If we're being honest, the forthcoming Evil Dead remake has yet to truly convince us it's a worthwhile project. However, the one major thing it has in its favour is that Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi are on board as producers, and the former has taken the time to elaborate a little on what we can expect from this latest trip to the cabin.
"There’s none of the original characters," says Campbell. "We didn’t want to compare apples with apples. It’s a contemporary movie – just like The Evil Dead was contemporary in 1979, this is contemporary for young adults now.
It’s basically five new kids who are going to have a really bad night with a brand new director – Fede Alvarez, who was handpicked by Sam Raimi. I’ve seen it already; I think it’s definitely fabulous."
"You don’t want to remake something shot-for-shot," he continues. "I can’t believe they remade Psycho – what the hell kind of a waste of celluloid is that? It’s a creative medium."
As for the sceptical fans of the original, Campbell stresses that he understands their concerns, but reasons that they need to give the new film a chance.
“We’re really excited and really behind it, [ but ] it’s going to take a bit to get the Evil Dead fans behind it. We know we’ve pissed a lot of them off. We appreciate that and we appreciate their anger and their zeal, but the only thing we want to impress upon them is that we didn’t screw it up. This is going to be just as memorable as Evil Dead without being the same movie.”
“The nice thing is the film looks beautiful," he continues. "The effects are 10 times better than we ever had access to and the actors are all better than we were in 1979. Though granted Sam Raimi is a mad genius, so we got a crazy result like Evil Dead out of this amateur enthusiasm sort of thing."
However, the question everybody wants to know the answer to is whether or not Campbell will be popping up for a cameo…
"I’m not at liberty to discuss that," he says, coyly. "But the thing is we want it to be a standalone movie. You’re going to have some references [ to the original ] in there and there’s going to be things the fans will enjoy as far as familiar aspects, but it’s a whole new ball game.”
We'll take that as a yes, then. Evil Dead opens in the UK on 12 April 2013.
