Bruce Campbell’s Evil Dead remake will star Jane Levy from Suburgatory
November 30th, 2012
Do you remember cult-films? They were films too weird to appeal to a mainstream audience, but instead they acquired a fan base so enthralled, so enthused, so blindly obsessed that these quirky little low budget indie films gave birth to and entire franchise of toys and costumes and anniversary DVD sets and most importantly subculture. Perhaps the quintessential cult-film is the Rocky Horror Picture Show, staring a young scantily clad Susan Sarandon (If you ask her about it she’ll deny everything). It’s a surreal little piece about a couple of prudish newlyweds stranded in a mansion filled aliens from Transsexual, Transylvania. They still have midnight showings where audience members dress the parts and act out the movie in front of the screen. I’d almost prefer that Silver Circle reached cult-film status than mainstream success.
If I had to rank the all time best best cult-classics number two would be Evil Dead. I grew up watching Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. My brother and I could probably recite most of the script from memory. The best part was that they kept making sequels because they kept getting wrong. Evil Dead launched the career of Bruce Campbell, now famous for his role as Sam Axe on Burn Notice, because they just kept bringing him back to that same spooky cabin in the woods. Well now it seems a fourth in the Evil Dead franchise is set for release in Spring of next year, only this time Bill Campbell will be sitting in the producers chair, and in the lead role, Jane Levy from Suburgatory.
The first Evil Dead was a sincere attempt at horror, but it was so terrible it really only succeeded as a comedy. I’ve never been clear whether the second Evil Dead was a sequel or a remake, but Bruce Campbell again as Ash takes a new group of friends out to the same cabin… and the same quasi-horror comedy ensues. The second movie had a better a script, and larger budget, but there was just no escaping it. Bruce Campbell was built for comedy. By the third movie they had given up the ghost. They sum up the happenings of the first films in the opening sequence, send Ash hurdling through some kind of demonic vortex and and he arrives, with chainsaw as hand (no, not “in hand”) in the middle ages, ready to fight off the Army of the Dead. The producers of the franchise has accepted their role and comedy film writers and the Army of Darkness was a masterpiece.
At the New York Comic Con this year Bruce Campbell, seated with actress Jane Levy and director Fede Alvarez announced their intention to remake the original Evil Dead. . This time they went horror, not comedy, and from the looks of the trailer they got it right this time.
Compare this trailer from 1981:
To this trailer of the 2013 remake:
It sure doesn’t look like a comedy, but there’s plenty in the trailer to appeal cult fans of the series. It looks like they brought the same cabin out of storage for one thing. That old shack has made an appearance in every film so far. We also see the return of the Necronomicon, written in blood and bound in human flesh. We a modern remake of the scene from the first film of one of the female characters unfortunate rendezvous with haunted woods come to life. But most importantly, we see Elizabeth Blackmore as Natalie amputate her own hand echoing perhaps the most famous line Bruce Campbell ever uttered, “It got into my hand and it went bad, so I lopped it off at the wrist.” I guess we’ll see if Natalie replaces her hand with the signature chainsaw.
And for hardcore fans, it’s interesting to note that casting a female lead hearkens back to the original film that Evil Dead was based on, Within The Woods, which called for a female lead before Bruce Campbell was cast.
Visit http://www.SilverCircleMovie.com to learn more info about our forthcoming 3Danimated film. Also, the Silver Circle graphic novel is available now at the following hyperlinks in full color and black and white.
