Movies
Diablo Cody Feared Penning ‘The Evil Dead’ Reboot
An Oscar-winning writer tackling horror? That’s rare. Usually it’s the stars who free-fall into our genre after making a name for themselves (Halle Berry in Gothika and Hilary Swank in The Reaping, to name a few). But let’s not kid ourselves, WE know that stars should always be doing horror, no matter how big they get, which is probably why Diablo Cody stuck to her guns and took a stab at Ghost House Pictures’ retooling of The Evil Dead. Taking on a modern spin on Sam Raimi’s beloved 1981 film is dangerous, even Cody knew she was entering a cabin where she may never return from. I can’t help but to give her some props, especially because she didn’t have to do it (she can do anything she wants as an Oscar winner). Here’s what she told Collider:
“I was nervous to take the job because I thought, Ugh, I’m gonna get shit for this. People are not gonna like this, because all people know of me is like Juno and they think I’m gonna pollute ‘Evil Dead’ with like wacky dialogue and cute stuff and folk music, and it’s like ‘No, look I understand what this is. I’m interested in storytelling here and making it scary and good and true to the original,’ ” she said.
Cody adds, “Because the director’s draft was really scary, I tried to stay away from some of the big horror set pieces. I didn’t wanna mess with his vision, because he’s the one who ultimately has to shoot it. That being said, there is a moment near the — I mean it’s unbelievably violent (laughs). Occasionally I threw in a wound here or there. I didn’t write anything extravagant.”
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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