For a film made for basically nothing by a crew mostly composed of director Sam Raimi’s friends and family, The Evil Dead has had a remarkably long shelf life. And now, 38 years after its initial debut, the film is about to enter a new phase of its afterlife, as Grindhouse Releasing debuts a new 4k restoration of the film, complete with a new audio mix and “reimagined” score from original composer Joseph LoDuca. About the film’s new aural makeover, star Bruce Campbell says in a press release:
Mixing the sound for Evil Dead in the early 80’s, we were forced to shove everything into one monaural box. As a result, Joe LoDuca’s great score had to compete unfairly with Kandarian Demons, gore sound effects and lots of screaming. With this new release, Joe can finally have his dynamic composition mixed, balanced and featured properly – for perhaps the first time ever!
The new The Evil Dead: A Nightmare Reimagined “theatrical experience”will see its world premiere this weekend at MondoCon at the Palmer Events Center in Austin, TX, but we’ve got an exclusive clip so you can see the restoration’s rich color—and, yes, much more prominent score—for yourself in advance. Mondo will also be selling the Evil Dead soundtrack on vinyl with the new mix as part of a MondoCon exclusive “Book of the Dead” slipcase set at this weekend’s con, and you can see the cover art for that below.
MondoCon takes place September 14 and 15 in Austin, TX, and you can see a full lineup of events at this link.
18 Comments
When I was fourteen years old, I visited London. There, a middle-aged lady who actually wore cougar-patterned tights tried to lure me into her boudoir by tempting me with a screening of The Evil Dead, a movie I had seen a half-dozen times at least. She presented it as some kind of irresistible contraband, and I was too confused to accept her invitation. Later I learned it was contraband in London at that time, thanks to the Video Nasty thing. If it had gone down, she’d have done her time for having a copy of the movie rather than for contributing to the engorgement of a minor!
Owning a “video nasty” was/is not a crime. Selling it to someone else, however, is 🙂
Groovy.Yeah, I know, that’s from Evil Dead 2.
The new mix really does sound incredible!
“Experience the thrill of watching Bruce Campbell get trapped under a series of flimsy bookshelves in glorious 4K.”In all seriousness, I’d love to see this restoration (although I wish they went with the creepier blue-ish color grading of the pre-DVD releases).
I love this movie but I swear on my own grave he gets attacked by more bookshelves than demons in this film. When I was a teenager my friends and I turned it into a smoking game. Every bookshelf that fell we smoked another joint. I agree about the coloring too.
bruce looks soooo young!
He still does!
What is this, the 37th or 38th re-release of a movie from this franchise?
I love the evil dead! N Bruce Campbell is just amazing what sucks is that ash vs. Evil dead was amazing till the last scene you have no idea what happens.I wish they ended it with a 4th season so at least the fans had some satisfaction but oh well big ash fan! N I turned my dad into one one too:D
Didn’t it just get a new 4k release less than a year ago?
And when can we get our grubby, grave-digging hands on the Blu-Ray and Soundtrack CD?
The Evil Dead is the only film to ever draw an involuntary scream from my body (the gourds in the basement). It is a darn good film, and completely unrelated to the sillyness that would follow from and in Evil Dead 2.
I was sceptical about this, because Evil Dead is one of those films where the scratchyness of the whole thing is part of the fun. I’m not dying to see it in 4k, but a new modern sound mix could really enhance the experience without betraying its low-fi roots.
I get a little uneasy about the idea of completely remixing a movie, even if it’s just the score. And while these HD versions are neat, they can have weird effects on a movie’s mystique. I’m thinking about the Phantasm restoration that added a goddamn Bad Robot production card to the opening credits (that’s not restoration, it’s vandalism).
I’m split on some of these restorations. My heart sank when I bought the Zatoichi blu-ray box and could then make out the soundstage walls in the background when in good old low-rez version it was just the black night sky.
Sound remixes should be popped in the same shitty box as added CGI.The mono is lost forever on home video
I think the burning question is how much more pronounced is that moon insert going to be?