EVIL DEAD: Remake sequel unlikely because of TV Show Development

Evil Dead remake sequel unlikely in light of developing TV show. Does that sound fine?” Then: The Evil Dead, that squirmy and crackling little horror film that could, announced the arrival of its creator Sam Raimi as a formidable force: if the man’s vision wasn’t born fully formed, it was certainly ripe for plucking, ready to be stretched. That vision got its legs in the 1981 film’s sequel/reimagining, Evil Dead II, wherein Raimi began to hone his comic-book rendering of the horrific and the hysterical that would come to be his filmic universe. Since then, the man’s written the spiritual prelude to No Country For Old Men*, spun out a web of superhero flicks, and generally stayed true to his profane and groovy muse.

That muse lead Raimi to announcing an Evil Dead television show which is awesome because:

• It puts Raimi back in the driver’s seat after Fede Alvarez‘s 2013 remake. Alvarez was plenty reverent and displayed a keen eye for what inspires our terror, but there’s something to the Raimi-crafted horror that makes us all scream and laugh and that’s good.
• Bruce Campbell has already confirmed involvement as long as the project thrives. Like Stewart and Hitch and John Goodman and the Coens, some partnerships inspire. Nobody else talks Tarantino like Christoph Waltz and nobody else knows how to laugh and scream Raimi like Campbell.
• Bruce Campbell has already confirmed involvement and that needs to be said again because Bruce Campbell.

And while we’re all polishing up our four personal copies of Army of Darkness, this might be the death knell for another Raimi inspired venture. Despite buzz being so positive for the Alvarez remake that a sequel was already being scripted before the first film’s release, recent chatter with Arrow in the Head from the remake’s star Jane Levy sheds doubt on the reality of such a film:

“I don’t think they’re gonna make it. I mean, they’re always coming up with a new thing- now I hear they’re making a TV show. I was like, what? [Laughs] I think they just like exciting their fans and confusing them. I honestly don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like there’s going to be an EVIL DEAD 2 anytime soon. At least, not with me in it.”

As always, all this buzz and chatter is suspect to change and transfigure itself nine times to Tuesday before we see anything on a screen, small or big. While its easy to bemoan Hollywood’s relationship to the sequel/remake phenomenon, Alvarez’s film is arguably a progressive step forward in the aesthetic Raimi began chasing all those years ago. And seeing where Alvarez would take the tonal shift of Evil Dead II remains alluring. But: the weird scope of popular culture needs people like Sam Raimi to keep their hands dirty. Go back to Darkman or Oz the Great and Powerful and remember how much fun the man has with cameras. Keep the chainsaws sharp, Screwheads.

* 1998’s A Simple Plan, which somehow nobody has seen. Double bill it with No Country and sink into a deep, beer-swill funk knowing that mankind will always betray itself and Billy Bob Thornton is still cooler than you.

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