Corona | Coming Attractions

If an Evil Dead remake has to be made, I think that the producers are doing it in the smartest way possible: as a straight horror movie.

For those of you that have seen the 1981 film, you'll know that Sam Raimi's first Evil Dead movie is far darker than the two sequels that followed. By the time Army of Darkness was made, Raimi found success by mixing slapstick comedy with his horror, and Bruce Campbell was the perfect leading man that could pull that kind of performance off.

But without Campbell or Raimi involved in a major capacity with this new Evil Dead movie, where does that leave us?

There's positive news emerging from two sources that the new Evil Dead film will go back to being a straight horror movie. The first evidence comes from actress Jane Levy, who's been cast as the new Evil Dead's lead. Unlike Campbell's Ash, the 21st century Evil Dead will have a heroine as its protagonist.

"I'm a big fan of the original," Levy recently told The Insider. "To me it's the scariest movie, ever. But this one is really different. They've changed it a lot, but it's still a pretty gory movie. My mom probably can't see it."

And there's this additional quote that cements the thought that this Evil Dead won't be played for yuck-yucks: "I think the humor in the first one came from the special effects of the time. I don't know that they meant it to be funny ... this one is not funny. It's definitely dark."

The supporting piece of evidence comes from Bruce Campbell. As a producer on the new movie Campbell has been privy to its development process. He also knows where his bread is buttered, and it's the fans that he ultimately has to make happy.

"You can expect to have a damn scary horror movie," Campbell said about the new storyline. "There's no Ash character -- The Evil Book is going to torment a new set of kids, so it's a remake, or a re-imagining or ... a re-whatever word you want to use. It's going to be re-scary."

Campbell also gave an example of what we can expect to see. Do you remember the infamous tree scene from '81's The Evil Dead and what happened to Cheryl out in the woods? Well, the trees are included in the 2013 Evil Dead, and Bruce is hinting that what happens is even worse: "They're not terribly well-behaved this time either."