Evil Dead Remake Will Have a Girl Lead!

by Amy Bucknam

Fear not, Deadites, because Evil Dead is making a comeback.  A remake of the original cult classic is scheduled for April 12, 2013 and guess what – the protagonist will be a girl!

 

For those who aren’t familiar with the original Evil Dead trilogy, the first film came out in 1981.  The hero was Ash Williams, played by Bruce Campbell, a normal guy who always ended up dealing with some crazy ancient supernatural forces as he fought off demons with a shotgun and a chainsaw (which he later attached to replace his right arm).  Ash Williams was a legend, a hero, and he will be missed, but it’s time for a lady to step up to the undead challenge.

 

Plus! Campbell gives the re-do his stamp of approval, calling it “definitely fabulous.” He has even signed on as a producer.

 

“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,” Campbell said in an interview with DigitalSpy.com.

 

The new protagonist will be a recovering drug addict named Mia, played by Jane Levy, currently of ABC’s Suburgatory.  Having the new Ash be a girl hopefully means that this new version will offer us a badass demon-fighting heroine and that it will lack the moments of misogyny that were regrettably in the original trilogy, such as the “tree rape” scene in the first film, in which the female character Cheryl is sexually violated by a tree.

 

The remake will have none of the original characters, and instead will be based off the first film of the original trilogy and focus on a new group of teens searching for the Book of the Dead.

 

“We didn’t want to compare apples with apples,” Campbell said. “It’s a contemporary movie – just like Evil Dead was contemporary in 1979, this is contemporary for young adults now.”

Upon first glance, it sounds like this remake has the potential to be good.  Along with Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, the original director of the trilogy, who is now known for his blockbuster Spiderman films, is another producer on the remake.  Newbie Uruguayan filmmaker Fede Álvarez wrote the original script, but then the brilliantly sadistic Diablo Cody stepped in and did some rewrites.  Álvarez gained recognition in 2009 when he posted his almost five-minute-long short film called Ataque de Pánico! (Panic Attack!) on YouTube.

 

While the first of the original trilogy, The Evil Dead, was more of a straight horror film, the two sequels, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, were jam-packed with silly dark humor, something that Diablo Cody has most definitely offered in the past.  Think what you want about Jennifer’s Body, but with some tweaking and the right hokey horror setting, the kind of comedy she used in that demonic thriller has the potential to be fantastically fitting for this remake.  I think Cody will kill it.

 

Images via GeekTyrant.com

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