Fede Alvarez celebrated Evil Dead‘s 9th anniversary with a clip from the movie’s alternate ending
The writer and director also discussed how a note from Sam Raimi led him to rethink an even bloodier conclusion
Film Features Evil Dead
Evil Dead (2013), despite coming to a close with an incredible volume of apocalyptic gore, still managed to wrap up on a relatively hopeful note. As writer/director Fede Alvarez has shared, however, the movie was originally planned to come to a much darker close—one that he’s now shared details of through a brief clip and an unused page from the script.
To celebrate nine years since the movie was released in theaters, Alvarez tweeted out Polaroids of the (often blood-soaked) cast taken during production and mentioned, too, that “there was an alt. ending to my Evil Dead where Mia was taken by ‘the force’ just like Bruce [Campbell] was at the end of the first film.” He added that he “could share it here if you want,” which people naturally took him up on.
The scene Alvarez posted is very short, but does make good on showing both the alternate ending description and the truth that Jane Levy, who played Mia, supplied “one of the best screams in the movie on this take.” He also supplied an excerpt from the first draft of his script describing what was originally meant to happen next.
In short: Mia would’ve exploded into “gallons of blood and guts flying everywhere.”
Alvarez writes that advice from Sam Raimi, Evil Dead producer (and the director/writer of the original films), led to the levitation explosion-free ending he went with. “Sam Raimi (wisely) pointed out ‘after everything [Mia’s] been through, she deserves to live’ so I rewrote it to the actual ending.”
The Evil Dead, like an ancient Kandarian demon, never goes away for too long, though, and a new movie directed by Lee Cronin is set for release sometime this year. Whether Raimi’s influence will keep Evil Dead Rise from ending with buckets of loose viscera and blood, well, we’ll just have to wait and see.
[via Bloody Disgusting]
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6 Comments
“Sam Raimi (wisely) pointed out ‘after everything [Mia’s] been through, she deserves to live’ so I rewrote it to the actual ending.” Sounds like Raimi was trying to exercise his “Drag Me to Hell” demons/guilt.
The protagonist just getting hit by the camera/”evil” at the end does seem like a copy of the original… although the gore afterward would show how CGI has advanced. I prefer the remake to the original even though I can’t stand how the Haunting of Hill House reversed the ending of its source material due to its repackaging as a family drama series being incompatible with horror.
But that was a fun ending.
Nothing at all wrong with the ending of Drag Me to Hell.
Was a good move, that original ending would’ve ruined the movie imo. The ending we got was so satisfying, a bleak party-wipe would’ve just felt cheap.I wonder though if it influenced [redacted’s] demise in the show, that whole episode really reminded me of this film.
I recall thinking the movie was alright when it came out but I’ve had no desire to ever check it out again or really even think about it.