The Evil Dead.

A great movie. A great franchise. One that had a time and a place and one that becomes harder to support with each tease of a sequel, lame video game, or horrendous comic book. I went to film school primarily because of Evil Dead 2. It’s one of the cornerstone films of my life and the midnight showing of the first sneak preview of Army of Darkness in Atlanta was one of the most important events of my young life.

It was a specific place and time and it shaped the careers of a great filmmaker and a great cult personality in Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, respectively. And though they’ve had the fans rabid with swirling rumors of more Ash and his Boomstick, the reality is that there was no more left to do or say in that franchise.

And now all the talk of a remake has led us to here. It looks like it’s happening. With the endorsement and involvement of Raimi and Campbell as producers. And vital cog Rob Tapert.

For those who have forgotten, The Evil Dead is a straight horror flick. There’s no splatstick to be found, only tree rape and delicious stop-motion. With that said, the reason the brand still exists owes a lot more to severed hands, chainsaws, and Bruce Campbells campy masterwork of a performance as Ash.

The new film boasts Fede [short film Panic Attack] Alvarez as a writer/director and a script revision from Diablo Cody, whose Jennifer’s Body was a feature length Buffy episode only not as fun. This causes fears in me, and let’s face it… as vital as the movies and their creators are to me, they are not the seal of quality. Peer at Mr. Campbell’s IMDB page. It’s hard to be an apologist.

I wish it weren’t happening, but as usual I hope for the best.

 

Source: The Hollywood Reporter