River will release in theaters January 15, 2027.

Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster picked up the slasher film for $10 million out of the Toronto International Film Festival. Reviews have been strong, with River currently at a 94% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Jane Levy (Evil Dead) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) star.

The upcoming River follows three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.

Stranded miles from help with no cell service, they soon realize they’re being stalked by a faceless killer who has emerged from the woods. To survive the night, the siblings must put their long-standing grudges aside and fight together against a ruthless, almost mythic terror.

Max Mattern (“Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy”) and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also star in the slasher film, which marks the feature debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “River doesn’t break from convention but instead uses the slasher tropes in its favor to ramp up the tension at a brisk and steady clip. It’s lean and efficient, anchored by its tremendous cast and a unique setting that’s utilized to its fullest.”

The post ‘River’ – Acclaimed Slasher Starring Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe Releasing January 2027 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Jane Levy did not return for Don’t Breathe 2, unfortunately, with most fans agreeing that the sequel took the franchise down a strange new path. It sounds like the upcoming Don’t Breathe 3 will be a course correction, with both Stephen Lang and Jane Levy confirmed to return.

Fede Alvarez announced on stage during a Beyond Fest Q&A over the weekend that “there’s a screenplay for Don’t Breathe 3,” and both Levy and Lang will be returning for the third film!

Directed by Fede Alvarez, Don’t Breathe was released in 2016. Don’t Breathe co-writer Rodo Sayagues stepped into the director’s chair for Don’t Breathe 2 in 2021.

Rodo Sayagues recently hinted at the possibility of a Don’t Breathe 3 involving Rocky, Jane Levy‘s character from the original film, while promoting the second installment.

“I think stories are never wrapped. If something is true about the first movie, is that there’s no closure on both ends,” he told ComicBook.com. “There was no closure for the story of Norman and there’s no closure for the story of Rocky. They both got away with a crime, both of them.”

He added, “Rocky stole a lot of money. And also, she let him get away with it. She could have called the police and [said], ‘Look, this guy has a dead girl in the cellar,’ and she did not. So both of them have a past that will haunt them. I think we’re going after the Blind Man first.”

As noted above, Don’t Breathe 2 continued the story of the Blind Man, while the whereabouts of Jane Levy’s Rocky have remained unknown. Stay tuned for more on Don’t Breathe 3.

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Indiewire details, “River was originally backed by Independent Film Company and Shudder, but Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster may have convinced the companies to sell the distribution rights to the horror film for north of $10 million, sources say.”

The deal hasn’t been closed at this time, Indiewire notes. Stay tuned for updates.

Jane Levy (Evil Dead) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) star in River.

The upcoming River follows three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.

Stranded miles from help with no cell service, they soon realize they’re being stalked by a faceless killer who has emerged from the woods. To survive the night, the siblings must put their long-standing grudges aside and fight together against a ruthless, almost mythic terror.

Max Mattern (“Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy”) and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also star in the slasher film, which marks the feature debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “River doesn’t break from convention but instead uses the slasher tropes in its favor to ramp up the tension at a brisk and steady clip. It’s lean and efficient, anchored by its tremendous cast and a unique setting that’s utilized to its fullest.”

The post ‘River’ – Universal & Blumhouse Atomic Monster Closing Deal to Acquire Jane Levy & Jessica Rothe Slasher Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After a cold open teasing what the trio will be up against, River introduces them properly as siblings reuniting to scatter their father’s ashes at his favorite fishing spot deep downriver. It’s clear from the outset that this family has a rather fraught relationship, with the eldest (Rothe) having long fled the nest, leaving behind her younger siblings to deal with an alcoholic.

As such, it’s the middle sis (Levy) who’s had to step up, caring for family affairs that include a traumatized younger brother (Mattern).

Giuliano’s script smartly does just enough to illustrate this family’s complicated relationships and history, without overexplaining, to set up a series of mishaps and distractions that leave them completely stranded upriver with a masked man (Dane DiLiegro), an efficient killer with incredible physical capabilities.

From here, Giuliano keeps escalating his twisted cat-and-mouse game in an intense slasher that feels like a throwback to the golden age, drawing more from Texas Chain Saw Massacre than Friday the 13th, both in its lean, meat and potatoes formula and for its gritty, almost folk horror stylistic flourishes.

River harbors a few slight twists regarding its killer, though much of it is well forecast for savvy genre fans. DiLiegro makes for a formidable foe, an intelligent predator who can outswim and frequently outsmart his prey, though the camera does occasionally dispel his intimidating quality by lingering too long on his physique. His first appearance goes far in lending terror; DiLiegro’s silent stalk is his most effective means of inducing fear.

But the true standout here in an ensemble of talent that ensures River punches above its weight is Jane Levy. For all the grueling pain and suffering Giuliano and his killer dole out upon the siblings, it’s Levy who holds River in her grip. It certainly helps that her pragmatic character establishes her as the capable sibling who will make the smart calls, but when push comes to shove, Levy unleashes a fury that threatens to turn the tables in crowd-pleasing ways.

Jane Levy earned audience cheers multiple times during the TIFF premiere for her character’s Final Girl-worthy fight for survival. 

That character forward emphasis and the affecting sibling bonds carry River to a satisfying conclusion, though one that tacks on an unsettling but far too extended mid-credit scene, the film’s first and only insistence on overexplaining what a previous sequence already inferred. 

River doesn’t break from convention but instead uses the slasher tropes in its favor to ramp up the tension at a brisk and steady clip. It’s lean and efficient, anchored by its tremendous cast and a unique setting that’s utilized to its fullest when generating scares. It’s also not devoid of humor; Mattern’s sensitive, shell shocked persona frequently diffuses tension where his siblings are concerned. Mostly though, it’s a potent reminder that Jane Levy should do more horror.

River made its world premiere at TIFF and is expected to be released in theaters in 2026 through IFC, followed by streaming on Shudder.

The post ‘River’ Review: Jane Levy Makes A Ferocious Horror Return In Throwback Slasher [TIFF 2026] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The upcoming River follows three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.

Stranded miles from help with no cell service, they soon realize they’re being stalked by a faceless killer who has emerged from the woods. To survive the night, the siblings must put their long-standing grudges aside and fight together against a ruthless, almost mythic terror.

Variety has an exclusive preview of River ahead of the film’s TIFF premiere, and it features brand new images (below) along with fresh insights into the “beautiful, brutal” slasher movie.

The outlet previews, “Finding a taut balance between echoing the beats of classic slashers and intentionally subverting expectations, it’s evocative of some of [director Joshua Giuliano‘s] favorite ’70s films, like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween, without feeling redundant.”

“I wanted to make the kind of slasher film that I wanted to see,” Giuliano tells Variety. “Something that was stripped down to its core elements. For me, slasher films at their very essence are simple and primal. It’s about a cast of human characters being hunted down by a killer. It’s about the relentlessness of death, the pursuit of death, sometimes the inevitability of death.”

Max Mattern (“Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy”) and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also star in the slasher film, which marks the feature debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano.

The post ‘River’ – New Images of Jessica Rothe and Jane Levy in Brutal Slasher Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

River sees genre favorites Jane Levy (Evil Dead) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day) plunged into a survival horror scenario.

It follows three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.

Stranded miles from help with no cell service, they soon realize they’re being stalked by a faceless killer who has emerged from the woods. To survive the night, the siblings must put their long-standing grudges aside and fight together against a ruthless, almost mythic terror.

Max Mattern (“Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy”) and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also star in the film, which marks the feature debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano.

River is one of 10 films joining TIFF’s Midnight Madness slate this year.

In addition to the new premieres, Midnight Madness also expands this year with a special screening of Na Hong-jin’s sci-fi action thriller Hope starring Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Jung Hoyeon on Wednesday, September 9, the eve before Festival; and a “return to where it all started” screening of Focus Features and writer-director Curry Barker’s breakout success Obsession on Friday, September 11.

Here’s the TIFF 2026 Midnight Madness lineup:

Anchors Aweigh | Matt Barats | USA
International Premiere

After a thwarted marriage proposal, alt-comedian Matt Barats spirals into an existential crisis in this semi-autobiographical blend of deadpan absurdism and unexpected poignancy told in a first-person, confessional style à la Ross McElwee or John Wilson.

Arrested Memory | SABU | Taiwan, Japan
North American Premiere

A seasoned detective (Ethan Juan) recently diagnosed with dementia is doggedly pursued by both cops and crooks after he unwittingly wanders off with a multimillion-dollar ransom in a new absurdist crime caper from cult auteur Sabu.

HALF | Samjad | India
World Premiere

Twin half-blooded vampires (Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj) wage war with desert highway hijackers in a gory martial arts curry western from writer-director Samjad and choreographer Very Tri Yulisman (The Raid 2, The Night Comes for Us).

Kick On | Nick Kozakis | Australia
World Premiere

Looking to prolong their night of partying, four youths are plunged into paranoid pandemonium after crossing a mobster’s volatile son in Nick Kozakis’ bloody ripper of a siege thriller.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney | Matthew Rankin | Canada
World Premiere

This kaleidoscopic culture jam from visionary filmmaker Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century, Universal Language) details the rise of Canada’s 18th prime minister through a satirical collage of archival footage, television nostalgia, and national mythmaking.

River | Joshua Giuliano | USA
World Premiere | Midnight Madness Opening Night Film

Joshua Giuliano makes an audacious debut with a suspenseful slasher that sets three embittered siblings adrift along a rural waterway, and in the sights of a masked killer.

Rogue Trooper | Duncan Jones | United Kingdom
North American Premiere | Midnight Madness Closing Night Film

Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon, Warcraft), this outlandish animated adaptation of the influential British comic book follows a clone soldier bred for an interstellar forever-war and his fallen comrades whose personalities live on within his gun, helmet, and backpack.

The Face of Horror | Anna Biller | United Kingdom
World Premiere

The Love Witch’s Anna Biller stunningly adapts the famous Japanese ghost story Yotsuya Kaidanto for 14th-century England in this gory tribute to classic Technicolor shockers.

The Spiral | Paolo Strippoli | Italy, France, Belgium
International Premiere

Director Paolo Strippoli turns the screws on a desperate mother (Jasmine Trinca) as she confesses a series of Faustian bargains to her estranged daughter (Romana Maggiora Vergano) in this riveting morality chiller.

Vintage Violence | Eugene Kotlyarenko | USA, Japan
World Premiere

In Eugene Kotlyarenko’s mixed-media caper, a livestreamer (Cole Sprouse) discovers a cache of vintage denim only to run afoul of the Yakuza when he is lured to Japan to sell the jeans by one of his subscribers (Kiko Mizuhara).

The post Jane Levy & Jessica Rothe-Starring ‘River’ Opens TIFF 2026 Midnight Madness Genre Slate appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

To be clear, I like Sam Raimi’s original trilogy well enough, especially 1987’s Evil Dead II, but the zaniness can’t help but neuter the horror for me. They’re fun movies! I’m entertained by them, but I’m just drawn to Alvarez’s meaner, gorier, and more tonally unrelenting take on the same material.

A new Evil Dead film is now in theaters, and just as 2023’s Evil Dead Rise followed this same brutal vibe, Evil Dead Burn is continuing that wet slide into utter carnage.

Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…

Evil Dead (2013)

Commentators: Fede Alvarez (director/co-writer), Rodo Sayagues (co-writer), Jane Levy (actor), Lou Taylor Pucci (actor), Jessica Lucas (actor)

1. The family watching in the basement at 3:11 includes producer Rob Tapert’s son and a local actor from New Zealand, the one with the disfigured face, who has survived two separate plane crashes.

2. The decision to flip the opening shot (post title) upside down came in editing as Alvarez recalled being unsettled by a shot from Raimi’s original Evil Dead. “Something that really impressed me about the original was all the camera work, and there’s a moment… where Bruce [Campbell] runs from one side of the room to the other, and the camera looks back and upside down.”

3. It was composer Roque Banos who came up with adding the siren sounds. His inspiration came after living in Los Angeles for a short time and hearing many, many sirens.

4. It was Pucci’s idea for his character, Eric, to have a beard and long hair – partly as a visual nod to the film’s 1970s vibe, and partly because “you never have to do anything” with it.

5. “In any good story you have one of the main characters taking a bad step in the beginning,” says Alvarez as David (Shiloh Fernandez) fails to simply turn around and apologize to his sister Mia (Levy). “He makes another mistake,” adds Levy when he ignores her pleas for help after she’s been assaulted by the tree, but Alvarez says that choice is far more understandable.

6. Pucci is asked if it was his choice to be playing with the deck of cards on the porch swing, but he says it was Alvarez’s suggestion. The director adds that he had just tried impressing Pucci with a card trick – turns out they’re both amateur magicians – and Pucci carried it into the scene. It’s also a nod to the original film.

7. The clock at 14:56 is the actual one from the original film.

8. Most of them agree that the blood would send them packing in real life well before the book would. They’d be curious about the latter.

9. “It smells like burnt hair” was improvised by Pucci.

10. The script called for dead crows in the basement, but Tapert suggested they try something different, so they went with cats. A dead one had been found “in an alley” somewhere, and they took a mold of it to craft additional prosthetic cat corpses.

11. All of the closeups of people touching the book feature Alvarez’s hands.

12. Mia’s front yard vomit consisted of cold soup.

13. Early scenes of a wet and angry Mia were preceded by her doing sprints or jumping jacks offscreen to make her seem more exasperated. She was so amped up while driving the car that Alvarez, who was hidden in the backseat, was scared “while Jane is going crazy.”

14. Levy recalls Alvarez suggesting a similar scene from Wild at Heart as a reference point for her own performance after crashing the car into the pond.

15. They shot the film mostly chronologically, and that left producers a little concerned as they were seeing a lot of character drama. “They didn’t know what we were doing, and they were really anxious to get to the horror.” Those concerns were put to rest when they saw the dailies for the assault and bunkbed scene that follows.

16. It was Tapert who suggested they include the tree vine assault, and Alvarez was happy to see it used as more than just a shocker. “Being raped is her being injected with the devil,” says Levy, and he adds that it moves the story forward rather than just disturb.

17. The shower burn was the first bit of graphic mutilation that the writers conceived when they started working on the script.

18. The attempted escape in the Jeep after Mia is burned originally included a shot of David trying to call for help on his cell phone only to be stymied by a lack of service, but Alvarez took it out. He doesn’t think the audience needed it, and he didn’t want it to knock viewers out of the scene’s intensity.

19. The flooded river at 35:16 “is a real river.” It’s the same one the Jeep passes through at the beginning, and they simply waited for a heavy rain and then filmed the result.

20. Alvarez asked the sound department to come up with a unique sound for the Deadites, and the result was the crackling, “bug in a jar” noise.

21. “This was the hardest thing ever,” says Levy at 37:54 as her character projectile vomits blood onto Olivia’s (Lucas) face. They did four takes of the scene with Lucas having to be completely rinsed off and reset each time.

22. That’s not digital trickery at 39:32 as Olivia’s reflection gives an evil grin. “This was a timing thing because the mirror had to go away from me, and as it went away from me I had to actually do that face.” We see mostly the back and slight side of her outside of the reflection at this point, and the result is a cool little shot.

23. The bathroom encounter between Olivia and Eric originally ended with her hitting her head, but Raimi watched the dailies and asked Alvarez to milk the horror and gore a little bit longer.

24. “So everyone actually kills each other,” says Levy, “Mia never kills anybody in this movie.” Alvarez adds, “That’s the whole beauty of the story; Mia is the only innocent person, she’s a victim all the way.”

25. Alvarez recalls that one of Raimi’s “three rules of horror” is that “the innocent must be punished.” Does that contradict the point immediately above? Maybe, but she went through hell, and at the end of the day, are any of us actually innocent?

26. He acknowledges that the film, like many horror movies, is filled with characters making questionable choices, but he defends most of them as being understandable given the context.

27. “It’s my first sex scene,” says Levy at 1:31:11 as her character licks Natalie’s (Elizabeth Blackmore) leg. “This one was her stunt double’s leg.” She adds that “Kiss me, you dirty cunt!” is the favorite thing she’s ever said.

28. Natalie’s attempt to rinse her hand wound was originally written to include a black worm coming out of the gash, “but we didn’t want to be too supernatural.” Mr. Alvarez, my good man, have you seen your own movie?

29. Alvarez sees the theme of the movie as accepting that sometimes the only way out of a problem is through it – and here that means killing your friends before dismembering or burning their bodies. A good lesson for us all, really.

30. Eric’s laughter at Natalie saying “My face hurts” was real as Pucci found the line – one that Alvarez added on the fly – to be very funny given the situation and the fact that both of her arms are gone.

31. “Those woods were really, really creepy,” says Pucci, and Lucas adds that their New Zealand filming location was near a Maori burial ground.

32. Mia, gasping for her life in the hole with the plastic bag over her head, was apparently Levy’s audition scene.

33. They see Mia’s resurrection – the real Mia coming back to life after her brother’s janky defibrillator attempt – as a reward from beyond for David finally apologizing to her like he should have done from the start. I don’t mind saying that this is an odd take given how clear this film (and franchise as a whole) makes it that there’s absolutely no good supernatural entity looking out for these characters. Characters in these movies are absolutely and utterly fucked, and they should probably just accept that. Alvarez ultimately concedes that you can also just believe that the defibrillator actually worked.

34. For those who missed it, the necklace chain on the ground at 1:16:51 is in the shape of a skull as a nod to the scene in the original film where Ash (Campbell) goes for a necklace and sees a skull.

35. The machete comes through the wall at 1:20:10 and slices Mia’s leg, and they used Natalie’s prosthetic arm for the shot – it’s getting cut at the elbow.

36. They went through various versions of the Abomination Mia (Randal Wilson), including one that was made up of all five of the friends.

37. The original ending saw Mia walking on the road, but they cut it. The image still made it into the one-sheet poster.

38. The end credits feature extremely bloody shots filmed at high speed and meant to reference various beats from the film itself in tighter, close-up detail that viewers might have missed.

Quotes Without Context

“You kind of want to put the rape idea in people’s minds.”

“The car, of course.”

“I would definitely open the book.”

“Swimming through the swamp was fun.”

“Duct tape fixes everything.”

“How come David is such a bad boyfriend?”

“This kiss, I was really suffocating her.”

“I’m such a perv.”

“It’s like Beetlejuice.”

“Fede kept telling me this is my Bruce Willis moment to pump me up.”

Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.

The post 38 Things We Learned from the 2013 ‘Evil Dead’ Commentary appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Together, they top a jaw-dropping lineup that includes Henry Winkler, Linda Blair, David Dastmalchian, Skeet Ulrich, Spencer Charnas, and Jasmin Savoy Brown.

Englund and Sutherland will also be in good company with fellow franchise friends from A Nightmare on Elm Street (Amanda Wyss, Lisa Wilcox, Tuesday Knight, Brooke Theiss, Brooke Bundy, Joann Willette, Toy Newkirk) and  The Evil Dead (Ted Raimi, Jane Levy, Dana DeLorenzo, and Ray Santiago), respectively.

Once again, Bloody Disgusting will be on site all weekend with blockbuster Q&A panels hosted by our BloodyFM talent. We’ll also be manning our new expansive booth, where we’ll pass out exclusive swag, sell one-of-a-kind merchandise, raffle off can’t-miss giveaways, and more.

But wait! There’s more!Wander through a giant vendor floor packed with horror merch and goods, brave the Fear Farm Haunt, explore the Creep I.E. Comics Room, and so much more terrifying fun!

It all goes down next month — from Friday, January 30th to Sunday, February 1st — at the Ontario Convention Center in Ontario, California. Tickets are selling out fast — in fact, all VIP passes are sold and off the table — so secure your passes ASAP before it’s too late. After all, you don’t want to miss the first premiere horror event of the year!

Get your tickets now!

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Max Mattern (“Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy”) and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also star in the film, which marks the feature debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano.

It follows three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.

Stranded miles from help with no cell service, they soon realize they’re being stalked by a faceless killer who has emerged from the woods. To survive the night, the siblings must put their long-standing grudges aside and fight together against a ruthless, almost mythic terror.

The survival slasher is expected to be released in theaters in 2026 through IFC followed by streaming on Shudder.

Steven Schneider (Insidious, Paranormal Activity) from Spooky Pictures and Nick Antosca (“Hannibal,” “Chucky”) & Alex Hedlund (As Above, So Below, “Chucky”) from Eat the Cat produce.

Executive producers include Jeffrey Tinnell & Robert Tinnell from Allegheny Image Factory and Matt Brodlie & Jonathan Kier from Upgrade.

“River was six years in the making, a labor of love that culminated in the most rewarding experience of my life,” said Giuliano. “Working with Shudder has been a thrilling collaboration and knowing River will have a theatrical release is a dream come true. I look forward to sharing our terrifying creation with audiences.”

“Josh is a striking new voice in horror,” adds Shudder’s vice president of development and production Nicholas Lazo. “His simultaneously beautiful and horrifying script captivated us from page one, and it’s our privilege to team up with such an immensely talented group of producers, cast and crew to bring his feature debut to life.”

River‘s international rights will be introduced to buyers at the upcoming American Film Market.

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They join stars Austin Abrams (“The Walking Dead”) and Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame) in the aquatic survival thriller, described as “The Martian meets 127 Hours.”

Production is set to begin next week in Los Angeles, with Brian Duffield (No One Will Save You) directing from a script he co-wrote with Daniel Kraus, based on Kraus’ 2023 novel.

It centers on a scuba diver in search of his deceased father’s remains who gets swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. After giving up on life, the young man is surprised to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.

Imagine Entertainment and 20th Century Studios are behind the project.

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This year’s new movie Evil Dead Rise brings Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan into the mix as the latest ladies of The Evil Dead, and Sutherland just shared a pretty awesome photo over on Twitter this past weekend. Sutherland and Sullivan recently got together with remake star Jane Levy, the trio taking a photo together as the latest “Evil Dead blood sisters.”

To be clear, Jane Levy is NOT featured in Evil Dead Rise, so don’t read too much into the photo. It’s just a fun personal shot from a recent hangout between the three Evil Dead stars.

Can you believe it’s already been TEN YEARS since Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead was released?! Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise is coming exclusively to theaters on April 21, 2023.

Here’s the official plot synopsis for Evil Dead Rise…

“In the fifth Evil Dead film, a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.”

With my #EvilDead blood sisters, @RealLilSull and @jcolburnlevy pic.twitter.com/r369YdRcPu

— Alyssa Sutherland (@RealAlyssaS) April 7, 2023

The post Blood Sisters: The Ladies of ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Unite With Jane Levy from ‘Evil Dead’ 2013! [Photo] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Were your feathers rustled after I dared suggest 2009’s Friday the 13th understands Jason Voorhees’ mythos and fanbase better than its initial trilogy? Strap in deadheads, because this is the one where I hail 2013’s Evil Dead as King.

In fairness, there’s no tangible comparison between Sam Raimi’s Three Stooges meets Harryhausen meets an occult menagerie originals (I+II) and Álvarez’s formidably frightful spookhouse. In a matter of words? Evil Dead (1981) is the horror movie Raimi thought audiences wanted to see, Evil Dead II is the horror movie Raimi himself wished to see, and Evil Dead (2013) is the Evil Dead Raimi could never achieve. That’s not a diss slung towards Raimi, mind you—between budget and comedic signatures, Raimi’s stylistic prowess begets a very different, still outstanding depiction of jovial horror. Álvarez reaches into deeper pockets, sneaks some nerve-shredding influences, and dashes into the mouth of hellishness with a frenzied pace that is so very outside Raimi’s wheelhouse. You know, exactly how remakes should function?

The Approach

As I’ve already alluded to, Fede Álvarez’s reinvention of Necronomicon Ex-Mortis unruliness favors infinitely less camp, no hysterical mounted deer heads, and takes the capital “H” horror approach. Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues—with Americanization edits by Diablo Cody—crack their ensemble’s almighty “reason” by centering another cabin in the woods excursion around a focal character’s narcotics rehabilitation, which blends possession traits and withdrawal symptoms. The impetus behind doomed visitations fortifies emotional resonance before Deadites nullify any do-gooder hopes, and yet there might as well be a “Welcome Home” mat that Álvarez pans to upon his gang’s first steps inside. Structural bones are familiar between dilapidated lodging exteriors and woodland backgrounds with jagged branches surrounding the property, which feels like home sweet home.

Jane Levy steals the show as Mia Allen, who intends to kick her drug addiction cold-turkey in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by friends and family—leaning on brother David (Shiloh Fernandez)—plus the childhood memories within her family’s vacation home. In the basement, Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) discovers a book—the Naturom Demonto—stitched in flesh-leather binding and reads the foreign inscriptions aloud. Something awakens in the woods, and Mia undergoes a bodily invasion while trying to flee towards civilization as her paranoia spikes. Upon Mia’s return, David begins to witness a Deadite transformation that Evil Dead faithful understand is the early stages of something far worse. To the downstairs you go, Mia’s damned soul.

It’s a film plopped between two movements in horror history—the “Torture Porn” reign of Saw imitators all but vanished, but arthouse “A24 Horror” legions had yet to coin the unspeakable phrase “elevated horror.” Of its kind, Evil Dead is one of the last outright nasty, in-your-face genre experiences to throttle extremism on a mainstream scale. Álvarez’s headliner premiered in the same year as James Wan’s The Conjuring for perspective, after which WB’s “Conjurverse” became the most prominent creepshow event for years to come. In a way, Álvarez captures the moment of transition at its height by maximizing his gore output while still respecting horror audiences enough to tell a most traumatic tale of possessions, executions, and the evilest, deadest of crowd-pleasing nightmares.

Does It Work?

If you asked Richard Roeper—who famously wrote a scathing one-star review—he’d scoff at grossness without substance. It’s not the only criticism I’ve heard of 2013’s Evil Dead, but my perspective values the struggle for rehabilitation that ultimately does “shock, scare, and provoke.” Fede Álvarez isn’t content with a shot-for-shot update benefitted (or mangled) by technological advances—he respectfully reignites the Evil Dead franchise with a cannon blast of chunky guts and paralyzing screams. It functions as a remake in that callbacks to chainsaws and severed hands trail reddened liquids, and yet expectations subvert by evolving past remake boxiness at the glimpses of Mia sitting on Ash’s Delta or other narrative tie-ins. I mean, it’s a remake—but also a reboot? In either case, mission accomplished.

I’ve gushed about Álvarez’s Evil Dead more times than Bruce Campbell has declared he’s retired from playing Ash Williams, because what “works” is an Evil Dead that feels imbued with everything from Wan’s encroaching signatures to dampened J-Horror. By tethering Mia’s substance usage to the invasive possession elements that strike with an unstoppable fierceness, there’s every reason to presume she’s a “captive,” as Mia might define. It’s no doubt that Olivia (Jessica Lucas) oversteps boundaries by proclaiming she can offer medical oversight the same as a hospital might, and this negligence indeed puts Mia in danger well before Eric utters aloud the Necronomicon 2.0’s incantation. There’s a larger message about how the population views addiction and mental illness (hit and miss impact), which emphasizes the reasons why David can’t let Mia leave—essential to the group’s inevitable demise.

As the human vessels one-by-one become milky-eyed, berserker forms of their once conscious selves, Álvarez ups the ante wherever possible. A familiar basement prison becomes a nest of sinfulness with animal carcasses hung by barbed wire. Gonzo gore contributes to several thousand gallons of fake blood being projectile vomited, rained from the heavens, and squirted from amputated limbs. It’s all immensely visceral cinematography with a command on new camera angles that are odes to Raimi’s now-iconic woodland zoomer lens, or shadowy darkness that cloaks savage scares as Deadite Mia zips towards David with a box cutter drawn. It’s nothing we’ve seen in Raimi’s franchise to date, but still wholly indebted to the Evil Dead lore from a badass protagonist warrior (albeit a late character arc swerve) to loads upon heaps of practical effects carnage—all with Álvarez’s stamp.

The Result

Cue Slayer’s “Raining Blood” because the result is a reported seventy thousand gallons of icky fluids with an emphasis on showstopper practical craftsmanship—fifty thousand gallons in the finale drenching alone. Fede Álvarez claims artists only used CGI in post-production touchups, and optical illusions granted the solution to questions like how do we make an arm disappear? Maybe that’s why I’m so smitten by 2013’s Evil Dead—the practical spectacle is alive, whether that’s Oliva’s nauseating Chelsea Grin or Natalie’s (Elizabeth Blackmore) futile electric carving knife surgery. Deadite composition looks every bit monstrous but with swampy color tones that promote this repulsive overwash forever grimy, decaying, and like characters are drowning in titular evils. Álvarez’s approach to horror pulverizes and brutalizes on punk rock levels by today’s standards, and his effects workshop’s implementation of magician secrets makes for a massacre that damn near looks torn from a supernatural snuff film. The way Natalia saws into her arm at the bicep and leaves the meat tangling on a fibrous tendon is…perfection.

In terms of performances, Jane Levy belongs in the same discourse of “if the Academy recognized horror actresses” notables like Toni Collette (Hereditary) or Elijah Wood (Maniac). As the struggling heroin user, her tailspin into sweats and bodily quivers reveals the tumultuousness within Eric, David, and her appointed saviors. As “Deadite Mia,” her raspy threats of roasting souls over satanic embers are punctuated by the nefarious cackles of a madwoman who’d fork her own tongue under possession influences (sealed with a kiss). As the reincarnation of an Ash hero type whose inescapable tragedy becomes the fuel for a crimson-soaked warrior, she tears off her hand and punches the tissue stump into a chainsaw that slices her manifested demons in two with such a hurrah of victoriousness. Every facet, all personas, pushes Levy’s performance to the brink, and yet she rises higher and higher as she’s forced further through a gauntlet of physical and mental obstacles.

It’s an Evil Dead film that respects Raimi’s roots but refuses to replicate. Ash’s narrative confirms a tie-in because presumably, he’s still collecting dust like his rusting vehicle—but it’ll always be a remake in my eyes. As 2009’s Friday the 13th remake highlights how fanbases misremember the original trilogy, Álvarez does the same. Callbacks to a severed hand, revving weapons, or ungodly literature are recognizable as Evil Dead II nods, yet Evil Dead typically gets the credit. I see Evil Dead (2013) as a distillation of the iconic madness Raimi creates through two cabin visits that ultimately smashes boundaries Raimi himself quantified. Anything Raimi touches carries this chipper-chaotic sitcom humor, and Bruce Campbell’s physical comedy expertise in Evil Dead II is some of the best of its kind since Charlie Chaplin—Álvarez had no business trying to trump either element, so he conjures an Evil Dead no one could expect. A vision that holds the audience hostage from an introductory scene that lets onlookers know they’re watching an Evil Dead film, but it ain’t your grandpappy’s Evil Dead.

The Lesson

As a fan of every Evil Dead entry to varying degrees, the lesson here is simple: keep an open mind. There’s no room for gatekeeping based on nostalgia or fearing unknowns that “threaten” what old guards hold precious. Fede Álvarez accepts an unenviable task by signing onto an Evil Dead remake; ravenous fans of the cult-worshipped original wouldn’t speak of an Evil Dead sans Ash Williams—and yet? Jane Levy bursts onto the scene like the Necronomicon just dispatched gale-force winds to blow another flimsy wooden door off its hinges, anchoring an Evil Dead reboot with sharper claws, gnarlier mutilation, and yucks traded for razor-sharp horror redesigns. I refuse to call myself any less of a franchise fan because I regard this remake so highly, just like how appreciating Friday the 13th (2009) makes me no less of a Friday the 13th appreciator (that was a fun article to receive feedback on).

So what did we learn?

• For the zillionth time, I remind remake filmmakers—value your unique vision. A remake should never feel like recycled content. Take your swings, plant your flags, revamp with originality.
• There’s no such thing as an “untouchable.” Evil Dead is so iconic because of Sam Raimi—that doesn’t mean other landmark iterations can’t exist based on reinterpretations.
• The remake bug will come for us all. It’s inevitable. We can only hope for something as genuinely intentioned as Evil Dead (2013).
• Let Jane Levy do all the horror she wants.
• Practical gore will save us all (and your remake). No one is waiting for their favorite practical horror applications to be redone in modern CGI (cough The Thing cough).

Maybe I’m throwing myself to the wolves here, but Evil Dead (2013) is an all-timer both within franchise limits and against any outside competitors. I don’t say that flippantly or to instigate “haters.” I proclaim this with confidence and purpose because too many voices still use their platforms to denounce the necessity of remakes as a practice, and Evil Dead will forever be my quickest retort. Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness continue to endure because of Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert—Evil Dead (2013) earns its place as a disciple of their teachings but generates conversation on its own merits thanks to Fede Álvarez. All exist harmoniously, fans only benefit, and the horror universe remains just as groovy as always.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on June 2, 2021.

Welcome to Revenge of the Remakes, where columnist Matt Donato takes us on a journey through the world of horror remakes. We all complain about Hollywood’s lack of originality whenever studios announce new remakes, reboots, and reimaginings, but the reality? Far more positive examples of refurbished classics and updated legacies exist than you’re willing to remember (or admit). The good, the bad, the unnecessary – Matt’s recounting them all.

The post Why Fede Álvarez’s ‘Evil Dead’ Is a Gonzo and Gore-Soaked All-Timer appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Saber reveals in today’s Instagram update (embedded below), “Mia Allen is coming to Evil Dead: The Game as a Survivor this September as part of our next DLC update!

“Mia is included in Season Pass 1. Stay tuned for more news on the next update which will also include free content for all.”

Mia was played by Jane Levy in the 2013 movie, the sole survivor of the film’s Kandarian nightmare. Much like Ash Williams before her, Mia emerged triumphant from the cabin in the woods, losing a hand in the process. Mia has become a fan favorite Evil Dead character over the years, with many fans begging for her to be added to Evil Dead: The Game.

This marks the first time Evil Dead 2013 has been included in Evil Dead: The Game, and we can’t help but wonder if more characters – perhaps a remake map? – will be joining Mia soon…

Boss Team Games and Saber Interactive’s Evil Dead: The Game features single-player and co-op gameplay, promising to be the ultimate Evil Dead experience in the world of video games. Several characters from the movies and TV series are playable in the game at launch, along with four different versions of Deadite-slaying horror hero Ash Williams.

In the game, “Work together as a team of four survivors, exploring, looting, crafting, managing your fear, and finding key artifacts to seal the breach between worlds. Or take control of the powerful Kandarian Demon to hunt Ash and his friends while possessing Deadites, the environment, and even the survivors themselves as you seek to swallow their souls.”

 

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The post ‘Evil Dead: The Game’ Update: Remake’s Mia Allen Becomes a Playable Survivor in September! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Alvarez has also taken to Twitter to share a never-before-seen Evil Dead alternate ending, this one concluding the film with Jane Levy‘s Mia being taken by the evil “force” out in the woods. Of course, Mia survives her harrowing ordeal in the final cut of the movie, but Alvarez was at one point toying with either making her fate unclear or killing her off completely.

Only one of those endings was actually shot, it seems, with Alvarez last night sharing footage of the Evil Dead alternate ending that would’ve left Mia’s fate quite unclear.

Alvarez explains, “This is what was written originally. But Sam Raimi (wisely) pointed out “after everything she’s been through, she deserves to live” so I rewrote it to the actual ending.”

“Jane Levy let out one of her best screams in the movie on this take,” he adds.

You can check out that footage down below, where you’ll also find a script page that fleshes out an entirely different Evil Dead alternate ending – this one killing Mia off.

In that particular version of events, not only would the evil force out in the woods catch up with Mia, but it would quite literally tear her apart, exploding her into a “bomb of blood”!

As you may recall, Alvarez had talked about this Evil Dead alternate ending with Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew Podcast in 2020, where he provided some further information.

“The original ending – we shot some of it – ended like the original movie,” Alvarez explained. “[Mia] was going to walk out of the house, she’s limping away from the house and suddenly the force – you know, the crazy camera running through the woods – would come out of the house, she would turn around, scream, and that would be it, that would be the end of it.”

“In the script, we went a little bit further and we say, well, that’s what we saw in the original movie, so I think we should see more this time,” he continued. “So we will do this shot, and after she turns and screams, we will see what happened to her. It was written as she levitates for the first time – because you never see levitation in the movie. It was kind of the rules of [our] Evil Dead, to never see anything that tells you right away that you’re in a supernatural world. So no one floats [in] Evil Dead. But in the last moment, she will float.

“Suddenly her body was all tensed up like Exorcist-style, and then we were going to rip her apart like every limb or something like that. She was going to explode into this bomb of blood.“

You can check out what remains of the two Evil Dead alternate ending scenes below!

Here it is. This is what was written originally. But Sam Raimi (wisely) pointed out “after everything she’s been through, she deserves to live” so I rewrote it to the actual ending. (@jcolburnlevy let out one of her best screams in the movie on this take) #EvilDead9years pic.twitter.com/q0PFWCT7Pw

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 6, 2022

Here. I found the page from the first draft. There was a bit more action to follow the force catching up with her. #EvilDead9years pic.twitter.com/hJ7UAB6k4K

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 6, 2022

The post ‘Evil Dead’ Alternate Ending – Fede Alvarez Shares Previously Unseen Footage! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For the ninth anniversary of the film that brought the Evil Dead franchise back to life in 2013, Alvarez has shared his personal collection of Polaroids taken on the set of the film!

You can check those out down below. Along with that tweet, Alvarez has also taken to Twitter today to tease an alternate ending to the film, which he may be showing off soon.

“Also, there was an alt ending to my Evil Dead where Mia was taken by “the force” just like Bruce was at the end of the first film. I could share it here If you want. Just let me know and I’ll post the take,” Alvarez tweets. At the time of writing this article he hasn’t yet shared the goods, but we’ll of course write up an article for whatever he shares once he does.

So stay tuned for that, which should be coming real soon…

UPDATE: ‘Evil Dead’ Alternate Ending – Fede Alvarez Shares Previously Unseen Footage!

This year is of course a huge year for the Evil Dead franchise, as brand new movie Evil Dead Rise is on its way soon. Additionally, Evil Dead: The Game is headed our way in May!

This is my personal collection of Polaroids from set #EvilDead9years Never shared these before, so I hope u enjoy them! pic.twitter.com/lMrEiwqC2b

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 6, 2022

Also, there was an alt ending to my EvilDead where Mia was taken by “the force” just like Bruce was at the end of the first film. I could share it here If you want. Just let me know and I’ll post the take. #evildead9years

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 6, 2022

The post Fede Alvarez Celebrates 9 Years of ‘Evil Dead’ With Never-Seen Personal Polaroids appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Up next from the Evil Dead franchise is a brand new movie titled Evil Dead Rise, currently being directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) with a release planned for HBO Max. Rather than continuing the storyline from Fede Alvarez‘s Evil Dead or featuring the return of Bruce Campbell’s Ash, the new movie will instead tell a story that’s brand new for the universe.

Does that mean we’ll *never* see the return of Jane Levy‘s Mia from Evil Dead 2013? It would seem unlikely at this moment in time, but that door hasn’t been completely closed just yet.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Alvarez talks about that future potential. Hypothetically.

“There is definitely a chance [of a sequel]. The problem is, we have to stop saying there is a chance, because then there’s a headline the next day, ‘There’s a new movie coming!’ and, no!” Alvarez jokes. “This is what I can tell [you]: [producer] Rob Tapert and [director] Sam Raimi, we’re like family. We get together once in a while, we had a great experience making that movie, they gave us a career in this business. We always discuss that and there was some discussion very early on about a sequel and we haven’t gotten to write it, we never wrote a script, but we knew where it was gonna go and, at that point, for some reason, it didn’t happen. And now it went [the Evil Dead Rise] route.”

Alvarez adds, “I think anything can happen in the world of Evil Dead. It’s such a fascinating world, there’s so many fans out there that want to see it, so it will just have to happen that all of us suddenly align in some moment in our lives and we go, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to do this?’ and have the perfect idea. We all gravitate towards that, usually, the perfect story that we all want to go, ‘That has not been told before, let’s do it.’ That’s what we need, just to find the story at some point and find the time.”

For now, let’s focus on Evil Dead Rise, which is *definitely* coming soon!

The post Fede Alvarez Still Says Never-Say-Never to a Future ‘Evil Dead’ Sequel appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Currently, there are two different endings to Fede Alvarez‘s Evil Dead that you can watch, with Mia escaping into the woods alone in the theatrical version and getting picked up by a truck driver in the extended alternate ending that’s included with the “Uncut” version of the film. But there’s another ending that Alvarez and Jane Levy shot – one that we’ve not yet seen.

Speaking with Bloody Disgusting’s The Boo Crew Podcast, Alvarez reveals the alternate ending that would have hearkened back to The Evil Dead and Sam Raimi’s iconic “demon-POV” camerawork, leaving Mia’s fate a whole lot more unclear. And there’s still another ending to the film that was scripted but never shot, wherein Mia is definitively killed by the evil force.

Ultimately, it was Sam Raimi who insisted on Mia surviving.

“The original ending – we shot some of it – ended like the original movie,” Alvarez explains. “[Mia] was going to walk out of the house, she’s limping away from the house and suddenly the force – you know, the crazy camera running through the woods – would come out of the house, she would turn around, scream, and that would be it, that would be the end of it.”

“In the script, we went a little bit further and we say, well, that’s what we saw in the original movie, so I think we should see more this time,” he continues. “So we will do this shot, and after she turns and screams, we will see what happened to her. It was written as she levitates for the first time – because you never see levitation in the movie. It was kind of the rules of [our] Evil Dead, to never see anything that tells you right away that you’re in a supernatural world. So no one floats [in] Evil Dead. But in the last moment, she will float.”

“Suddenly her body was all tensed up like Exorcist-style, and then we were going to rip her apart like every limb or something like that. She was going to explode into this bomb of blood.“

Alvarez adds, “So that’s what we wrote and Sam Raimi – he’s a wise guy [who] was also more sensitive to the character and the experience of the audience – [said] she deserves to live. After everything she’s been through, I think the audience is going to want her to live. It would be unfair to pull something out of the hat and just say, ‘Now she dies’. And I was like, ‘Well, that’s what you did in the original,’ and he was like, ‘Well, I didn’t think Ash deserved to live.’ So we changed that and that was the ending you see [in] the movie.”

As for the ending that paid tribute to the final moments of Raimi’s Evil Dead, Alvarez says he’d love to track down the footage, polish it up and eventually release it online. So stay tuned…

You can listen to the entire Boo Crew podcast with Fede Alvarez below.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, RSS

The post “A Bomb of Blood”: ‘Evil Dead’ Director Fede Alvarez on the Alternate Endings We’ve Never Seen [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In the midst of a global pandemic and its accompanying quarantine, director Fede Alvarez joins other filmmakers in digging through their old files and sharing unreleased looks behind-the-scenes of their productions.

Alvarez gives us a peek at some never-before-seen photos from the set of the sequel/remake to Sam Raimi’s trilogy with a little added commentary, while also noting the strong social relevance to current conditions.

We not only learn that the shot of Jane Levy‘s Mia sitting on Ash’s 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 is one of his favorites, but he also revealed that there was a moment when he questioned his decision to take on the daunting task of “remaking” Raimi’s masterpiece.

Check ’em out…

If you haven’t seen EvilDead2013, it’s about a small group of people that self quarantine themselves to beat this particular problem, then all become monsters and turn on each other. Basically your life right now. pic.twitter.com/O0S9WYsNmj

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Still love this shot #Evildead7years pic.twitter.com/pj0JQ7bAlT

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Me on the first couple of weeks, thinking “What did I get myself into… This whole thing will suck ass” …Some will say I was totally right. #Evildead7years pic.twitter.com/hniDQL2V0A

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Mia walking in circles trying to cope with withdrawal… pic.twitter.com/sfPsl6GTV3

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Who’s head is that? pic.twitter.com/AUrS5WUtCA

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Jane and I disagreeing on set. Usually is not till I watch the film that I realize she was right. #Evildead7years pic.twitter.com/kxvS8gR8Zb

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Not sure if I ever tweeted this one before. It’s the cover for my personal photo book for the film: pic.twitter.com/zmk02OYlmg

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

Just because you asked for it: https://t.co/9YThEkwj0c pic.twitter.com/wKSLhBhwbP

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) April 5, 2020

The post Fede Alvarez Celebrates Seven Years of ‘Evil Dead’ With Some Behind the Scenes Photos appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Synopsis: Five friends gather at a remote cabin to help one of their own break a harmful drug addiction once and for all. When one of them discovers and reads from the Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon demons lurking in the nearby woods. The group fights for their lives and souls as the demons claim them one by one.

Key Players: Jane Levy stars as Mia, the drug addict with the dual role of villain and hero. Shiloh Fernandez plays her brother, David, and Elizabeth Blackmore is David’s girlfriend, Natalie. Lou Taylor Pucci is Eric, the friend that reads from the ill-fated book. Jessica Lucas is the pragmatic Olivia. Let’s just take a moment to look at these five friends’ names; or the first letter of their names, more specifically. Rearrange them. D-E-M-O-N. Very clever, Fede Alvarez and co-screenwriter Rodo Sayagues.

Why It’s on the List: As already mentioned, Evil Dead is an exhilarating experience in visceral, practical effect driven horror. It’s nihilistic, relentless, and oh so gory. Moreover, Alvarez and Sayagues preserve the memory of Sam Raimi’s 1981 original. So much so that it prompts debate over how to classify this. Is it a remake, reboot, or a sidequel? It’s so much fun, do we even care? Each one of these actors play characters that come with grueling physical demands. None come close to the difficulties Levy had to endure as Mia, nor has any character had an arc quite like hers. The partnership between Levy and Alvarez is pure magic, and we want more.

Carving up Dinner: In one twisted homage to Ash and his attempt to stop any further possession by removing his own hand, Natalie is also on the verge of succumbing to her demons. Good thing she was already in the process of preparing roast beef for dinner. Hooray electric carving knife to the rescue. And cue the loss of appetite for everyone.

Where You Can Watch: Evil Dead is available to stream on demand through internet TV app Fubo TV, to rent on digital, and on Blu-ray.

The post [31 Days of Halloween] Day Twenty-Seven: Fede Alvarez’s Visceral ‘Evil Dead’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But they should also declare their love for the original film Álvarez squeezed between Evil Dead and The Spider’s Web, the 2016 home invasion masterpiece Don’t Breathe.

Home invasion movies may not get as much love as zombie flicks or slashers, but they comprise perhaps the most relatable horror sub-genre. We’ve all heard strange sounds in night, and when we crawl out of bed to investigate, we don’t expect a Xenomorph or a dream demon… but we do fear a stranger in the house.

Classics like Wait Until Dark (1967) and even The Strangers (2008) have received plenty of critical attention (and deservedly so), but while it won genre awards upon its release, Don’t Breathe still isn’t properly celebrated for the way it perfects the home invasion model.

Written by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues, part of the movie’s strength comes from the way it twists the formula by making the invaders into the protagonists. Using information from his father’s home security business, Alex (Dylan Minnette), along with his unrequited crush Rocky (Jane Levy) and her braggart boyfriend Money (Daniel Zovatto), burgles houses for items to be fenced by a local criminal. Tired of the small payouts from these jobs, the crew sets their sights on the Blind Man (Stephen Lang), a grieving veteran rumored to be holding a $300,000 wrongful death payout someplace inside his house.

Kids stealing from the elderly aren’t the most likable heroes, and while Álvarez never justifies their actions, he does give them context. Making excellent use of the film’s post-recession Detroit setting, Álvarez shows us the desperate plight of the characters, especially Levy’s Rocky. Staying with her abusive mother and drunken step-father only to protect her younger sister Didi, Rocky sees the money as her one chance to escape with Didi to California. Even Money, the most grating of the three, comes off less like a hardened criminal and more like a young man fronting to compensate for his lack of options.

But even as it builds empathy for the characters it develops, Don’t Breathe doesn’t let them completely off the hook. In his initial scenes, Lang plays the Blind Man as an emotionally and physically broken shut-in. We first see him sleeping in a disheveled bed, with a TV playing home videos of his recently deceased daughter providing the room’s only light. When the Blind Man goes to investigate noises in his living room, Lang emphasizes the tremble in his hands and his voice when he asks “Who’s there?”

But here’s where we see one of the subtlest examples of the movie’s brilliance, as Álvarez shoots the Blind Man like a movie monster, even when we’re supposed to be sympathizing with him. The film opens in media res, with a scene of the Blind Man dragging Rocky through the empty neighborhood streets, but it’s difficult to identify the characters from a drone wide shot.

Inside the house, Álvarez makes the Blind Man more subtly menacing by using the visual language of classic slasher movies. As Money prepares to gas the bedroom with ether, a pan in one direction shows the Blind Man laying in bed, and a pan in the reverse reveals him sitting up straight, seemingly staring at the invader. Álvarez uses the same trick to equal effect moments later, when Rocky moves away from a doorway she was blocking to show the heretofore knocked out Blind Man standing there, waiting and listening.

Reversals such as these, sometimes framing the invaders as callous vandals and sometimes framing the Blind Man as an unstoppable monster, occur throughout the film, and each new layer adds depth to the characters and the plot. Don’t Breathe wraps layers around what is, at its heart, a classic grindhouse picture.

And what a nasty little heart it is. When the Blind Man drops the weakling facade and shoots Money in the face, the effect is bloody and shocking. Every time a character falls through a wall or gets bludgeoned with a hammer, Álvarez shows us the results in gooey graphic detail. Copious bodily fluids get spilled and spit throughout the movie, from the slobber seeping from a mad dog’s maw to a turkey baster filled with semen.

Yes, you read that last part right, and it shows up in the climax to a sequence that exemplifies the movie’s complex moral balancing act. Trying to escape through the cellar door, Rocky and Alex discover that the various locks on the Blind Man’s basement door protect not the insurance money he was awarded after a young teen driver killed his daughter, but the driver herself, chained and gagged.

The revelation confirms our vilification of the Blind Man and shifts our allegiances firmly to Alex and Rocky, especially since they risk their lives to set her free. But when he accidentally shoots and kills his captive in the ensuing escape, the Blind Man responds with a sorrowful howl, tenderly caressing the woman he imprisoned.

After apparently killing Alex and capturing Rocky, the Blind Man explains his moral logic: the teen took his daughter from him, and he’s making her pay him back with a child instead of money. He impregnated her and has been holding her until she delivers, after which he’ll let her go. It’s a twisted logic, to be sure, but Lang delivers his lines with such humanity and conviction that we believe that he believes the rightness of his actions — which makes him all the more frightening.

That’s especially true when he extends that logic to the now captive Rocky. Because she took away his prisoner and the baby she carried, the Blind Man believes that Rocky owes him a child. “I’m not a rapist,” he croaks as he binds her and fills a turkey baster with his semen: “I never laid a hand on her; I promised I would set her free just as soon as she gave me a child.”

The scene is unquestionably horrifying, in part for the way it invokes its grindhouse heritage, from an age of movies that regularly and carelessly included rape as a basic plot point. But while the threat of violation still lingers in the scene, Álvarez wisely diverges from his predecessors. Refusing to leer at her exposed body and instead forcing us to watch the horrified expression Levy stretches across her face, Álvarez never lets us objectify Rocky, and keeps her just as a much a three-dimensional person as she has been throughout the movie. Cutting between her face and the approaching turkey baster, its contents dripping from the tip, Álvarez also provides the over-the-top squirms and absurdity that one wants from a B-picture.

The coup de gross occurs when a still-alive Alex attacks the Blind Man before he reaches Rocky, giving her time to escape and to exact her revenge: kicking him violently and slamming the baster down his throat, causing the Blind Man to cough up his own semen.

It’s a nasty and potentially morally dubious scene that completely works, thanks to Levy and Lang’s fully committed physical performances and from Álvarez’s staging. He knows exactly how far to push the audience, making us squirm and shudder, without sacrificing the humanity of his characters.

Álvarez flaunts his directorial prowess with not only tricky scenes like these, but also with the fundamentals of horror storytelling. As soon as the burglars enter the house, Álvarez shows the layout of the house with a one-shot that floats through every room and every corner, even showing a few concealed weapons. It puts us slightly ahead of the characters by telling us that the room they rush into is another dead end and not an exit, or that they’re not running from the Blind Man but leading him toward his armory. We feel a sense of inevitable dread as the characters jump from peril to peril, and amazement when they somehow find a way out of it.

The most impressive example of Álvarez’s spatial awareness appears near the end of the movie, after Rocky has escaped the house but is trapped in a car by the Blind Man’s marauding dog. In a sequence that invokes the 1983 adaptation of Stephen King’s Cujo, we watch Rocky navigate her way through and out of the cramped blue sedan under threat of the dog’s snapping jaws. In a fantastically choreographed set of shots, we watch Rocky lure the dog into the trunk, kick closed the back seat, and roll safely away.

The car sequence is Don’t Breathe in miniature, featuring a wild-eyed Jane Levy, a simultaneously sympathetic and scary attacker, and a well-defined area to navigate. That moment alone is enough of an achievement, and it’s remarkable that Álvarez expands it to a house and a street, and possibly across country, as the movie’s ominous ending suggests.

At the time of this writing, Álvarez’s planned Dante’s Inferno adaptation is still in the earliest stages of maybe/maybe not happening, and the box office disappointment of The Girl in the Spider’s Web still lingers. But he’s finished the script for Don’t Breathe 2, based on an idea that producer Sam Raimi called “the greatest idea for a sequel [he’s] ever heard.”

That might still be a long way off, but Don’t Breathe still stands as a fantastic original horror movie. Even knowing all of the twists and turns, there’s a great deal of pleasure in watching the expert way Álvarez sets up and surprises audiences.

A home invasion masterpiece? You bet.

The post [Editorial] Don’t Forget ‘Don’t Breathe,’ a Home Invasion Masterpiece appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The first season of “Castle Rock”, from Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television, will be available to own on Digital October 15, 2018. Consumers can enjoy all 10 episodes in high definition and standard definition along with never-before-seen bonus content. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will then release the complete first season on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD on January 8, 2019.

From Stephen King (Mr. Mercedes, It, 11.22.63) and J.J. Abrams (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Westworld, 11.22.63), “Castle Rock” is a new psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse. “Castle Rock”, which first premiered on Hulu, is an original story that combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of Stephen King’s best loved works, while weaving an epic saga of darkness and light that’s played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. “Castle Rock” has been picked up for a second season on Hulu.

The first season of “Castle Rock” follows Henry Deaver (André Holland, American Horror Story), a Death Row attorney who returns to Castle Rock, Maine, his hometown, after he receives an anonymous phone call from the infamous Shawshank State Penitentiary. The call is about a nameless young man (Bill Skarsgård, It) who is found locked in an underground cage that’s located in a long-abandoned cell block beneath the prison. Upon his discovery, the mysterious young man, with a sinister and unnerving presence, whispers Henry’s name. Curious about how and why someone left this boy imprisoned, Henry is drawn into the case and attempts to help him. But there are reasons why “The Kid” was imprisoned.  And reasons why he should never be set free.

Permeated with a sense of foreboding and dread, the haunting small town of Castle Rock is not willing to let Henry leave. Aside from now having to deal with the strange young man found in the prison, Henry is faced with the fact that his adoptive mother (Sissy Spacek, Carrie), who lives in Castle Rock with retired Sheriff Alan Pangborn (special guest star Scott Glenn), is struggling with the onset of dementia. Reluctantly, Henry stays to figure out just who “The Kid” is and how he wound up imprisoned under such appalling circumstances.

In addition to Holland, Skarsgård and Spacek, the series also stars Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men) as Molly Strand, Jane Levy (Suburgatory, Shameless, Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe) as Jackie Torrance and recurring guest star Terry O’Quinn (Lost, The Stepfather) as Shawshank’s Warden Dale Lacey.

“Castle Rock” is based on characters and settings created by Stephen King. The series was created by Sam Shaw (Manhattan, Masters of Sex) and Dustin Thomason (Manhattan, Lie to Me) who serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Stephen King, Ben Stephenson (Westworld), Mark Lafferty (Genius, Manhattan, White Collar) and Liz Glotzer (The Good Fight, The Shawshank Redemption). The series is from Bad Robot Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.

10 One-Hour Episodes:

1. Severance
2. Habeas Corpus
3. Local Color
4. The Box
5. Harvest
6. Filter
7. The Queen
8. Past Perfect
9. Henry Deaver
10. Romans

Bonus Material:

• Blood on the Page (New Featurette)
• A Clockwork of Horror: Merging the styles of Stephen King & J.J. Abrams (New Featurette)
• Inside the Episode: Severance
• Inside the Episode: Habeas Corpus
• Inside the Episode Local Color
• Inside the Episode: The Box
• Inside the Episode: Harvest
• Inside the Episode: Filter
• Inside the Episode: The Queen
• Inside the Episode: Past Perfect
• Inside the Episode: Henry Dever
• Inside the Episode: Romans

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After 9 weeks of setting the stage for all sorts of intriguing mysteries, the first season of Hulu’s Stephen King-based anthology series “Castle Rock” came to an end this week, leaving us with pretty much all of the same questions we started off the series pondering. Even the previous week’s big reveal that “The Kid” is actually an alternate version of Henry Deaver was called into question in ‘Romans,’ a frustratingly unsatisfying episode that either confirmed “The Kid” is the Devil or turned Andre Holland’s Henry Deaver into something of a villain.

Those questions, well, the writers have left you to answer them.

The episode left us off with Henry Deaver locking “The Kid” back up in the bowels of Shawshank, either entirely convinced that he’s the “Devil of Castle Rock” or simply not wanting to take the chance on him being anything but. Like Warden Lacy before him, Henry has become the new protector of Castle Rock, devoting himself to ensuring “The Kid” never again escapes and wreaks havoc on the town. Of course, even if “The Kid” is telling the truth and he really is an alternate Henry, his mere presence in a universe he doesn’t belong in makes him something of an unintentional monster, so one could say that Henry did the right thing either way. “The right thing” for the town, at least, which will presumably be much more pleasant without “The Kid” roaming free. Not necessarily, however, “the right thing” on a moral level; after all, it’s entirely possibly that “The Kid” truly is an innocent, alternate version of Henry himself.

We’ll never know for sure who “The Kid” is, but a sinister smile from Bill Skarsgård at the very end of the episode did *seem* to suggest he’s anything but a benevolent, innocent man. Furthermore, Holland’s Henry Deaver seemed to have seen the true face of “The Kid” out in the woods of Castle Rock, appearing to him as an almost zombie-like creature in a brief flash. Of course, it’s possible that was the town, or Henry’s own mind, merely playing a trick on him. Again, these are questions the writers intentionally did not answer.

One question that was definitively answered was that it was indeed a young Henry who pushed his adoptive father off a cliff all those years prior, in order to save himself and his mother from the wrath of an increasingly insane and dangerous Reverend Matthew Deaver. It was perhaps the series’ only true definitive answer, for whatever that might be worth.

As for some of the other characters, Molly Strand moved away from Castle Rock for what will perhaps be a happier life, while Ruth Deaver passed away and took up permanent residence alongside the love of her life, Alan Pangborn. Wendell Deaver is now living in Castle Rock with his father, surely unaware of his dad’s dark secret in the depths of Shawshank.

All in all, “Castle Rock” amounted to a whole lot of mystery but not much else, stringing us along for 10 episodes (only one of which was truly exceptional, unforgettable television) and then leaving us off at a point that didn’t quite make that investment of time feel all that worth it in the end. The big questions were essentially answered with the very same questions, so it’s hard to be satisfied with the overall journey of the season.

But there was one thing about the finale that left me excited for more “Castle Rock”…

In a mid-credits scene, Jane Levy’s Jackie Torrance (aka Diane Torrance) popped up for what was either a tease for future seasons or merely a fun little nod to King fans. Jackie, as we learned early on in Season 1, is actually the niece of none other than Jack Torrance, a brand new addition to the Stephen King Universe who was created for the Hulu series.

Sadly, Levy’s Jackie didn’t get all that much to do in Season 1, popping up here and there but mostly serving as an ancillary character who linked “Castle Rock” to King’s characters and storylines in a more direct way than the season’s other characters did – aside from King staple Alan Pangborn, of course. Whereas the season primarily told a new story within King’s fictional town of Castle Rock, Jackie Torrance assured and reminded that the series was indeed taking place in a world where literally all of King’s stories had indeed happened as real events.

Jackie’s biggest moment came in ‘Past Perfect,’ when she saved Henry Deaver from a murderous bed and breakfast owner by slamming an axe down into the man’s head. It was a fun moment for King fans, as Jackie’s uncle was infamous for picking up an ax and going on a murder spree of his own. Mostly, however, the series sorely underutilized Levy’s talents.

But the finale’s mid-credits scene suggested that we haven’t seen the last of the true crime-obsessed Jackie Torrance, who is headed off to the Overlook Hotel in order to do some research for a novel she’s writing, titled Overlooked. Yes, like Jack Torrance, Jackie Torrance has become a writer, and her next stop is the place where her family’s nightmare began.

Mind you, we’ve been told that “Castle Rock” will be an anthology series of standalone tales, but the creators did recently hint that characters from Season 1 could end up appearing in other seasons. On that note, in a recent chat with EW, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason had noted that they personally would like to see more of Levy as Jackie.

“Here’s where we’ll probably be infuriatingly tight-lipped, but what I would say is that we would sure love to see Jackie explore the Overlook Hotel,” Shaw teased to the site.

He added, “In this final tag there’s this sense that there are worlds of Stephen King’s that this show may explore eventually that are more far-flung than the state of Maine.”

As much as I do admire that “Castle Rock” has set out to tell entirely original stories, I can’t help but feel that some more direct connections to King’s work would really make the series a big time treat for Constant Readers. And a season centered on Jackie Torrance’s exploration of the Overlook Hotel would damn sure be a good place to start, as it’d allow for the series to brush up directly against one of King’s iconic stories while expanding upon it as a sort of quasi-sequel. In only brief moments throughout Season 1, Levy proved to be a highlight amid the relatively dull ensemble of characters, so the thought of her character getting her own season is one that fills me with a whole lot of excitement about the potential future of “Castle Rock.”

Here’s hoping the mid-credits tag was a teaser, rather than a bit of throwaway fun.

The post That End Credits Scene Was the Best Thing About the Unsatisfying “Castle Rock” Finale appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This week’s brand new episode, ‘The Harvest,’ confirms that it’s more than mere homage.

Halfway through the episode, Jackie is having a conversation in a car with The Kid, wherein she reminiscences about the town’s evil heyday: “This town is so blah. People bitch about the bad old days, when there were like serial killers and psychopathic dogs… but I would give my left tit to go back there,” Jackie tells him, before digging into her own interesting past.

“I had this uncle though,” she begins. “He was a writer too. One winter he just flipped his lid and tried to axe murder his wife and kids in a fancy ski resort. And my folks will never talk to me about it. So I took his name… to piss them off. My real name’s Diane.”

Yes, Jane Levy is playing Jack Torrance’s niece in “Castle Rock,” Diane Torrance! The character is a brand new addition to the Stephen King Universe, created for the Hulu series.

What’s interesting about The Shining existing within the world of “Castle Rock” is that Molly Strand seems to have the ability to “shine,” so we may be digging more into that connection in the weeks to come. Anything is possible in the creepy town of Castle Rock…

The post This Week’s “Castle Rock” Finally Tells Us Who Jane Levy is Playing and It’s Mighty Interesting appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Castle Rock tells an original story set in the Maine town that famously appears in many of King’s tales. It begins with a death that leads to a discovery in the bowels of the infamous Shawshank prison of a man (Bill Skarsgård) with a mysterious past. This leads Henry Deaver (André Holland) to return to Castle Rock, the town he grew up in, to investigate the happenings in the town.

The first thing one notices about the show is the number of references to previous Stephen King works. Not only is the Shawshank prison prominently featured, but there are references to Cujo, Stand By Me, Pet Sematary, and more. Despite intellectual rights for Stephen King character being all over the place in terms of ownership, the creators of Castle Rock didn’t face many problems when it came to adding Easter Eggs and references: “We made the show with WB and they already have a huge library of material at our disposal because they are responsible for some of the all-time great adaptations,” said co-creator Dustin Thomason, “We also planned out from the start which characters to use, since some kinds of characters and landmarks were sort of naturally applicable and others not so much. We didn’t really run into the problem of desperately wanting a piece of material that was out of hand.”

The most prominent reference is the titular prison from The Shawshank Redemption, which is a central location for the show. Jane Levy, who plays Jackie on the show, finds the prison to be one of the coolest Easter Eggs on Castle Rock. “I am a huge fan of the movie [The Shawshank Redemption] so that was a nice Easter Egg. I also love the idea of Cujo, this psychopathic, unstoppable and raging canine, so I really liked that too.”

It was also noted during the roundtable interview that Levy’s character is named Jackie Torrance, and she confirmed it was not a coincidence.

“Yes, Jackie does have a close relation with a famous King character,” said Levy with a cryptic smile. When asked if that relationship is familial, she replied “Possibly.”

When it comes to the scares that audiences can expect from Castle Rock, Jane Levy said this isn’t like IT. “The whole premise of the show is ‘what if your town is actually the sinister character?’ so in that sense, I do think the scares are slower and creepier rather than quick jump scares.” Show co-creator Sam Shaw looks back at The Shining as an inspiration for the kind of horror they do in Castle Rock. “It’s not always immediately clear to the audience what is a portent of doom or disaster and what is just a quotidian aspect of everyday life.” Coming right out of the highest grossing Stephen King adaptation, Bill Skarsgård does agree with that comparison. “IT is much more expressive, a sort of jump scare type of horror, and Pennywise is extremely expressive and in your face. Castle Rock is more of a slow build, it’s not about the scares as much as it is about the uneasiness of the mystery. My character, The Kid, is less in control and is much about his inner self, as opposed to be extrovert.”

Skarsgård also talked about how he was reluctant to go back to a Stephen King story so soon after playing The Dancing Clown. “They were very secretive about what the show is about,” said Skarsgård. “I just heard that they were interested in me for this thing, and they had a two-sentence description of the character, no script to be read or anything like that, just the Stephen King connection. IT wasn’t out at that time, and I felt like it was just too much of the thing I was just doing, but they were persistent and allowed me to read the pilot and it was completely different and intriguing.”

What can we expect from future seasons of Castle Rock? Sam Shaw confirmed that they will do self-contained stories.

“Our plan was always to approach each season as an unwritten Stephen King novel,” Shaw said.

“He’s a genre unto himself and there are seven or eight well defined sub-genres. We’ve always loved the stories dealing with crime and punishment, and prisons, and Stephen King sort of grappling with real-world monsters – and what we do with them, and where we put them, how we treat them, and whether that makes us monsters. This season is written very much in the shadow of Shawshank and The Green Mile, and stories dealing with incarceration. But then there are great banging monster stories or there are cosmic stories about good and evil.” Then he teases some of the different stories they could pull in future seasons: “We hope to have the latitude to come back to future seasons and just tell a great monster story set in like 1974 or a different kind of story under the influence of a very different Stephen King novel.”

The post [Interview] “Castle Rock” Cast and Creators Talk Easter Eggs and Building Upon Stephen King’s World appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“The quippy, sarcastic, and inquisitive Jackie is the self-appointed “historian” of Castle Rock, who also happens to be very into the macabre,” EW describes the character, whose name strongly suggests a connection to Jack Torrance, of course from King’s The Shining. But is Jackie Torrance actually related to Jack, or is the name merely a fun Easter egg nod?

Speaking with MTV, Levy suggests that it’s more than mere homage.

“Jackie, my character, brushes up very closely to a famous King character,” Levy just told MTV, clearly dancing around a full-on reveal that’d spoil the fun.

You have our attention, Hulu!

“Castle Rock” will premiere on Hulu this Wednesday, July 25.

The post Jane Levy Comments On Her Character’s Interesting Name in “Castle Rock”… Jackie Torrance appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Maleficent) stars a slacker who has to step up his game in order to rescue himself and his friends from a growing zombie plague inside his company compound.

“An underachiever working at a major weapons manufacturing firm finds that his co-workers have been “weaponized” by a new energy drink designed for the military. He must then set off to rescue his one true love from an office building full of psychotic coworkers armed with deadly tech.“

Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), Zachary Levi (Shazam!), Alan Ritchson, and Ian Harding co-star with Sam Daly (Submerged).

Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble wrote the script.

The post Exclusive ‘Office Uprising’ Trailer Drinks the Kool-Aid, Kicks Zombie Ass! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With “Ash vs. Evil Dead” officially canceled by Starz, and Bruce Campbell having retired Ash, our biggest hope is that Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert make another film. Campbell has not only given his blessing to sally forth without him, but he’s also teasing upcoming incarnations. What does that mean exactly? Who knows, but what I do know is that at one point they had planned to crossover the Fede Alvarez-directed “reboot” with the original trilogy. Ash and Mia (Jane Levy) side by side would have been wondrous, but at this point, we’ll be fortunate to see Mia’s character fully realized. Who knows what they’re planning behind closed doors, but what if we could get a sequel to Alvarez’s Evil Dead?

Who would have thought the World Cup could hold the future of the franchise in its hands? Alvarez is rooting for Uruguay and has made a deal with a fan on Twitter: if Uruguay wins the Cup, he’ll return to direct Evil Dead 2. So, I guess I’m rooting for Uruguay?

Also, a deal made on Twitter is legally binding, right?

DEAL https://t.co/GJs7dXCCSB

— Fede Alvarez (@fedalvar) June 15, 2018

The post Fede Alvarez Promises He’ll Direct ‘Evil Dead 2’ <i>If</i> Uruguay Wins the World Cup appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Maleficent) stars a slacker who has to step up his game in order to rescue himself and his friends from a growing zombie plague inside his company compound.

“An underachiever working at a major weapons manufacturing firm finds that his co-workers have been “weaponized” by a new energy drink designed for the military. He must then set off to rescue his one true love from an office building full of psychotic coworkers armed with deadly tech.“

Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), Zachary Levi, Alan Ritchson, and Ian Harding co-star with Sam Daly (Submerged).

Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble wrote the script. Thanks to Fabien M. for sending in out of Cannes.

The post ‘Office Uprising’ Poster Promises the Worst. Workday. Ever. appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Fede Alvarez’s 2013 version of Evil Dead introduced a badass new Deadite-slayer in the form of Mia, a sort of “female Ash” who was left covered in blood and with a missing hand in the final moments of the film’s gruesome insanity. Needless to say, Jane Levy’s Mia is a character who could lead a whole new franchise, and we’d love to see that.

Alas, there’s nothing in the works at this time, but fan Tommy Ross just cut together a pretty cool little concept teaser that imagines what an Evil Dead 2 could be like. Primarily, Ross uses footage from the alternate ending to Alvarez’s remake in order to convey his vision for a sequel; in that ending, a bloody Mia is picked up by a trucker.

“With all the horror reboots/remakes that have been released within the past decade, it’s surprising that not very many of them got sequels,” Ross writes. “I think out of all of the reboots, Evil Dead may be the most deserving of a sequel.”

Hard agree on that one, sir.

The post Fan-Made Teaser Trailer for ‘Evil Dead 2’ Picks Up Right After the Kickass Remake appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Last year was dominated by Stephen King tales on the big and small screen, and 2018 looks to continue that awesome trend. The J.J. Abrams-produced Hulu series “Castle Rock” will dive deep into the Stephen King multiverse, bringing together many of King’s stories for one epic saga. With the announcement of a July 25th premiere comes a brand new trailer where horror comes to life.

“Castle Rock is this town that [King] made famous in all these different books; and these two writers, Dustin Thomason and Sam Shaw, came up with this incredibly cool, terrifying, weird, funny idea of a series, new story, that takes place in this town,” Abrams recently told Jimmy Fallon. “And all of these characters from Stephen King’s books sort of are peripherally involved. We pitched it to Stephen King. He went nuts for it.”

From Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television, “Castle Rock” is named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas and short stories. Per the producers, it combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.

Castle Rock first appeared in King’s 1979 novel “The Dead Zone”, and has reappeared as late as his 2013 novel “Doctor Sleep” and 2014 novel “Revival”. The name is taken from the fictional mountain fort of the same name in William Golding’s 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies”. “Cujo”, “The Dark Half” and “Needful Things” were set in Castle Rock, while “Creepshow”, “The Stand”, “Sleepwalkers”, “Gerald’s Game” and even “IT” reference the town.

The cast includes Bill Skarsgård, André Holland, Scott Glenn, Sissy Spacek, Terry O’Quinn, Melanie Lynskey and Jane Levy.

The series, which tells an original story set inside the fictional town that Stephen King made famous, debuted a teaser trailer late last year, and you probably noticed some strong references to Shawshank Prison, the primary setting of The Shawshank Redemption. As it turns out, Skarsgård will be playing an inmate in next year’s series.

“Instead of playing a killer clown as he did in IT, this time around Skarsgård portrays a prisoner at Shawshank, who is directly connected with André Holland’s Henry Deaver, a death-row attorney,” he previously told Flickering Myth.

“The only thing I want to stress is that [Castle Rock is] a completely separate thing than Pennywise and IT,” Skarsgård himself recently explained to Rotten Tomatoes. “The world is brand new. It’s Stephen King’s universe… these are places we’ve been familiarized with through his work. But the show is an original story in that world. The character is a lot of fun. He’s — it’s a really weird one. [He’s] so different from Pennywise. I’m using a completely different tool set here for this one.”

The post Hulu Moves Into Stephen King Universe “Castle Rock” This July appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Maleficent) stars a slacker who has to step up his game in order to rescue himself and his friends from a growing zombie plague inside his company compound.

An underachiever working at a major weapons manufacturing firm finds that his co-workers have been “weaponized” by a new energy drink designed for the military. He must then set off to rescue his one true love from an office building full of psychotic coworkers armed with deadly tech.

Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), Zachary Levi, Alan Ritchson, and Ian Harding co-star with Sam Daly (Submerged).

Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble wrote the script.

The post ‘Office Uprising’ Clip Gets Off On Sharpening a Pencil appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Maleficent) stars a slacker who has to step up his game in order to rescue himself and his friends from a growing zombie plague inside his company compound.

An underachiever working at a major weapons manufacturing firm finds that his co-workers have been “weaponized” by a new energy drink designed for the military. He must then set off to rescue his one true love from an office building full of psychotic coworkers armed with deadly tech.

Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), Zachary Levi, Alan Ritchson, and Ian Harding co-star with Sam Daly (Submerged).

Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble wrote the script. Thanks to Fabien M. for the image.

The post New ‘Office Uprising’ Image Prepares for an Undead Fight appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Of course, there’s been a whole lot of backlash against this progressive and welcome trend, with Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters particularly upsetting the franchise’s core fanbase. Rather than bringing back Peter, Ray, Egon and Winston, Feig instead gave us Abby, Erin, Jillian and Patty; needless to say, many GB fans had already decided they hated the movie long before it was released or a trailer was even shown. Sad, but so very true.

Another gender-swapped reboot, though one that almost never comes up in this conversation, was Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead, 2013’s new take on Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead that replaced iconic badass Ashley J. Williams with Jane Levy’s Mia, a character who, by the end of the film, is familiarly handless and wielding a red chainsaw.

I’d argue, as I tweeted (and Alvarez himself re-tweeted) over the weekend, that maybe the single most admirable accomplishment of the Evil Dead remake is that it gender-swapped Ash without announcing or making a big deal out of it, thereby preventing hardcore fans from going into it with hatred already in their hearts.

In fact, Alvarez pulled off this sleight of hand so effectively that few even noticed.

Many were disappointed by the fact that Ash Williams was not in the remake, but that’s actually one of the most brilliant choices the film makes. It would be impossible to watch anyone else in the role and not compare that person to Bruce Campbell,  so it’s often best for remakes to throw iconic characters like Ash right out the window and start fresh.

Which brings me to one of my favorite aspects of the remake. Though there is no character named Ash, nor one that fully embodies all the qualities of that character, the character’s traits are very much present throughout, as the clever script has a whole lot of fun playing around with the idea of which character is that “Ash” character.

Going into the 2013 remake, it seemed obvious that Shiloh Fernandez’s David was our new Ash. With his short black hair, heroic good looks and familiar-looking blue work shirt, David very much plays the Ash character throughout the majority of the film, as he’s the brother figure who seems most equipped to deal with the Deadite invasion.

A couple of David’s scenes even pay direct homage to Ash scenes from the original Evil Dead, such as him finding a chainsaw in the work-shed and performing a live burial. Further leading us all astray, a scene of David slicing somebody up with a chainsaw was featured in the trailer, though it did not end up in the theatrical release.

But David does not ultimately become the Ash character, a mantle instead taken up Levy’s Mia. While Mia is initially presented as the film’s villain, the tables take a surprising turn in the final act with Mia assuming the role of Ash. With all the others dead, Mia becomes the badass heroine, slaying the demonic creature known as “The Abomination.”

She loses a hand. She equips herself with a chainsaw. She spouts a one-liner.

If Mia had been named Ash, of course, there would’ve been an extreme backlash towards the film. Just as there would’ve been if the marketing tipped its hat to the fact that yes, our beloved male hero has been replaced by a brand new female hero for this particular reboot. Smartly, however, the twist was kept secret… and the name Ash done away with.

But make no mistake, Mia is the Ash of the Evil Dead remake, an ass-kicking, Deadite-slaying heroine who ultimately becomes every bit Ash’s gender-bent equal.

Evil Dead proved that a smart approach is all it takes to make gender-swapping iconic, beloved characters not just inoffensive, but an effective way of breathing new life into old properties. It gave us a female Ash we’d love to see take the lead of an entirely new film franchise, so here’s hoping we haven’t seen the last of our new three-lettered hero.

Hail to the queen, baby.

The post How the ‘Evil Dead’ Remake Gender Swapped Ash Without Pissing You Off appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Castle Rock is this town that [King] made famous in all these different books; and these two writers, Dustin Thomason and Sam Shaw, came up with this incredibly cool, terrifying, weird, funny idea of a series, new story, that takes place in this town,” Abrams recently told Jimmy Fallon. “And all of these characters from Stephen King’s books sort of are peripherally involved. We pitched it to Stephen King. He went nuts for it.”

Hulu is going all-in on their new series, having released a new trailer that’s going to be playing during this Sunday’s Big Game, the Super Bowl.

From Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television, “Castle Rock” is named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas and short stories. Per the producers, it combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.

Castle Rock first appeared in King’s 1979 novel “The Dead Zone”, and has reappeared as late as his 2013 novel “Doctor Sleep” and 2014 novel “Revival”. The name is taken from the fictional mountain fort of the same name in William Golding’s 1954 novel “Lord of the Flies”. “Cujo”, “The Dark Half” and “Needful Things” were set in Castle Rock, while “Creepshow”, “The Stand”, “Sleepwalkers”, “Gerald’s Game” and even “IT” reference the town.

The cast includes Bill Skarsgård, André Holland, Scott Glenn, Sissy Spacek, Terry O’Quinn, Melanie Lynskey and Jane Levy.

The series, which tells an original story set inside the fictional town that Stephen King made famous, debuted a teaser trailer late last year, and you probably noticed some strong references to Shawshank Prison, the primary setting of The Shawshank Redemption. As it turns out, Skarsgård will be playing an inmate in next year’s series.

“Instead of playing a killer clown as he did in IT, this time around Skarsgård portrays a prisoner at Shawshank, who is directly connected with André Holland’s Henry Deaver, a death-row attorney,” he previously told Flickering Myth.

“The only thing I want to stress is that [Castle Rock is] a completely separate thing than Pennywise and IT,” Skarsgård himself recently explained to Rotten Tomatoes. “The world is brand new. It’s Stephen King’s universe… these are places we’ve been familiarized with through his work. But the show is an original story in that world. The character is a lot of fun. He’s — it’s a really weird one. [He’s] so different from Pennywise. I’m using a completely different tool set here for this one.”

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Brenton Thwaites (Gods of Egypt, Maleficent) stars a slacker who has to step up his game in order to rescue himself and his friends from a growing zombie plague inside his company compound.

An underachiever working at a major weapons manufacturing firm finds that his co-workers have been “weaponized” by a new energy drink designed for the military. He must then set off to rescue his one true love from an office building full of psychotic coworkers armed with deadly tech.

Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), Zachary Levi, Alan Ritchson and Ian Harding co-star with Sam Daly (Submerged).

Ian Shorr and Peter Gamble wrote the script.

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Set in the Stephen King multiverse, “Castle Rock”, from Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television, is named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas and short stories. Per the producers, it combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.

O’Quinn will play Dale Lacy, a pillar of the community in the town of Castle Rock. He joins previously cast André Holland, Scott Glenn, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Lynskey, Jane Levy and Bill Skarsgard.

Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed Castle Rock for television and serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer.

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The psychological horror series is named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas and short stories. It combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.

Glenn will play Alan Pangborn, a retired Sheriff who presided over some of the darkest years in Castle Rock’s checkered history. The character is popular in King lore and was at the center of the author’s books “Needful Things” and “The Dark Half”. Ed Harris portrayed the character in the 1993 film adaptation of Needful Things while Michael Rooker played him in George A. Romero’s iteration of The Dark Half the same year.

Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed the project for television and serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer.

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“Castle Rock” is described as a psychological-horror drama set in the Stephen King multiverse that combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, has served as the setting for many of King’s books, including “Cujo,” “The Dead Zone,” and “The Body.”

Bill Skarsgård, who stars in New Line Cinema’s It remake as the new Pennywise, recently joined the King-created universe.  In “Castle Rock,” Skarsgård will play a young man with an unusual legal problem and joins a cast that includes Carrie‘s Sissy Spacek, André Holland, Evil Dead‘s Jane Levy and Melanie Lynskey.

The series landed a 10-episode order.

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Bill Skarsgård, who stars in New Line Cinema’s It remake as the new Pennywise, will be joining Hulu’s Stephen King-created universe “Castle Rock”, reports Variety. He’s obviously playing a different character but it’s interesting nonetheless that he’s toplining two King’s projects.

In “Castle Rock,” Skarsgård will play a young man with an unusual legal problem and joins a cast that includes Sissy Spacek, André Holland, Jane Levy and Melanie Lynskey.

“Castle Rock” is described as a psychological-horror drama set in the Stephen King multiverse that combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, has served as the setting for many of King’s books, including “Cujo,” “The Dead Zone,” and “The Body.”

The series landed a 10-episode order.

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“Sea Oak” revolves around Aunt Bernie (Close), a meek, unmarried woman with no children in working-class Rust Belt City who dies tragically in a home invasion. Compelled by sheer force of dissatisfaction, she comes back from the dead full of rage and determined to get the life she never had. She proceeds to inflict a range of demands on what’s left of her nuclear family, including a quasi-stripper nephew and two feckless nieces, who live in a low-end subsidized hellhole of a housing complex called Sea Oak.

Written by George Saunders (Lincoln in the Bardo), Jonathan Krauss exec produces through his Affiliated Pictures banner. Lael Smith and Keir McFarlane co-executive produce.

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Levy, who starred in both Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead remake and Don’t Breathe, is set to co-star opposite Moonlight‘s André Holland in Hulu’s upcoming psychological-horror drama series from J.J. Abrams and Stephen King, Deadline reports. Also boarding the show in a key role is an actress closely associated with King’s cinematic world, Carrie star Sissy Spacek!

Levy has signed a one-year deal for “Castle Rock”, which is suspect and hopefully not a spoiler.

Set in the Stephen King multiverse, “Castle Rock”, from Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television, is named after the fictional town in King’s native Maine that is featured prominently in a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories. Per the producers, it combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland.

Oscar winner Spacek will play Ruth Deaver, estranged adoptive mother of Henry (Holland), a retired professor whose fading memories may hold a key to Castle Rock’s unsettling past. Levy plays Jackie, the death-obsessed, self-appointed historian of Castle Rock.

Holland plays Henry, a death row attorney with a unique and complicated history in Castle Rock, Maine.

Spacek is coming off a three-season run on the Netflix drama series “Bloodline”.

Sam Shaw & Dustin Thomason developed Castle Rock for television and serve as executive producers along with J.J. Abrams, Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer.

The post ‘Evil Dead’ Star Heading to “Castle Rock” with ‘Carrie’s’ Sissy Spacek! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Before he made Don’t Breathe, Fede Alvarez first came to the attention of horror fans with Evil Dead, a remake of Sam Raimi’s classic film that was released in 2013. Smartly, the Evil Dead remake did away with the character of Ash completely, rebooting the franchise with a remake that was actually more of an indirect sequel than anything else.

Instead of Ash, Evil Dead 2013 featured main character Mia, played by Jane Levy. Though she wasn’t immediately identifiable as the Ash character, so to speak, Mia eventually ended up losing a hand and kicking some serious Deadite ass; solidifying her as, well, a female Ash of sorts.

Why do I bring this up? Because Alvarez just shared a couple of awesome promo stills from Evil Dead that highlight Levy’s ass-kicking character!

Covered in blood and holding a chainsaw, Mia looks like a true Deadite-slaying warrior in these previously unseen shots!

A post shared by Fede (@iamfedealvarez) on Jun 23, 2017 at 2:20pm PDT

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Evil Dead remake director Fede Alvarez was the man behind Don’t Breathe, and he just tweeted out a piece of retro-style poster art that he himself whipped up.

“My own 80’s Poster design for #DontBreathe,” Alvarez tweeted, along with the image. The art has a certain Drew Struzan feel to it, which needless to say makes it pretty damn awesome. It’s also much better than the film’s on-the-nose official poster, which had an image of Jane Levy with her hands clasped over her mouth.

You can check out Alvarez’s unused design below.

Levy stars in Don’t Breathe as one of three teens who break into a blind man’s home (Stephen Lang) thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime. Dylan Minnette (Goosebumps) and Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) play the other thieves.

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I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is the story of Ruth (Melanie Lynskey), a nursing assistant suffering through a crisis of existential despair. But when her house is burglarized, Ruth discovers a renewed sense of purpose in tracking down the thieves. Accompanied by her obnoxious martial-arts-enthusiast neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood), they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.

The first clip shows Ruth throwing a piece of dog shit at Tony after he allows his dog to relieve himself on her lawn. The second, at the bottom of this article, tosses around the age-old joke, “deez nuts.”

Written and directed by Macon Blair, who appears in both Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room, the film has a distinctive look courtesy of cinematographer Larkin Seiple (Swiss Army Man, Cop Car), and also stars David Yow, Jane Levy, Devon Graye, Christine Woods, Robert Longstreet, Lee Eddy and Gary Anthony Williams.

We reviewed the film out of Sundance, calling it a “chaotic thriller classic.”

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She’s had enough and is going to take matters into her own hands.

Netflix just dropped the trailer for yet another surprise genre film, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, which is playing at the Sundance Film Festival before arriving on the streaming service February 24th.

I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore is the story of Ruth (Melanie Lynskey), a nursing assistant suffering through a crisis of existential despair. But when her house is burglarized, Ruth discovers a renewed sense of purpose in tracking down the thieves. Accompanied by her obnoxious martial-arts-enthusiast neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood), they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.

The trailer looks right up my alley, blending situational humor with a dead-pan serious tone. I think this one is going to be a gem!

Written and directed by Macon Blair, who appears in both Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin and Green Room, the film has a distinctive look courtesy of cinematographer Larkin Seiple (Swiss Army Man, Cop Car), and also stars David Yow, Jane Levy, Devon Graye, Christine Woods, Robert Longstreet, Lee Eddy and Gary Anthony Williams.

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As I’m sure you’ve heard, or maybe you haven’t, there’s a movie coming out on January 13th called Monster Trucks. It’s literally about… monsters that live inside of… trucks… and it’s already become the laughing stock of the internet movie scene. It’s a mega-budget film that seems destined to be an epic bomb… but as I sit here right now, I must tell you that I’m excited to see it.

The trailer for Monster Trucks hit the net last year and I’ve gotta say, I kind of fell in love with it pretty quickly. The film centers on Creech, one of those truck monsters, who appears to be some kind of giant dolphin-octopus creature. He looks like Sharktopus, really. A friendly Sharktopus. Who happens to be stuck inside of a truck. Do you get it? It’s a monster truck. Like for real.

Okay look. This shit is ridiculous and absurd and that’s EXACTLY WHY I’M SO HAPPY IT EXISTS. Monster Trucks immediately struck me as the kind of movie I would have LOVED as a kid; the kind of movie that would either spawn the coolest toy line ever or would be spawned from the coolest toy line ever. I’d probably have even collected all the Happy Meal trucks, because you just know McDonald’s would’ve been all over this shit back in the ’80s. We all would’ve been. And though I may be 30-years-old here in 2016, I’m still a kid at heart. And I still want this shit.

I need to stop calling this movie ‘shit.’ I mean it could be. But I’ll probably love it all the same.

On a more serious note, I do believe that the world needs more movies like Monster Trucks. What do I mean when I say that? I mean that kid-friendly, original monster movies have mostly fallen by the wayside in recent years, and that makes me sadder for the kids of today than for myself… and I’m pretty damn sad about it. Yes, Monster Trucks could turn out to be a pile of shit, but judging from the trailer, it looks like a whole lot of fun. It also looks to be loaded with charm, which is another thing absent from the movies of today. And perhaps best of all, it’s live-action. Well, as live-action as a movie about computer-generated monsters can be.

Movies aimed at younger audiences have become almost entirely animated these days, and there’s just something about a live-action monster movie, NOT based on an existing property, that puts a smile on my face. If nothing more, Monster Trucks looks like the kind of movie that the kids of today will look back fondly on decades from now. Maybe it’ll even be the movie that makes some kids interested in monsters. Maybe they’ll seek out films like Gremlins, ET, and The Gate afterwords. Maybe they’ll smile 30 years from now when they rediscover their Creech toy.

And maybe you’ll feel like a kid again while you watch it.

I’ll be ready and willing to accept that feeling on January 13th.

The post I Genuinely Want to See ‘Monster Trucks’ and Here’s Why appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

If you’re a fan of the Evil Dead franchise, you’ve pretty much gotten everything you ever could’ve wanted at this point. Fede Alvarez gave us a badass, extremely gory remake of the original classic back in 2013, and those who were waiting for Evil Dead 4 are getting precisely that courtesy of the Starz sequel series “Ash vs. Evil Dead.” What a wonderful time to be alive, isn’t it?!

Ever since “Ash vs. Evil Dead” premiered last year, fans have been wondering if the series will ever crossover with the 2013 remake, which was actually more of a sequel than anything else. Mia and Ash exist in the same universe, so it stands to reason that they’d someday join forces to kick some Deadite ass together. But will they? Or is that just way too awesome to be true?

Promoting the “Ash vs. Evil Dead” season 2 finale, Bruce Campbell (@GroovyBruce) took part in an ask-me-anything session over on Twitter last night, and when a fan asked him if the remake and TV series will ever come together, Campbell certainly didn’t rule the idea out…

What form would a crossover take, if it were to actually happen? Would Mia appear in “Ash vs. Evil Dead,” would Ash appear in Evil Dead 2, or would the concept be turned into its own film entirely? A question nobody can answer at the moment, but it’s fun to imagine all the different possibilities. All we know is, Ash would probably find a kindred spirit in the one-handed Mia!

For now, let’s just be happy that “Ash vs. Evil Dead” exists.

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Starring Jane Levy (Evil Dead), Dylan Minnette (Goosebumps), Daniel Zovatto (It Follows) and Stephen Lang (Avatar), Don’t Breathe follows, “…a group of thieves who break into a blind man’s home thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime. When the blind man reveals a dark side, the trio quickly discovers they were dead wrong.”

To celebrate the upcoming release, we spoke with star Jane Levy about her reaction to the film’s success, her thoughts on the recently announced sequel, and the current status of an Evil Dead sequel! Check it all out below.

Hey Jane, how are you doing?

Good! How are you?

I’m doing very well, thank you! We spoke in Budapest when the film was being made and you came aboard the project pretty close to when it was going to begin filming. Looking back on everything, how do you feel about your character Rocky and the final product?

I’m really happy with it. I’m really happy for Fede and the crew and the producers and the cast. He really made a good movie!

Don’t Breathe was a huge success in theaters. What was your reaction upon seeing all the positive press and audience turnout?

I was surprised. You never know when you’re making anything how it’s going to turn out. I also have this feeling that Fede knew all along that it was going to be like that [laughs]. It’s fucking great and it doesn’t happen often, so it feels good to be able to celebrate a project that I was a part of.

Fede and Sam have confirmed that a sequel is in the works, although no solid details have emerged. Do you know if Rocky is going to make a comeback? If so, would you be interested in reprising your role?