Last July, Sam Raimi said we could expect “some action” on a new Evil Dead movie within six months. Well, it’s been a touch longer than that—look, the world’s in absolute goddamned turmoil right now so we get it—but today it’s been announced that a new entry in the franchise is on the way.
Bruce Campbell dropped the news in a new interview with Empire, revealing that Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin will write and direct a film they’re calling Evil Dead Now. Cronin was, per Campbell, “handpicked” by Raimi, and the plan is for him to “get that sucker out as soon as practical.”
Raimi said in July that there were three paths forward for an Evil Dead movie, including continuations of either the Ash Vs. Evil Dead series or Fede Álvarez’s 2013 reboot. It seems, however, that they’ve settled on neither of them, likely due to Campbell having retired the iconic Ash and Álvarez already having a full plate.
So what will Cronin’s movie look like? Campbell doesn’t reveal much, aside from that it will feature a female lead.
“From this point forward, they kind of have to stand on their own. Which is fine. And liberating,” Campbell told Empire. “You could have different heroes, different heroines in this case. This one’s gonna be a little more dynamic.”
He continued, “We just want to keep the series current. And the mantra, really, is that our heroes and heroines are just regular people. That’s what we’re going to continue.”
We mostly liked Cronin’s The Hole In The Ground when we caught it last year—our review calls it a “fresh angle on the possessed-kid subgenre” that, alas, suffers from leaning too hard into its metaphor. The good news? Evil Dead doesn’t need metaphors! It just needs blood. Lots and lots and lots of blood.
17 Comments
I still think they should combine the rebooted movie with Ash vs Evil Dead and have Jane Levy’s character team up with “Ghost Beaters” Kelly, Pablo, and Brandy
When The Chin announced that he was retiring as Ash, my first thought instantly was “Time for Pablo and Kelly to step up and get shit done!”
This is easily the third time I’ve seen that GIF in comments today. And it never gets old. That said, I never want the Evil Dead to end. I grew up on the originals, loved Army of Darkness, and nearly creamed myself when I heard that there was going to be a series on Starz. I’m still pissed it was only three seasons, and yeah, the second season was kinda…meh…but the world that Raimi created is great.I’m perfectly fine with them moving forward with…whatever chainsaw arms.
I remember something about a planned crossover titled “Evil Dead vs Evil Dead”. I hope they revisit that, because I really liked ED’13.
The Hole in the Ground was an odd movie in how it had a bunch of really distinct, kinda unique elements while also feeling incredibly, overwhelmingly generic as a whole. Not really sure how Cronin’s gothic and “this is a very serious movie” overtones will fit with the general madcappery of Evil Dead movies, but since he seems pretty new to the business, maybe he’ll experiment with some different tones if he’s not writing the script and producing the thing?
Fede Alvarez isn’t known for “madcappery” but I thought his Evil Dead movie was good. Better than the non-comedic original in my book.
I do have a bad habit of locking directors into a style, even though so many show that it’s a lot easier to translate certain filmmaking beats from one genre to another (like knowing how comedic timing works because you understand the timing of suspense or something like that). That said, Alvarez’s career prior to Evil Dead was a few short films, so I feel like there was more of a question mark with his style at that time compared to Cronin who’s already made a feature length horror, which happened to have an austere aesthetic that tried to use metaphors to say something important about the trauma of spousal abuse. So I have some concerns that it will be an odd fit (even though I hope it turns out entertaining, if nothing else).
The newest Evil Dead movie was’t very madcap. It could go any direction.
Yeah, that’s a fair point. I’d prefer a return to some of the absurdity, but another decent gorefest isn’t unreasonable.
My biggest concern is how they’re emphasizing keeping the series current, and by bringing in Cronin, I’m worried they’re thinking of stuff like Midsommar or the Suspiria remake, which would be a dramatically different and kind of odd direction to take the series.
“It will feature a female lead.”The instant our hero read this phrase, he let out a mighty spit-take, spraying Mountain Dew Code Red all over his waifu bodypillow. Veins bulge beneath his oily neckbeard as his hands quiver with hot rage and grasp towards the most well-worn keys on his backlighted keyboard: “S”! “J”! “W”!
I mean one of the elements that made Evil Dead stand from other horror movies, was that the lead was a male character in a genre dominated by female leads / final girls. So it is kind of disappointing they are going for another female lead for Evil Dead, rather than try to do another spin on the hapless poor bastard getting in over his head. Instead it will be a strong female, who rises up against her advisories.
Couldn’t it be a hapless everygirl female who’s in over her head?
That’s the go to for pretty much 99% of horror movies. Evil Dead was different because the lead was male, and kind of an idiot.
on a new Evil Dead
As long as the new lead is goofy I don’t care if they’re male or female. There’s way too many heroic horror leads elsewhere, and The Evil Dead should be the one series where the main character is a bit of an idiot.
He’s a smart shopper though, give him that.