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The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 28 Jan 2015, 23:40
by Markgway
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 30 Jan 2015, 04:09
by HungFist
wow.
Looking forward to your comments, although I think you will hate it. I rather liked it (the theatrical version).
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 30 Jan 2015, 12:21
by Markgway
HungFist wrote:Looking forward to your comments, although I think you will hate it. I rather liked it (the theatrical version).
The original was good for what it was - a bunch of student-types making a visceral splatter project. The sequel - a more accomplished version of same with extra black comedy. This remake SHOULD be a lot more professional - but I fear it'll be a wallow in human suffering as has become the norm. We'll see...
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 01 Feb 2015, 00:34
by saltysam
Markgway wrote:HungFist wrote: This remake SHOULD be a lot more professional - but I fear it'll be a wallow in human suffering as has become the norm. We'll see...
Not sure how you'd remake Evil Dead not expect it to wallow in human suffering...watching the original as you have done would probably give you a clue.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 01 Feb 2015, 12:54
by Markgway
saltysam wrote:Markgway wrote:HungFist wrote: This remake SHOULD be a lot more professional - but I fear it'll be a wallow in human suffering as has become the norm. We'll see...
Not sure how you'd remake Evil Dead not expect it to wallow in human suffering...watching the original as you have done would probably give you a clue.
The original
doesn't wallow in human suffering (nor does either of Raimi's sequels) so I don't know where you're argument lies.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 01 Feb 2015, 15:24
by HungFist
I'm with Sam on this. The original was gruesome enough to get itself banned in a number of countries. People tend to look at it with modern eyes and forget what a mean piece of cinema it was in 1981. The remake may be gorier, but it's nowhere near as controversial by today's standards as the original was in 1981.
Of course, that doesn't mean anyone needs to like the remake. Times have changed, and not necessarily for the better. But I do think it's a bit unfair to accuse the remake of trying to do the same thing by 2013 standards as the original did by 1981 standards. I've seen some people do that (not Mark... yet
)
Mark, go watch the film already! I'm dying to hear what you think of it
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 01 Feb 2015, 20:45
by saltysam
Markgway wrote:[
The original doesn't wallow in human suffering (nor does either of Raimi's sequels) so I don't know where you're argument lies.
yeah because a woman being raped by a tree isn't an excercise in human suffering.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 02 Feb 2015, 11:51
by Markgway
HungFist wrote:The original was gruesome enough to get itself banned in a number of countries.
Gruesome, yes... but not an exercise in sadism.
I will watch the remake soon and give it a fair shake.
The tree rape was possibly misjudged, but intended to be silly rather than nasty.
It's really not that graphic either.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 03 Feb 2015, 17:08
by Markgway
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 03 Feb 2015, 18:33
by Masterofoneinchpunch
Markgway wrote: ... The tree rape was possibly misjudged, but intended to be silly rather than nasty.
It's really not that graphic either.
That scene has caught a lot of flack from critics (I believe even Leonard Maltin mentions this) and reviewers. I thought it was poorly done, but agree it was possibly misjudged (I don't remember it being silly though.) It is no wonder it wasn't done in Evil Dead 2 (a film I am a fan of.)
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 03 Feb 2015, 21:51
by Markgway
Masterofoneinchpunch wrote:I thought it was poorly done, but agree it was possibly misjudged (I don't remember it being silly though.)
I meant it wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
I mean, it's a fucking tree (literally)!
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 04 Feb 2015, 16:35
by grim_tales
Forgot to see it, doh!
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 04 Feb 2015, 18:24
by saltysam
it'll be out on blu-ray before the end of the year.this has been great publicity for such a release.A cynic would say a planned mistake
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 04 Feb 2015, 23:05
by grim_tales
Do you mean the one C4 showed will be on BD?
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 05 Feb 2015, 13:34
by Markgway
grim_tales wrote:Do you mean the one C4 showed will be on BD?
Supposition.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 05 Feb 2015, 16:36
by grim_tales
Ah OK
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 06 Feb 2015, 00:47
by Shingster
Markgway wrote:I meant it wasn't meant to be taken seriously.
I mean, it's a fucking tree (literally)!
Thanks for the insight Mr. Raimi! You are of course completely wrong about that one!
People who discovered The Evil Dead later on in life (way past its original release in the 80s) always mis-appropriate facetiousness to the film in light of the schlocky, camp sequel. The tree rape scene was meant to be outrageous but not comedic, Raimi didn't want people laughing through it & funnily enough people took that scene extremely seriously for many years afterwards (in fact Raimi later regretted filming the sequence because of the controversy it evoked). There have been far more absurd sequences in horror films in the 70s & 80s that were taken far more seriously than even the tree rape sequence in Evil Dead, and to apply a 21st-century attitude to these films (in so much as to rather arrogantly state what the filmmakers intend) is beyond blinkered.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 06 Feb 2015, 11:28
by Markgway
I didn't see The Evil Dead until the early 90s. I never found the tree rape shocking myself, only outrageous and absurd. So maybe that's me putting my view onto the filmmakers? But I do find it hard to believe anyone in the 80s could've taken it seriously or that Raimi intended it to - what? - scare people? Offend the moral majority? What was it's actual purpose? You've obviously read up on the film, so I'm sure you'll know... and arrogance on this forum? Surely not!
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 07 Feb 2015, 00:54
by Shingster
From what Raimi stated in numerous intervews of the 80s & 90s he wanted to gross people out, make a fun B-movie that would play to the drive-in crowd and push the boundaries of good taste in terms of gore, but never did he intend to offend anyone & that's the main reason he later regreted the tree rape scene because that's exactly what happened (obviously only for certain members of the audience). The problem I think is that The Evil Dead was a horror film made by a bunch of students whose real love was slapstick comedies, so even though they were sincere in their attempt to scare they still had those light-hearted values ingrained into them (which you can clearly see in the scene where Ash tries to bury Linda), which led to a later re-interpretation of the film as a horror-comedy once Raimi fully embraced comedy in his subsequent films. Raimi/Campbell/Tapert weren't even that knowledgable about horror before they shot Within the Woods, it was only in their researching of the genre did they learn to appreciate it & it was through Drive-In viewings that Raimi came up with the "more is more" attitude towards gore.
I don't understand why you're having such a hard time imagining 80s audiences taking the Tree Rape sequence seriously tbh, have you never watch a horror film older than 30yrs or something? Do you have a hard time accepting that audiences were scared out of their seats by Boris Karloff lumbering around a set in Frankenstein, or Bela Lugosi turning into an oversized rubber bat in Dracula? It's certainly not the first scene in a classic horror to look absolutely ridiculous by today's standards.
Markgway wrote:so I'm sure you'll know... and arrogance on this forum? Surely not!
Indeed, but naturally I only meant in terms of stating outright what filmmakers intended without at least offering proof or some form of objective assessment of all interpretations of the filmmakers motives.
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 07 Feb 2015, 11:45
by Markgway
Shingster wrote:I don't understand why you're having such a hard time imagining 80s audiences taking the Tree Rape sequence seriously tbh, have you never watch a horror film older than 30yrs or something? Do you have a hard time accepting that audiences were scared out of their seats by Boris Karloff lumbering around a set in Frankenstein, or Bela Lugosi turning into an oversized rubber bat in Dracula? It's certainly not the first scene in a classic horror to look absolutely ridiculous by today's standards.
I suppose... but I think that cynical 80s audiences were a lot more used to gore and shock tactics than they were in the 30s when talkies were new and censorship very tight. Could an audience that sat thru the gruelling intensity of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the demonic disturbance of The Exorcist really be traumatised by a pervy stop motion tree branch? I saw The Evil Dead in the early 90s when I was 13-ish... not THAT long after it's initial release and when the BBFC were still cutting it. Maybe there's something wrong with
me?
Re: The Evil Dead (2012): Uncut on Channel 4
Posted: 07 Feb 2015, 19:39
by Shingster
Definitely, don't forget that the early 80s was a relatively naive time compared to the 90s considering home video was still in its infancy and people had to get off their arse and go to a drive in or cinema to catch most of the horror out there, so it's not like those grizzly 70s films had reached everyone in an 80s audience. I'm sure there were plenty of viewers tittering through the tree rape but most people took The Evil Dead very seriously and the overriding mood prevailed, generating a lot of controversy & headaches for Raimi. If you went through most of the Video Nasty films from around that time you'd be laughing your head off half the time at the absurdity and cheesiness of the films, but look at the amount of controversy & word-of-mouth credibility they achieved at the time.