Evil Dead

Uruguayan Fede Alvarez makes a terrific directing debut with a true reboot - not a slavish remake - of Sam Raimi's 1981 horror, which captures the spirit of the cult classic while tweaking the basic cabin-in-the-woods plot in all the right places. For starters, the five friends are in the remote forest to wean one of their number off drugs - her ravings about demons are seen as symptoms of cold turkey withdrawal until proceedings take a dark turn into full malevolent and mutilating possession. It's true the cast has no larger-than-life character like Bruce Campbell (after being in all the other Evil Dead films, he acts as co-producer here) and the score is a tad over-insistent. But, inspired as much by The Exorcist and recent Asian horror, while smartly embracing dialogue, humour and image similarities to (co-producer) Raimi's original, this maniacal nightmare pulls out all the stops in the top-drawer scare and hardcore gore departments. The energy drops off a little between the splatter but the twisted blood-storm climax makes this essential and memorable viewing for genre buffs.