Since 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, remakes and reboots have been at the forefront of horror cinema. Sometimes it’s for the better, and sometimes not so much. So when the remake of Evil Dead was announced in 2013, I was intrigued to see what direction they would go with. Would they do a straightforward retelling a-la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre? Or would they go the other direction and tell a whole new story, detracting from much of the source material, a-la Friday the 13th? To my surprise, Evil Dead fell somewhere in between, giving us a new story and cast of characters, while keeping the familiar items we wanted to see return. Adding to my surprise and delight was a new main character and badass final girl, Mia Allen.
We are introduced to Mia as a girl trying to break free from her addiction to heroin with the help of her friends and brother by bringing her to their remote cabin in the woods while she goes cold turkey. She sits atop an old, broken-down Oldsmobile (a subtle nod to the original film) while backlit by the sunset. In only the first few minutes of the film, it’s made clear that Mia will be a different kind of main character than Ash from the beloved original series. She has a troubled backstory; she suffers from addiction, she singlehandedly took care of her mother while she was dying, and she’s been estranged from her brother for some time. Mia is also just plain likable. Sure, there is some animosity between her and her brother, but she is never rude to him or their friends about their past, or why they are at the cabin in the first place. Her goal is simple: get better.
All this makes her an extremely well-rounded character and makes us care for her right off the bat. She’s vulnerable, bold, courageous, and smart. She even has one of my favorite lines in the whole movie: “You shouldn’t have touched anything from that basement.” Thank you! That’s exactly what we were all thinking too. So when Mia ultimately becomes possessed by the demon lurking in the woods, there’s a greater sense of urgency for her to be saved in the end. Even as a deadite, Mia is so fascinating to watch: the face twitching, the stare of death with her yellow eyes, gut-wrenching screams, and that demonic voice from hell. Of course, I have to acknowledge Jane Levy for giving her all in this performance. She is terrifying as a deadite and totally believable from start to finish. From her drug withdrawals to her total paranoia after being attacked, and finally, to full-blown possession and ultimate fight to the death, Jane Levy is without a doubt deserving of the title of scream queen.
I also can’t leave out how glad I was to see that the filmmakers didn’t try to recreate Ash in any way. Instead, they pass the torch (or chainsaw) to Mia, giving us a strong central female character to resurrect the franchise and give new meaning to the definition of final girl. Mia’s character arc in the story of becoming possessed by a demon directly reflects the battle in her own life of trying to defeat her internal demons. Seeing her take a chainsaw to the Abomination, her “demonic” other self, is the ultimate catharsis in this film. It is her acknowledging the former self that she will no longer be held in their control. The film then ultimately ends where it all started: Mia is outside the cabin, alone, backlit by the morning sun, only she is now a freed person with a new lease on life and a chance to start again.
The fact that this girl can literally go to the depths of hell and come back stronger is part of the reason we like her so much. I think many of us can empathize with her because, on a deeper level, we want to be able to face our own demons head-on and win the battle in a blaze of glory. Jane Levy deserves so much credit for making this character memorable, and Mia Allen is one of the coolest and baddest final girls in recent horror history.