This morning an entire swathe of
The Evil Dead fans - loyal to Sam Raimi's 1981 video nasty classic - watched the latest red band trailer for the upcoming remake of the film with bated breath. As with anything that commands such an ardent fan base, the expectations for the remake (as well as the trepidations relating to it) are extremely high. The original film - now a cult favourite - soared to infamy in the 1980's as a result of the heavy censorship imposed upon it by the BBFC and the film being taken to court under the Obscene Publications Act. Fortunately the film's success was not spawned entirely from the media hype imposed by the controversies surrounding its release. Arguably the movie's enduring success is resultant of its creative flair and deliciously black humour, elements that an army of horror fans took to their hearts and appreciated for its originality and artistic integrity; two traits that are often sadly omitted from much work within the horror genre. So, with the release of the second red band trailer for the remake coming out this morning one can't help but make some early assessments of the impressions it gives of this much anticipated remake. On the whole, it looks very promising. Fortunately for 2013's
Evil Dead it has a very strong team behind it with
Juno's Diablo Cody having penned the script, Sam Raimi on production, and the immensely promising new directorial talent of Fede Alvarez leading the project. With a list of names as strong as this, it always had a better hope than most modern remakes of 1980's horror flicks (ahem, Michael Bay, for the love of God stay away from
Halloween/Friday the 13th). If one of the primary joys behind the original was its balls to the wall gore, then Alvarez/Raimi/Cody sure as heck seem to have taken that on board. This trailer is incredibly explicit with its violence and is therefore absolutely not suitable viewing for work. The bare bones of the narrative appear to be essentially identical but the remake seems to diverge from the original in one significant and intriguing way: its tone. The original, while violent, gory and full of zombies ("deadites"), wasn't ostensibly a particularly scary film. It chose instead to focus on the comedic nature of its graphic violence rather than the more conventionally horrific representation of such content. Alternatively, if we take this new trailer at face value then Alvarez's remake looks pretty much devoid of any humour whatsoever. Instead, it's quite clearly choosing to align itself with the decidedly less funny elements tied to the plot (i.e. the extremely gory violence contained therein). The tree-rape scene looks to have been indulged fully this time around with unpleasant and harrowing force, as well as images of deadites cutting their tongues in half and vomiting their undead guts up all over their pals. This divergence in tone is by no means a problem. If anything, it hints at the individual propensities held within the impending release; unveiling itself to not just be a straight remake but a re-imagining as well. Anyway, I've pondered quite enough about the movie now: seems like the right time for you to see the thing for yourselves. Again, I can't emphasise enough how this really isn't appropriate office viewing. Check it out below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvDLWlxxcak&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DpvDLWlxxcak&has_verified=1
The film is set for UK release on the 19th of April 2013. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.