The original has humour in it, but not all of it is intentional. While Raimi was able to show his technical capability to fine effect on an ultra-low budget, the acting, script and effects are more amusing than perhaps they were intended. A cult classic, and worthy of the status, but not necessarily a great film.

Enter Fede Alvarez, a fresh young maverick on the movie scene, who cut his teeth on… well, his teeth aren’t that cut, as it happens. When his short film about an invasion of robots became a YouTube sensation, he was promoted instantly to the big leagues to helm a remake of Raimi’s The Evil Dead.

The story runs very close to the original; a group of lithe young things head into the woods to vacation at a remote cabin, ill-advisedly read from a creepy old book, and inadvertently raise a horrific demon intent on possessing and killing them all. And, alongside the familiar set-up, this new version turns out to have a little more in common with the original than perhaps it intended…

The main thing you need to know about Fede Alvarez’ Evil Dead is that it’s gory. It is exceptionally gory. It may be the goriest film you will ever see on wide release in the cinema.

At times the gore is disturbing; at times it’s merely disgusting; and at others it’s simply hilarious. Sometimes it’s all three! Once things get going, there’s barely a frame of the film that doesn’t feature an act of mutilation (one poor, unfortunate character must surely take the award for Most Puncture Wounds in a Motion Picture).

The film drips with gore to such an extent that you do become desensitised to it – rather than recoiling in horror, you grin, and revel in it, much like the film’s demonic antagonist. You’ll definitely begin to question how you, as a human being, could find some of the acts being depicted amusing, but it’s likely you will.

As for the rest of the film, there’s not a whole lot else on offer. The script is terrible, and the early moments are riddled with expositionary clunkers where everyone feels the need to state their relationship at the beginning of every sentence: “Hey big bro”, “you’re my best friend”, etc. The acting, Jane Levy excluded, is largely awful, and every character in the film is monumentally stupid.  Before long, you’ll be rooting for the demon.

To give the film its dues, it does make an attempt at more depth. The reason for the kids venturing to the cabin is not just a vacation, but rather an intervention for a drug addicted member of the group (Levy). As such, the entire film can be read as an anti-drugs parable; Levy’s character is there to fight her demons (but ends up having to do so more literally than intended), while her addiction ends up hurting everyone around her.

Alvarez utilises some interesting camera angles to liven up proceedings – as well as delivering a loving homage to the innovative trickery that Raimi used to depict the evil as a disembodied presence – but he isn’t able to conjure much in the way of suspense. The climactic face-off is probably the best sequence in the film, but it’s more exciting than scary.

Evil Dead is undoubtedly entertaining, but whether the laughs are intentional or not is another matter. At times the film simply must be playing for it (such as the recurring shots of a chainsaw that fans of the original series will be willing someone to pick up), but at other times you’re not so sure.

Essentially, Evil Dead is a film that it’s just very hard to take seriously after Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s supremely effective deconstruction of the sub-genre in The Cabin In the Woods. Evil Dead plays as if that film never happened; as if audiences aren’t wise to the genre’s tricks and clichés – and as such it ends up utilising every single one of them. And, in a way, Evil Dead should be applauded for that; it’s honest about what it is.

What it is, is an exercise in gore; a gloriously over-the-top horror movie, with a shaky script, bad performances and enough laughs – intentional and otherwise – to keep you entertained throughout. So, much like the original, then.

Released in UK cinemas on Thursday 18 April 2013.