Editorials
Who Here Has Actually Seen ‘The Evil Dead’? It’s A Horror Movie! And It’s Not All About Ash!
A couple weeks ago, the stars of the upcoming The Evil Dead remake commented on the tone of the film they’re about to shoot. It seemed to catch a lot of people off guard. Not our piece necessarily, but the fact that the talent involved (along with Bruce Campbell) were talking about a “seriously scary” movie seemed to flummox people.
Another aspect of the upcoming remake that has some people seriously freaking out? No Ash. No Ashley J. Williams. No Bruce Campbell. No Chin. Now, I love Bruce Campbell. I’ve seen Evil Dead 2 literally dozens of times. Which is why I think it’s a good thing he’s not in this movie.
You may think you want Ash in the remake too. But you don’t. Not really. Why? Because it’s a remake of The Evil Dead. Not Evil Dead 2. And there’s a huge difference.
Ash is not the embodiment of the original film. And humor’s not really a huge component either.
Hit the jump to read on. 
In 1981, The Evil Dead intended to scare and shock. That tree rape is, and is supposed to be, horrific. That’s the intent, even if the success of the tone is a mixed bag. I think that Raimi’s at-the-time experimental camera work is often the sword upon which the perception of that tone falls. Some of the shots are so ambitious and self-conscious that they come across as comedic. And while comedy may have been a component of their design, it wasn’t 100% the desired end result. I’m not saying the whole thing is intended to be humorless – it’s a smart film that winks at the conventions of its genre, but that genre is most certainly horror.
The Evil Dead takes way more time in setting up its characters than its followup. Notice that the word “character” is pluralized. There are four other major players that aren’t Ash – Cheryl, Linda, Scott and Shelly. Elements in the sequel that are exaggerated and out of nowhere – such as the bridge being blown out – are actually set up in the first act of this film. It’s an entirely different, much more grounded experience. There’s no laughing lamps, no dancing nude bodies, no vortex, no rotating Ash flying through the woods. And even though it may use less buckets of blood than its more famous younger sibling – it feels twice as brutal. Even if Ash keeps his hand.
When the time came to make the sequel – six years had passed. And I get the feeling that Raimi was more interested in examining and celebrating the weaknesses of his original work than he was in revisiting its actual mindset. Which could be why Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness have that madcap “Looney Tunes” aesthetic that is almost completely absent from the 1981 film. In essence – Evil Dead 2 is a spoof of The Evil Dead. I’m not saying the sequel isn’t awesome – it is. I’m not saying it doesn’t count as horror – it does. But tonally, it’s about almost as night and day different as Hot Shots is from Top Gun.
When people walked out of the premiere of the original Evil Dead on October 15th, 1981 in Detroit, Michigan – I’m willing to bet what the first thing on their tongues wasn’t. Bruce Campbell. Sure, he’s the hero of the film. Yes, even back then he displayed a great deal of charisma. But this wasn’t a one person show a la Evil Dead 2 and there were other cast members to account for. But none of them were really the stars either. The star of Evil Dead? The film itself. I’m not saying this to detract from any of the casts’ contributions to the film or Campbell’s deserved legacy and iconic status – I’m just saying none of them were the identity of the movie.
Ash is certainly a character in The Evil Dead. He even turns out to be the hero (albeit in a much more toned-down manner than in the subsequent films). The setup was a standard ensemble ‘Cabin In The Woods’ film. Structurally, it’s essentially a slasher movie – but with demons, possession and rapey trees in place of a guy with a knife. Sure, Ash becomes the hero and takes on the demons – but that’s what happens at the end of every slasher movie. He’s not a superhero in this one.
What is the identity of Evil Dead? The tone. The effects. The gore. The spirit. The invigorating roaming POV shots. The fact that the demons hang in the air like tortured marionettes. The fact that, instead of holding back on its meager budget, the film went all the way. But it wasn’t necessarily going all the way to make you laugh, it was going all the way to shock and scare you. It’s actually a remarkable achievement given the budget and the age of the crew who pulled it off. When people were walking out of that theater, they weren’t talking about how Ash held a shotgun – they were talking about the experience. The experience was the star.
When you heard that Friday The 13th was being remade, what was more important to you? Bringing back Mrs. Voorhees or bringing back Jason himself? Even though Jason wasn’t in the first film – he’s the identity of that franchise. And if Evil Dead 2 hadn’t taken such a radical left turn – Ash wouldn’t be the identity of this franchise. The tone and experience would be.
So if one were to attempt anything new associated with this brand – offering an updated version of that experience is really the only thing that makes sense. It’s the only thing the producers of the new film – which include Sam Raimi – could even hope to get right. And that’s what Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues and Diablo Cody have all stated as their intent. To bring that insane, f*cked up aesthetic to the screen. Of course the film should have great characters – it just doesn’t matter as much which specific characters they happen to be. It certainly didn’t matter in the 1981 film. No one who walked into that even knew who Bruce Campbell was. And they certainly weren’t expecting him to say “work shed”.
The one thing they for sure wouldn’t get right? Remaking Evil Dead 2. It’s a good thing they’re not even trying. And if they f*ck up The Evil Dead – which could happen – I’ll be as upset as the rest of you.
Let’s just be clear on which film they’re remaking. Not because I’m defending the remake necessarily, but because the existence of the remake has exposed the fact that not that many people have watched the original Evil Dead! And if they have, they’re certainly not remembering it properly.
Don’t you think it deserves better than that? Do me a favor – if you haven’t seen it in the past 10 years, watch it this weekend. Ask your friends who love Evil Dead 2 if they’ve actually seen the original. If they answer “yes”, well, all of this hullabaloo indicates that they’re probably lying. Make them watch it too. It’s a horror movie. With scares. I promise.
Despite what the higher-ups at Marvel would have you believe, Stan Lee’s original vision for Spider-Man was very different from the friendly neighborhood wall-crawler that fans ultimately got.
It was comics maestro Steve Ditko that turned him into the lovable web-head that we all know and love, though even that first draft of the character wasn’t exactly meant to be a child-friendly mascot. Ditko envisioned an uncanny arachnid-human hybrid whose freakish poses and dark costume would strike terror into the hearts of criminals, with the inclusion of web-shooters possibly having been a suggestion by Ditko’s roommate at the time, renowned fetish artist and bondage enthusiast Eric Stanton.
These more adult-oriented origins may have changed over the years, but one could argue that Spidey never completely lost his darker side. In fact, we’d eventually see several grim storylines that explored the horrific consequences of Spider-Man’s radioactive blood. While having his irradiated body fluids give Mary Jane cancer is likely the most terrifying of these yarns (track down Spider-Man: Reign if you’re up for a depressing read that was at one point set to be adapted to film by Michael Jackson), one of the most memorable horror-adjacent moments in these comics has to be the acceleration of Peter Parker’s mutation and the eventual introduction of Man-Spider – a storyline that appears to have been one of the main inspirations behind the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
I sincerely doubt that Marvel Studios is really going to give their toy-selling juggernaut a Cronenbergian rebrand, but the most recent trailer for Brand New Day suggests that the creative team is pulling from some surprisingly spooky source material in this latest superhero sequel. Specifically, the trailer makes it seem like the film is set to be a loose adaptation of the Neogenic Nightmare arc from Spider-Man: The Animated Series, commonly known as the best exploration of Spidey’s radioactive dark side that also features the most iconic version of Man-Spider.
If you’re wondering what these influences could mean for the upcoming film, I’d like to invite you to join me as we look back on some of the animated series’ most horror-tinged episodes.
A fourteen-episode story arc that made up the show’s second season, Neogenic Nightmare began airing in September of 1995. At this point, the series had already earned a reputation as the definitive version of Spider-Man despite dealing with absurd levels of censorship and executive meddling. It’s widely known at this point that this incarnation of Spidey was prohibited from ever punching his villains, and the studio even insisted that realistic guns should be replaced with futuristic laser weapons in order to avoid enraging concerned parents.
And that’s not even mentioning bizarre demands like setting up Hobgoblin as the original Goblin villain simply because the folks responsible for the toy-line had already prepared the character’s merchandise before scripts were even written.
At the end of the day. the show’s success mostly came down to John Semper’s excellent writing, with the (mostly) faithful recreation of the Spider-Man’s core principals and a handful of iconic storylines (coupled with an excellent cast behind the scenes) elevating a what was intended to be a kid’s show promoting ToyBiz products.
Naturally, the rampant cartoon censorship of the 90s couldn’t keep Semper from wanting to explore darker themes from his own favorite Spider-Man comics, and that’s how his team came up with a season-long re-imagining of iconic arcs like the Six-Arm Saga, The Mutant Agenda and even the first appearance of the Sinister Six. These stories would be enhanced with additional “dark” characters like Blade, The Punisher and even Morbius (though the latter had to exchange his vampiric blood-drinking for bizarre plasma-absorbing powers in order to conform to network guidelines).
If you haven’t yet seen it, the complete Neogenic Nightmare arc follows Spider-Man as he discovers that his mutation is progressing beyond his initial superpowers and threatening to turn him into a more monstrous hybrid. After developing extra arms, Spidey goes so far as to request help from both the X-Men and several other super-heroes as he becomes embroiled in a criminal conspiracy involving a team-up between some of his most iconic villains. The arc eventually introduces us to the show’s version of Man-Spider, which is depicted here as the monstrous final stage of the process which began when Peter was first bitten by that radioactive spider.
Personally, I think this werewolf-like addition to Spidey’s genetic curse is the best incarnation of Man-Spider that we’ve ever seen. This is because the six-armed body horror of it all adds even more weight to Peter’s decision to keep helping others regardless of what his powers may cost him, with the creature’s final rampage even giving the supporting cast a chance to help Spider-Man for a change. While I don’t hate the Morbius movie as much as some other comic fans, it’s a shame that Sony relegated that story to a solo film instead of later incorporating it into the Man-Spider saga like Neogenic Nightmare did.
Season two of the animated series ended up being an even bigger hit than the first, with fans loving the show’s take on an expanded Marvel Universe (which even included the ’90s X-Men cast) as well as the darker take on a more monstrous Spider-Man. That’s why it makes sense that the MCU’s return to street-level comic adventures would harken back to this particular storyline – especially since it appears that the Disney wishes to use the upcoming film as an opportunity to shine a light on other Marvel characters just like Semper did back in the day.
From what we can see in the trailer, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man appears to be going through his own additional transformations, including creepy fully black eyes and organic web-shooter, as well as the cocoon-building behavior previously seen in Marvel’s The Other arc in the comics. As I mentioned before, I doubt that the MCU will allow this particular cash cow to fully transform into a nightmarish spider freak that can scare away children, but there’s always a chance that the studio could surprise us with more horror elements. I’d also love to see the story explore Spidey’s mutation and use that as an excuse to formally introduce X-Men’s mutants into the MCU, especially since Sadie Sink is rumored to be playing Jean Grey in the flick.
However, even if Brand New Day doesn’t adapt as much of the Neogenic Nightmare as the promotional material has suggested, I’d argue that this particular season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series is still worth revisiting simply because it’s a great example of artists being able to work past network limitations in order to tell complex stories that approach full-on body-horror.
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