Entertainment

‘Evil Dead’ remake is a bloody mess

Truthfully, if it hadn’t been my paying job as a critic to watch Fede Alvarez’s remake of “Evil Dead’’ all the way to the end, I probably would have headed for the exit door long before the point where somebody cuts off her own arm with an electric carving knife.

Of course, then I’d have missed another character being severed lengthwise with a chain saw while some members of the audience hooted in approval.

Gorehounds will have a field day with the plentiful mutilations, decapitations and other blood-drenched moments in the redo.

It amazingly sports an R rating, though it’s far grislier than Sam Raimi’s 1981 original (which was initially released without a rating but acquired an NC-17 for a 1995 re-release).

The effects are also far more realistic than there were in the bargain-basement original from 32 years ago.

Which means that instead of spoofing the excesses of that era’s slasher films, they’re basically being offered up for the delectation of contemporary moviegoers.

While there were a couple of squeamish walkouts, many young men and women at the promotional screening I attended seemed to enjoy watching victims being shot at with nail guns, whacked on the head with crowbars or cutting off a piece of their face with a jagged piece of glass.

Besides gallons of blood, there’s no small amount of urine, as well as a scene where a woman is raped by a plant.

Acting is sort of besides the point in a movie like this, which has the performers spouting deliberately ridiculous dialogue and constantly risking their lives in ways that no sane person would.

The setting is a remote cabin the woods — conveniently cut off by a flash flood — where a heroin-addicted young woman (Jane Levy) has been brought to try to go cold turkey.

When she starts having delusions and warning everyone they won’t live through the night, they have to wonder if it’s a symptom of withdrawal or because the most dweebish guy (Lou Taylor Pucci) has started reading incantations from a mysterious old book he found.

Also along for the gory, gory night are the junkie’s long-estranged brother (Shiloh Fernandez) and a student nurse (Jessica Lucas) whose skill at suturing wounds with duct tape comes in handy.

Though it tries — with a much too heavy hand — the new “Evil Dead’’ is far less humorous than its predecessor, which catapulted director Raimi and star Bruce Campbell (who produced this one) into long mainstream careers.

Which is not to say this “Evil Dead’’ reboot won’t also beget sequels.