Five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin where they discover a Book Of The Dead and unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.

CATEGORY
Demons | Remakes

RELEASE DATE April 5, 2013 July 16, 2013 (DVD) CURRENT STATUS Now On DVD LANGUAGE English PRODUCED BY Bruce Campbell Ghost House Pictures Mandate Pictures MPAA RATING R "Strong Bloody Violence and Gore, Some Sexual Content and Language." OFFICIAL SITES Twitter Facebook Official Site

DIRECTED BY Federico Alvarez WRITTEN BY Diablo Cody Federico Alvarez Rodo Sayagues STARRING Shiloh Fernandez Jane Levy Lou Taylor Pucci Jessica Lucas Elizabeth Blackmore

PROJECT DETAILS

• Federico Alvarez revealed at this year's WonderCon that if successful, he would like to not only proceed with a sequel, but also tie it in with the original franchise, especially since Raimi is reportedly going to be working on Evil Dead IV AKA Army of Darkness 2. The tie-in would occur in a 7th Evil Dead film that would combine both the original and rebooted franchises. It's uncertain whether this will actually happen, especially since all this talk is a bit premature at the moment, but time will tell. However, this might explain (SPOILER-HIGHLIGHT TO REVEAL) Bruce Campbell's brief cameo after the credits of this remake. (END SPOILER) (3/30/13)
• Originally had an April 12th 2013 theatrical release.
• The film reportedly received an NC-17 rating, so they had to cut several scenes to receive a proper R-rating. You can likely expect to see the cut scenes on an forthcoming DVD/Blu-ray release.
• Director Federico Alvarez had an interview recently where he revealed further details on the film. On the gore he was quoted saying: "It is gory, that's for sure. There is a line that Sam always talks about, the line between horror and comedy. You go too far and everyone starts laughing, but if you hit the right place everyone is scared to death. We were always standing on that line. And sometimes gore can be very funny, guts falling out blood splashing all over the place. It's not that kind of gory film. It is has a lot of blood. A lot of blood. I would come back home every day after shooting covered in blood... It is a very gory film. People had to cover themselves in plastic bags because there was blood and splatter everywhere."
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• He also goes on to reveal that the remake uses no CGI... "We didn't do any CGI in the movie. There's no CGI in the movie. Everything you will see is real, which was really demanding. This was a very long shoot, 70 days of shooting at night. There's a reason people use CGI it's cheaper and faster, I hate that. We researched a lot of magic tricks and illusion tricks. [Like] how you would make someone's arm disappear."

  He adds.. "There's a moment where a girl goes through her arm with a kitchen knife — spoiler alert. And we knew since day one the camera would start wide, she goes for the knife, you see her arm, she starts going for it. And you think they're going to cut away at any moment, but we don't. She just goes for it and screams and the arm breaks and falls. So we really pushed the boundaries there, trying to create those illusions... It has a particularly bloody ending. The last scene is just...I want it to be the bloodiest scene, ever. And I think it is."

• Bruce Campbell caught the final cut of the film and spoke about it and the differences fans can expect, saying:  "..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… You don’t want to remake something shot-for-shot. I can’t believe they remade ‘Psycho’ – what the hell kind of a waste of celluloid is that? It’s a creative medium. The nice thing is the film looks beautiful. The effects are 10 times better than we ever had access to and the actors are all better than we were in 1979. Though granted Sam Raimi is a mad genius, so we got a crazy result like Evil Dead out of this amateur enthusiasm sort of thing." He added..."There’s none of the original characters. We didn’t want to compare apples with apples. It’s a contemporary movie – just like Evil Dead was contemporary in 1979, this is contemporary for young adults now. 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...We want it to be a standalone movie. You’re going to have some references [to the original] in there and there’s going to be things the fans will enjoy as far as familiar aspects, but it’s a whole new ball game." (8/20/12)
• In a recent interview Sam Raimi was asked if he saw the remake as honoring the original in any way and his response was: "I don't think about it like that. I just think Fede Alvarez has really made a great horror movie. It's scary. The actors are great in it. It's really gut-wrenching, real low budget, and intense." (7/19/12)
• Filmed in New Zealand.
• Jessica Lucas will play "the best friend of the girl going through withdrawal (Levy) who is also a nurse."
• Elizabeth Blackmore is playing "the fiancée of [Shiloh] Fernandez and new to the group."
• Actress Jane Levy revealed some minor details in a recent interview, saying: "I'm so excited.  I'm a big fan of the original. To me it's the scariest movie, ever. But this one is really different. They've changed it a lot, but it's still a pretty gory movie. My mom probably can't see it.  As for the tone, I think the humor in the first one came from the special effects of the time. I don't know that they meant it to be funny...this one is not funny. It's definitely dark."
• Producer Bruce Campbell confirmed that the "evil trees" will be in this.
• Actor Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker, The Chumscrubber, Carriers) is in talks to play "Eric, an intense academic whose intellectual curiosity gets him and his friends into trouble."
• Jane Levy (Suburgatory, Shameless) is in talks to play the female lead, which is said to be the equivalent of the "Ash" character in the original.
• Shiloh Fernandez plays the male lead, fans may recognize him from Deadgirl and Red Riding Hood.
• Lily Collins (The Blind Side, Priest) was going to play the lead (which is said to be similar to the "Ash" role in the original films) but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.
• A spoiler-filled description on the story and what can be expected from the movie can be found here.
• Sony Pictures will distribute in the US.
• It's said that this will be more of a serious tone, and not as campy and comedic as the trilogy is known for.
• Co-writer Diablo Cody explained in a recent interview her role in the scripting process, saying: "I’m interested in storytelling here and making it scary and good and true to the original, because the director’s draft was really scary, I tried to stay away from some of the big horror set pieces. I didn’t wanna mess with his vision, because he’s the one who ultimately has to shoot it. That being said, there is a moment near the — I mean it’s unbelievably violent (laughs). Occasionally I threw in a wound here or there. I didn’t write anything extravagant." She added.. "It was really important again to the filmmakers that it remain totally grounded in reality and timeless. They weren't trying to make some hip trendy horror movie full of pop culture references. I really hope people don't think that that's what I was hired to do. I came in and worked on characters and relationships, things like that."
• Bruce Campbell shared some thoughts on the remake, saying: "We are going to remake it. The first one. And people are a little iffy about that [but] we wanted to remake a movie with better effects, and we're better at telling stories now... There's no 'Ash' character, and that pisses people off [but] we didn't want to have the direct comparison. I wouldn't want to put an actor in that position."
• Apparently director Federico Alvarez wants to cast fresh faces for the leads, and intends to change certain characters and story details, however, keep the basic theme of a group of friends being terrorized by demons in a cabin.
• The producers were quoted saying: "We are committed to making this movie and are inspired by the enduring popularity and enthusiasm for the ‘Evil Dead’ series. We can't wait to scare a new generation of moviegoers using filmmaking techniques that were not available to us thirty years ago as well as Fede bringing a fresh eye to the film’s original elements."
• The script was written by Federico Alvarez and Rodo Sayagues, with revisions from Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer's Body).
• This marks director Federico Alvarez's feature film directorial debut. He gained some notoriety with his short film Panic Attack!, which can be seen here.
• Described to be a "small indie thing like the first two."
• The film will supposedly follow a similar theme of a group of people affected by the Necronomicon (possibly in a secluded cabin), but resemblances to the original may stop there.
• There will be no Ash character in this film.
• Sam Raimi wanted to use the cabin that they used in the original film, but couldn't due to the fact that it burnt down many years ago.
• Sam Raimi originally said that he would rather not have Bruce in the film, but rather be in the sequel, however Bruce will apparently have a small cameo appearance towards the end.
• Sam Raimi will not be directing, instead he will be looking for a new director to "reinvent" the film after a script is written.
• Produced by original writer/director Sam Raimi and original producing partners Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell.
• A remake of the classic low-budget 1981 film.

GALLERY

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REVIEW

7/10 | Click here to read the official review from a UHM staff member.