Fans of Sam Raimi's horror classic The Evil Dead were in uproar when it was announced that it would be another victim of the Hollywood remake machine. Feelings cooled down some what when Raimi and the originals lead, Bruce Campbell, came on as producers, promising a least a semblance of what made the original great. And thinking about it, can we really stay angry at Hollywood for remaking a movie that is famous for being remade into it's own sequel?
The story of The Evil Dead goes that a group of friends go to a cabin in the woods, and find the Necronomicon, a book of pure evil, bound in human flesh and written in human blood. Of course, someone is stupid enough to read from it, releasing a demonic evil into the world that proceeds to terrorise them. What made the original so beloved was it's mixture of gruesome, practical effects and pitch black humour, something that was ramped up in it's two sequels. Early word from the remake points towards something different, evident from the fact that Campbell's iconic character of Ash being switched out for Jane Levy's Mia (pictured).
Early word from the remakes script, which received a polish from Juno and Young Adult's Diablo Cody, has Mia as the reason the characters find themselves in the cabin, an attempt by her friends and family to get her to kick her drug habit. As she goes cold turkey, she begins to directly experience the evil that the Necronomicon holds. Speaking to The Insider, Levy reiterated that the remake was something different, saying, "I think the humor in the first one came from the special effects of the time. I don't they meant it to be funny..... this one is not funny. It is definitely dark". Campbell backed her up, "You can expect to have a damn scary horror movie. There's no Ash character. The Evil Book is going to torment a new set of kids, so it's a remake, or a re-imagining or ..... a re-whatever word you want to use. It's going to be re-scary." He also went on to comment on the originals infamous scene where a tree, for want of a better word, forced itself on an unsuspecting female. All he had to say was, "They're not terribly well-behaved this time either."
The remake is directed by Fede Alvarez, and stars Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, and Lou Taylor Pucci. It is expected to begin shooting in New Zealand sometime this year.
Source: The Insider
