I had sort of blocked this Evil Dead remake from my head. It’s not that I’m wishing any ill will upon it; I’m just running out of space in my brain for all of these remakes. The first Evil Dead is a spirited piece of indie horror that wears its budget on its crusty sleeve, but it’s no masterpiece. Ash doesn’t seriously become the Ash we know and love until Evil Dead 2. So if the original is famous for anything, it’s being the first film to portray tree rape.
I imagine this remake will have fair amounts of both 1 and 2 but played dryer and with better looking kids. I don’t know if expectations are particularly high, but one person who ain’t havin’ any of your negative bullshit is Bruce Campbell: Ash personified and producer on this new remake. Here’s a quote from an interview he did with Digital Spy:
“It’s basically five new kids who are going to have a really bad night with a brand new director – Fede Alvarez, who was handpicked by Sam Raimi. I’ve seen it already; I think it’s definitely fabulous.”
And as for whether fans will embrace it:
“We’re really excited and really behind it, [but] it’s going to take a bit to get the Evil Dead fans behind it. We know we’ve pissed a lot of them off. We appreciate that and we appreciate their anger and their zeal, but the only thing we want to impress upon them is that we didn’t screw it up. This is going to be just as memorable as [the original] Evil Dead without being the same movie.”
It’d be more reassuring if Campbell weren’t a producer. Of course he’s going to like it, he works there. Doesn’t change the fact that this sounds like a very safe and pedestrian remake. Especially after yesterday’s news of a Samurai-infused Unforgiven remake. Which is a trend I hope catches on. Every movie from the silent era on would benefit from samurais. Even the ones that already had samurais in them, just more of them. Intolerance? Samurais. Casablanca? Samurais. Sparkle? Samurais wouldn’t have stood for any of her sister’s bullshit.
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