Evil Dead

Fede Álvarez’s 2013 film follows heroin addict Mia, who goes with her brother David and friends to the family cabin to get clean, until an incantation read from a book in the cellar wakes a force that takes her first. Producer Robert Tapert called that the hook: the cabin trip is an intervention, not the 1981 film’s party. Sam Raimi found Álvarez through Panic Attack!, his cheap YouTube short, and produced with Bruce Campbell and Tapert. In 2018 Álvarez wrote that the film continues the first one, noting Ash’s car still rusting there. He and Rodo Sayagues wrote an NC-17 script on purpose, and Álvarez said the R rating came from trimming small moments rather than whole scenes. Before release Álvarez said the film had no CGI and that they studied magic and illusion tricks, like making an arm disappear. Crew listings nonetheless include visual effects supervisor George Ritchie and a PRPVFX effects team, with makeup and prosthetic design by Roger Murray. A good fit if you know it rests on Jane Levy playing what Bruce Campbell called three parts, addict, demon and hero, and ends with a chainsaw under raining blood. Not for viewers who need the camera to look away from self-mutilation; Álvarez said the arm-cutting scene was planned wide, with no cutaway.