EDITORIAL: My Thoughts On The EVIL DEAD Reboot So Far

EDITORIAL: My Thoughts On The EVIL DEAD Reboot So Far

Many fans have been very skeptical about the idea of the upcoming reboot to Sam Raimi's cult classic Evil Dead, mainly because of the fact that the infamous protagonist of the original films, Ash, isn't featured. Hit the jump to read my take on the matter...

Editorial Opinion
By WesleyGibson - Oct 25, 2012 01:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Horror




As a fan of Evil Dead, I have always liked fascinating lore that the films contain, as well as it's main protagonist Ash, who will unfortunately not be in the remake. To me, Ash (Bruce Campbell) was one of the highlights of the film, and many fans (including me) instantly loved the character. Adding to that, the dark humor, the gore, and the crazy ass demons made the movie one of the greatest horror shows out there. Without the element of Ash, I'm still just a little curious of how this movie will carry itself.

As everyone knows, the film industry today thrives off of reboots and remakes of popular movies/franchises that shined in the past, wishing to pull in more income and draw in new generations of fans for the stories that already support great fanbases. Many remakes however, usually fail to meet the satisfaction requirements of the fans, and are forgotten, while the originals continue to be the film(s) that people go and rent/buy. I rarely ever support the idea of remakes/reboots, especially if it's over films that I love.

So, on to this remake directed by Fede Alvarez (personally handpicked by Raimi himself) and produced by Raimi and Bruce Campbell. So far, images released have been promising, as well as the new trailer for the film. However, the exclusion of Ash always makes me say "No Ash, No Evil Dead" everytime a news article of the remake pops up. To me, it just seems off to not have the fan-favorite protagonist to continue on in films that bear the title. My only real complaint with this movie so far is that Ash will not appear, and I feel that that could really cripple its success.


A little nod to Ash eh? I love it.

I do like all the blood and gore that was seen in the trailer, as well as the look of the Deadites, and there was a certain shot from the trailer which can be seen above that I really liked. It's mainly the fact that Ash isn't there is what bugs me. But, an interesting way to work around the exclusion of Ash (which was pointed out by fellow CBM user ChanceX74), is that it could be a kind of sequel to the original films which sees a different bunch of kids in the same cabin, which could work out really well for the movie, making me forgive the only real issue I have with the remake so far.

CLOSING STATEMENTS: I don't know, even though the upcoming remake still has that feel of the original film, I just can't help but get that thought that it's gonna fall short, and be victim to that curse that plagues many of today's reboots and remakes. Out of everything that has been released as far as stills and the trailer goes, I will admit that I will be one of the ones giving it a try, but beyond that, it just seems like it's going to fail to deliver. Let's hope that Alvarez knows what he's doing.






Evil Dead is set for release next year.



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TheNameIsBetty
TheNameIsBetty - 10/25/2012, 2:11 AM
Maybe they will have an "Ash" type of character.....maybe. :(
Screwger
Screwger - 10/25/2012, 2:38 AM
No matter is Ash in it. It is remake of first Evil Dead where Ash was cowardly accident-survivor not the Evil Dead 2 when he became cult hero with chainsaw hand and shortened shotgun also with rped shirt on him. So, does it really matter if Ash in it since it remake of the first. If you want see some coward trying to survive deadites ( as was Ash) you will get that but the name will be different.
EdgyOutsider
EdgyOutsider - 10/25/2012, 2:56 AM
I know the character Ash, but I've never seen any of the Evil Dead movies. I was just never introduced to them. The thing I know the best of the original film is the tree rape scene, because of how disturbing it is. Quite frankly, I was just going to pass on the remake but the trailer grabbed my attention. I don't EVER get uncomfortable watching a movie that involves: Death, blood gore, rape, ect. But for some reason, when she cuts her tongue with a box knife, I got really uncomfortable.

Good write up :) and let's hope the film is good.
ChanceX74
ChanceX74 - 10/25/2012, 3:13 AM
Wow... I got a shout-out? Thank you Mr. Gibson.

Well, we will see how the actual plot line works out but that's how I am looking at the film for the time being. Part of what sent my mind that direction was some of the scribbling seen in the Book of the Dead in the trailer where someone had written "Don't read it! Don't speak it!" or something to that effect.

That had me thinking someone other than Professor Knowby could have written that on the pages as a warning after having done so themselves (Ash, maybe?) as I wouldn't think a Professor would be scribbling in red ink on the pages of an ancient book.

Even if we are lead to believe the Prof did so, I can still make myself consider it another entry.
sameoldthing
sameoldthing - 10/25/2012, 3:38 AM
What they have done with the film is take all the real horror / gore / scary bits & showcased it as a terrifying story about a demonic possession.

They went conventional & used a group of teens & dropped the character of Ash who by all rights has become a legendary film icon.
It was great to see a guy fight back despite being a coward type but the guy manned up & refused to lose.

These kids will be bland & I for one can't wait to see them get chopped up,possessed,raped by trees & treated badly in general.
The original 2 films will still be around to enjoy..this movie can't take that away but it looks deliberately typical horror schlock & not unique like the others.

Cross my fingers it surprises me & is scary good!
jessepostal
jessepostal - 10/25/2012, 5:05 AM
Its not a sequel. Its a remake of the first evil dead, evil dead that was not slap stick comedy meets horror, evil dead that was a remake of Sam Raimi's "within the woods". Its a remake of a remake. Ash was more Ashley in the first evil dead. Everyone loves Bruce but we don't need him to be in it to make this a good movie. And if it sucks so what we've still have ten diff dvd and blu ray releases of each in the series as well as the evil dead games(Fistul of Boomstick and regeneration are great sequels)plus Bubba ho Tep which is pretty much another "ash" movie
YOUNGBL00D
YOUNGBL00D - 10/25/2012, 5:18 AM
You guys are ridiculous, if there was a new Ash in this movie, you'd be bitching that they never should have replaced Bruce. Ash is his own character, why would they remake him.
ChanceX74
ChanceX74 - 10/25/2012, 6:01 AM
@Youngblood: I actually think Sam made the right choice to not have Ash in this. Having anyone but Bruce playing Ash would have suffered a massive backlash.

Everyone else: I'm well aware this is being advertised as a remake. If it helps immersion by thinking of it as a different group of college kids hitting the same cabin, what of it? It's not like there's going to be anything in it stating it's a remake.

@wards: How do you explain the book being burnt at the end of the original? We could ask Sam why the book was in Evil Dead 2 then. While we're at it, we can also ask him how the shotgun went from originally being in the shed and found by Ash in ED2 to being S-Marts top of the line originally in the trunk of the Olds in AoD.
imnotwearinghockeypants
imnotwearinghockeypants - 10/25/2012, 6:09 AM
Ash was 'one of the highlights'? Ash WAS the Evil Dead.
SigmaCenturion
SigmaCenturion - 10/25/2012, 6:52 AM
Wasn't the book in all three original movies?
punkstealingluggage
punkstealingluggage - 10/25/2012, 7:09 AM
I just don't consider it a remake....its just another version of the same story. Some characters CAN NOT be "replaced" : Campell as Ash, Englund as Freddy, Weller as Robocop, etc.
Niem8211
Niem8211 - 10/25/2012, 7:37 AM

@Richardness - Looks sweet, but still... Just a few things I miss 1. it would be better if they used the recorder for the scientist residing the words of the Necronomicon much creepier that some geek... And 2- I hope they have the [frick]ed up looking talking deer head fron the 2nd… But I love they kept the darkness running through the woods!

Looks a lot like the Jason remake, Freddy remake and TC Massacre remake --- I just miss the old style rather then the teens in the cabin shit that all these remakes resort to… If I wanted to see that I would watch Cabin in the Woods

Thanks so much,


StephenStrange
StephenStrange - 10/25/2012, 8:30 AM
@ battlinmurdock: You make good points.

personally I always wondered what would happen if they tried this and tried to capture the more serious tone of the first movie. As a kid Evil Dead 1 scared the crap out of me.

I don't think it has to have the goony humor to be a good horror movie.

So I will definitely be giving it a chance
Cthulhu
Cthulhu - 10/25/2012, 9:25 AM
Mia is the new Ash Bruce Campbell stated this himself at comic con.
jimpinto24
jimpinto24 - 10/25/2012, 9:56 AM
I agree! Hollywood as been doing a lot of remakes/reboots these days. But Evil Dead looks good. I hope it does well at the box office. The thing is, most remakes/reboots have failed at the box office. Don't get me wrong, I want Evil Dead to do well, but I don't know if the remake will be as good as the original.
MutantEquality
MutantEquality - 10/25/2012, 11:00 AM
Sorry folks to burst a couple of your bubbles but it's a remake and not a sequel. Just looking at the trailer and you'll see.

Another tree rapes the girl scene

Another Book of the Dead with scientist notes

and Ash is a girl! Look she has her hand possesed and is going to chop it off! Just like the original. Ash isn't gone but as some of you already speculated, the character is a girl now.

All in the trailer. I hope the movie is awesome and I hope the "New Ash" says some timeless one liners as well.

Ok now you can argue.
MutantEquality
MutantEquality - 10/25/2012, 11:02 AM
Nevermind about the scientist notes.
GSpawn
GSpawn - 10/25/2012, 12:09 PM
In all honesty this film I consider will be a sleeper hit, its got two things going against it
1)its a remake
2)its a horror film, no horror films with the exception of the M night films have ever been a top BO film, now
Ash not appearing does take away from the film but no to the point to where its not enjoyable for me to see it, it was either a recast witch everyone would hate, or Ash would be lost in the process of the film, Ash at this point is bigger than the films themselves if he got included in a main role people would bitch he isn't as "cool" as he was in the previous films a cameo would be fine for me, this film is going to back to the true horror aspect like the first did so I'm going to be a happy camper on my way to the theaters to this
ChanceX74
ChanceX74 - 10/25/2012, 2:02 PM
@Wards: ED2 is only half remake, and anyone that knows the story behind the production has always been aware of this. They were not able to use footage from the first film so everything before Ash initially leaves the cabin was condensed and re-shot minus the extra characters up until the chase cam pursues him and he is slammed into the tree. From this scene on, it's direct sequel.

You can conceivably cut off everything up until that part of the film, attach it to the end of ED1, and maintain consistency.
ChanceX74
ChanceX74 - 10/25/2012, 2:20 PM
@MutantEquality: It isn't being argued that it is a direct sequel but that one may be able to look at as such. Even just looking at the trailer, repeating scenes does not necessarily mean anything. Look at some of the repetitiveness between Escape from New York and Escape from LA. Definite sequel, but there were plenty of re-hashed plot devices played on scenes from NY, some of them almost exactly

Some of why this line of thinking has developed with some of us (that we can at least possibly view it in this light) are some quotes from Alverez himself:

"We call it a remake or a reboot, whatever you want to call it. It is a different story..."

"But it’s a different movie. And my mind is more... Yeah. Reimagining, I don’t know what that means. I know it’s just... They used to call them sequels. [laughs] I don’t know what happened today, but it’s just... I think it’s just a new story with a lot of elements taken from EVIL DEAD 1 and reshaped in a different way".

Then there are some bits of the preview that bring it to question as well: The scribbling in the book (someone besides Knoby possibly having read it and invoked the Deadites previously), the Olds beat up and overgrown with foliage (an homage or has it been sitting there because of certain previous visitors?)

And it's apparently caught on. There was an editorial posted today on a certain horror site that just posed the same questionable possibility.
Armyshot
Armyshot - 10/25/2012, 3:26 PM
Everyone I know, obviously loved part 2, they loved the comedy, but LOVED the first one more, because it was horror. I'm SOOOO excited for this movie. I think it looks insane, it's back to horror. It's okay to NOT have Ash in it, but when Bruce Campbell was asked if he cameos in it, he didn't say no, he just said, "i can't say". Now with Raimi having money and his own production company, big budget effects... Don't tell me, "it was the low budget effects that made the movie" it was a combination of everything and what the effects were supposed to be. I'm wondering if Raimi's car is going to cameo in it, Sam's signature that he puts in every movie he's part of. So excited.
MutantEquality
MutantEquality - 10/25/2012, 4:02 PM
@ChanceX74 Either way it's cool and i see your point. I just think it would be kinda a let down if it is a "semi-sequel" but has the same stuff.

@KamenRiderJ22 Awesome! You nailed it.

Hail to the Queen baby!

EdParker
EdParker - 10/25/2012, 7:37 PM
Now THIS looks like a horror movie i think i'll watch in the theaters.
geoffdog77
geoffdog77 - 10/26/2012, 9:17 AM
i wonder if they will be using the same format of the original first two films. except that in the second one, ash has never been to the cabin? like if you took the original evil dead and changed ash's name or something, the sequel might as well just be introducing a new character. i would be interested if they took the sequel and started with ash rolling up to that cabin with a honey...
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