With so many remakes and reboots in the works, one that’s been met with a lot of skepticism, especially among horror fans, is the remake of Evil Dead.
The original Evil Dead trilogy, created by Sam Raimi, are still classics, and they show just how wonderfully inventive Raimi was as a director on a shoestring budget. It may not be as blasphemous as remaking Halloween, but the original Evil Dead flicks are still very beloved, and why mess with a good thing?
The Evil Dead flicks also were the debut of square jawed Bruce Campbell, who played the main man fighting the forces in the woods, Ash. Now he’s weighed in on the remake via Collider and Digital Spy, and here’s some of his thoughts on the home made horror classic being redone.
One of the weirdest decisions they’ve made with the new Evil Dead is Ash isn’t in it, in fact, as Campbell confirms, “There’s none of the original characters. We didn’t want to compare apples with apples.”
“And of course it’s also being updated, and it’s “contemporary for young adults now,” Campbell continues. “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.”
Raimi and company actually own the negative for the first Evil Dead film, and have kept a watchful eye over the Dead legacy, which is why they haven’t been in a rush to make a fourth movie, as much as we fans would love it. Campbell said he’s seen the new Evil Dead, which is hitting theaters April 12, 2013, and he said, “I think it’s definitely fabulous… We’re really excited and really behind it.”
At the same time, Campbell knows “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 on them is that we didn’t screw it up.”
Campbell also says the effects are going to be “10 times better,” and the acting’s better, but what was great about Evil Dead was its low budget charm. It had almost a home movie feel to it, and true fans of horror definitely appreciate effort and sincerity in a horror film when you don’t have a ton of money.
Could an Evil Dead movie with a much bigger budget and better actors strip away that original charm? We’ll find out for sure next April.
