Horror remakes is almost as old as the history of film. I’ve tried to educate those who complain that another horror classic was being remade and it will suck. Guess what horror classics have always been remade and they don’t always suck. So, instead of telling these snobs to go in their rooms and drool and jerk one off to their classics they don’t want tarnished by a remake I just shake my head and try to see if the remake holds up to the original or, better yet, judge the remake on it’s own creative merits and see if it brings something new to the “classic” original.
In 2013 we see one such horror remake arriving on the big-screen with Fede Alvarez’s new take on a true horror and grindhouse classic horror, The Evil Dead.
The film will be produced by two of the same people who made the original film in Sam Raimi and Bruce “God when walking amongst the humans he created” Campbell. There will not be a character named Ash, but the role of Mia (played by Jane Levy) will take on a similar role in the film. This trailer first premiered for a select audience during this year’s New York Comic-Con and the response was loud, louder and even louder. One thing which everyone who saw the trailer seemed to agree was that the remake looks to honor the original film (rushing POV tracking shots to the oppressive atmosphere throughout the film) while also giving director Fede Alvarez a chance to add his own visual and narrative style to the production.
It is going to be a gory remake and very oppressive and nihilistic. What the trailer doesn’t seem to hint at is any sign of dark humor that fans of the original film are now nitpicking about. Guess what…the original was straight up grindhouse horror that had nothing humorous about (well unless you consider a possessed tree raping a woman as being hilarious). So, it’s going to be interesting to see if this remake will get a chance to impress the fans of the original while at the same time show those new to the horror genre a glimpse at what 70’s horror was really all about.
The Evil Dead is set for a 2013 release date.
Through the Shattered Lens 
While I completely understand disliking those who’s immediate reaction to remakes is to put them down, I feel you’re also ignoring the filmmaker’s own motives. I’d say they want the naysayers, as they’re more paying customers. Sure it’s a cynical way to do business, but why else pick a beloved film and tinker with it? Why not pick a mediocre film, and improve upon it?
Similar to how in hip hop, great remixers take inconsequential songs and transform them into statements. No one cared about G.L.O.B.E. and Whiz Kid’s “Play that Beat, Mr. DJ” until Steinski and Double D took the words out, while making the title literal.
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True. I also think that Sam Raimi and Campbell really don’t want to do another Evil Dead film but more than happy to see the franchise continue on with some new people, but with them in producing and guiding.
Raimi could easily have gone the easy route and picked someone like Ratner, Nispel or a dozen or so other genre filmmakers with experience but inconsistent quality in overall products. Instead he goes with an unknown first-timer in Fede Alvarez.
I’m not jumping on the bandwagon just yet, but the trailer showed me that at the very least Alvarez understands the grungy, grindhouse feel of the original film. Now whether it’ll have some humorous aspect to this remake will still be an up in the air sort of question.
As for the namecalling. I usually don’t do such things, but I’m just going to preempt those who are already going to complain that this remake is going to suck without having seen the final product and even if they do see it their mind has been made up because to them all remakes suck. It’s a weird thing that people who say they’re film aficionados do. For me film fans and aficionados love film no matter what type of genre and will give every film that comes their way a chance to convince them. But I see more and more who like to use the rally cry of protecting film integrity and storytelling ingenuity by trashing anything that looks like it might be cashing in on a trend, catering to the common denominator of the wide audience instead of a select elite few.
It’s not even film snobbery. It’s creative discrimination that tells everyone who likes something they don’t that their voices don’t count and that they’re stupid and mindless for falling for the studio products instead of going down on their knees to worship on the altar of the indie, obscure and the arthouse. Film as a form of entertainment was created as a form of mass entertainment first and foremost. The high art in film came about as a consequence of film gaining mass appeal that allowed filmmakers willing to go beyond the mass entertainment aspect of the art form to reach a higher level of artistry.
Does this mean that the films made to appeal to the wide, mass audience lack in quality because it may not be bringing anything new or innovative to the art form? My answer as a film fan and aficionado is no it does not. Cinema in all its many types, qualities and levels of artistry should be celebrated instead of segregated. When I try to explain this way of thinking I get called names or insulted. So, I tried to use their way of discussing for a test run to see if it works. Other than a fleeting sense of childish glee it’s not something I’d see myself using a lot. Plus, it does go against the site’s mission statement of mainstream meeting the fringe, grindhouse, arthouse, etc…
Ok, end rant. 😀
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