meet up with a distanced sister who has three kids. L. A. Sister supplements her living with presumably tattoo artistry (how hipster of them). The three kids are aged 14 to 6 (I think). They have their own idiosyncrasies. One seems to want to be a DJ. One is a gothy girl who seems to have questions of her sexuality. The youngest is a tow-headed blonde who is movie adorable. All seem to be oblivious to their lot in life. Which is fine, since L. A. Sister is about to be evicted from her re-purposed old bank home. The production design here probably requires another look to see the neat former bank things.
Clearly this isn't Los Angeles, since it rarely rains. Here, it is pouring.
Any way, the building also seems to house random oddballs but kind ones which seem to fit L. A. Sister and her sleeves of tattoos. Groupie Sister who visits has been away following a band of some kind. Not sure the estrangement and you never get a sense of why their distance, but it doesn't play. Never mind that, because there is an earthquake that opens the Earth to a hole in the ground in the garage. Where the Son (presumably the oldest) goes down and finds...The Book Of The Dead! Seems this should be the reveal in which legacy viewers, such as myself, throw up their hands in excitement. Nope. Fell flat. And also, what ultimately happens to them doesn't have that sense that they deserve such brutality foisted upon them. It felt cruel. There should've been a pause of humanity between sisters before the chipper took her out (what's that doing in an apartment parking lot in L. A.?)
The incantations are read through some vinyl that the Son finds. Since he is a DJ, naturally he plays it which awakens the book. Chaos ensues. And...boy was I bored.
The L. A. Sister is possessed. And then attacks her family. I want to believe that the moviemakers here wanted us to feel the dread. Not really. I felt the people were too dumb to figure out that the grey skinned person is obviously out to kill them. Most notable irritating person is the littlest Blonde kid. Man was she obnoxious. Having seen her Mom die, resurrected THEN kill everyone in the hallway, naturally she wants to open the door. Ugh.
The Groupie Sister sustains horrific violence on her and yet...things like having a glass shard through her hand doesn't have her react that much. Or having a cheese grater across her calf just gives her a limp. If this were done as camp, I would love it. But the music and their reaction doesn't indicate that. It falls flat. The characters reactions to ANYTHING seemed misplaced or just flat out wrong. You see supernatural things, you expect the characters to run. So many stick around and you just wish the demons would just end them all.
The Goth Daughters multiple deaths and attempts to kill seem like it should be more fun. Having the broken end of a wooden pole go through her throat seemed like a good idea, but they linger on her removing it that I grew bored...again.
Perhaps I'm just more charmed by the low-fi version of the originals. And the terrific mugging of Bruce Campbell that this felt less like a "Evil Dead" flick and more like a standard Blumhouse B. S. To be clear, I also didn't watch any of the television series. Any and all of them.
I wanted to feel a tinge of nostalgia for the Sam Raimi touch. You saw a little of that in the last "Doctor Strange" flick. Here, they elected to go very by the book.
While it's true they can't keep doing "Cabin In The Woods" level nonsense (in fact, they fool you into believing that is what was going to happen). The ideal of a metropolitan area where the entire building has zero foot traffic is a hard leap of logic that is too much to bear.
The concept was good, but it doesn't surprise me that this was originally suppose to be straight to streaming. It felt like it. While the effects were solid and the gore was plentiful it still felt REALLY cheap. Perhaps not having any stars gives that impression.
I knew what I was expecting going in, and purposely lowered my standards ahead, but it still did not prepare me to be so disappointed.