Evil Dead Information

Evil Dead is a 2013 American supernatural horror film directed by Fede lvarez (in his directorial debut), written by Rodo Sayagues and lvarez and produced by Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi, and Bruce Campbell. The film was shot in New Zealand outside of Auckland, lasting about a month. The fourth installment in the Evil Dead franchise, it serves as a soft reboot of the original 1981 film and as a continuation to the original film trilogy.

The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest festival on March 8, 2013 and was released in the United States on April 5, 2013. It grossed $97 million worldwide.

Evil Dead was announced on July 15, 2013, to be adapted into a live experience as the first maze announced for Universal Studios Hollywood's and the second maze for Universal Orlando Resort's annual Halloween Horror Nights 2013 event.

Plot

David and his girlfriend Natalie arrive at a cabin in the woods, where the pair meet up with his younger sister Mia and his friends Eric and Olivia. The group plans to stay in the cabin while Mia overcomes her addiction to heroin. The group discover the cellar, littered with rotting animal corpses, a shotgun, and a book called the Naturom Demonto.

Eric, despite written warnings, reads aloud an incantation and awakens a malevolent force. Mia begins seeing a bloody girl in the woods, and begs the group to leave because she is scared. They refuse, believing that she is simply experiencing the effects of withdrawal. Mia steals the car keys and drives away from the cabin, but the demonic girl causes her to crash in a swamp. Emerging from the mud, the demon chases Mia through the woods. Mia stumbles into a circular opening to a thorn bush and becomes entangled by possessed vines. Mia is then raped and possessed by a thorn vine. David and Olivia find Mia and take her back to the cabin.

Later, David finds his murdered dog along with a bloodied hammer, and goes to confront Mia, who is in the shower. In the bathroom, he sees her scalding herself in the shower. David tries to drive her to a hospital, but heavy rains flood the only road back. Meanwhile, Eric becomes more and more convinced that the book is the cause of all that.

That night, the possessed Mia comes into the living room with a shotgun and shoots David in the arm as a strong wind blows through the cabin, Mia warning the others that they are all going to die tonight, after which she passes out. David instructs Olivia to get the gun away from Mia, but before she can, Mia wakes up and overpowers her, then projectile vomits blood all over her face. Olivia manages to shove Mia off, sending her tumbling down into the cellar where she is locked in by Eric. Olivia goes to the bathroom to wash the blood off her face and get a sedative for Mia, but is terrified when she sees her own disfigured reflection in the mirror. Olivia tries to rush back to the others, but becomes frozen and possessed before she could get out of the room. Hearing a door slam, Eric goes to the room and finds her cutting into her cheek with a mirror shard behind the shower curtain. Olivia attacks and stabs Eric in the chest, who grabs a broken piece of the sink and bludgeons her to death. In the shed, David nurses Eric's wounds, and Eric confides that he believes that when he read the book, it released "something evil". Meanwhile, Mia lures Natalie into the cellar, where she bites her hand. Natalie tries to attack Mia with a box cutter, but Mia takes it from her and uses the blade to split her own tongue in half, before planting a bloodied kiss on Natalie's mouth. David opens the trapdoor, interrupting the assault and allowing Natalie to escape. After the demon tells him that Mia no longer exists, he chains it up and locks the cellar door.

Eric explains to David that, according to the Naturom Demonto, the Taker of Souls must claim five souls in order to unleash the Abomination. In the kitchen, while cleaning the bite wound, Natalie becomes convinced that her arm is infected and proceeds to amputate it with an electric knife. David does his best to patch up her wounded arm, while Eric continues to explain that Mia must be "purified" either by live burial, bodily dismemberment, or burning. As they debate, the possessed Natalie attacks the pair with a nail gun, but David manages to shoot off her remaining arm with the shotgun, snapping her out of her possession but ends up bleeding her to death in David's arms.

Eric convinces David to kill Mia and David plans to burn down the cabin with Mia in it. However, as Mia starts singing a song from their childhood, he has a change of mind and decides to bury her instead. He digs a grave, then enters the cellar to subdue Mia, who attempts to drown him. Eric intervenes and clubs Mia with a hammer, but not before being fatally stabbed and succumbing to his wounds. David proceeds to sedate and bury Mia, unearthing and defibrillating her afterwards, which causes the demon to be exorcized and heals her. The siblings reconcile. As David enters the cabin to retrieve the car keys, a possessed Eric's corpse stabs him in the neck with barb wire cutters. David locks Mia outside and shoots a gasoline can, destroying Eric's body and killing himself.

With five souls now claimed, the Abomination arises and blood rains from the sky. As Mia battles the Abomination, she is forced to tear her own hand off after it is trapped under a car. She then halves the Abomination with a chainsaw. Its corpse sinks into the ground and the blood-rain stops. Mia escapes into the woods and wanders off into the distance. Unknown to her, the Naturom Demonto is still intact.

In a post-credits scene, a silhouetted Ash Williams says "Groovy" and looks at the camera before it cuts to black.

Cast

• Jane Levy as Mia Allen
• Shiloh Fernandez as David Allen
• Lou Taylor Pucci as Eric
• Jessica Lucas as Olivia
• Elizabeth Blackmore as Natalie
• Jim McLarty as Harold
• Phoenix Connolly as Teenager
• Sian Davis as Old Woman
• Stephen Butterworth as Toothless Redneck
• Karl Willetts as Long Haired Redneck
• Randal Wilson as Taker of Souls/Abomination Mia
• Rupert Degas as the Demon (voice)

In addition, using audio from the original film, Bob Dorian plays Professor Raymond Knowby during the credits and Ellen Sandweiss plays a voice cameo as Cheryl Williams. Bruce Campbell plays Ash Williams in an uncredited post-credit cameo appearance.

The initial letters of the five main characters' names (David, Eric, Mia, Olivia, Natalie) form an acrostic spelling out DEMON.

Production

Fede lvarez and Rodo Sayagues co-wrote the script, which was then doctored by Diablo Cody in an effort to Americanize the dialogue since English was not the writers' first language. The film was produced by Raimi, Campbell, and Robert G. Tapert, who are the producers of the original trilogy.

Raimi and Campbell had planned a remake for many years, but in 2009, Campbell stated the proposed remake was "going nowhere" and had "fizzled" due to extremely negative fan reaction. However, in April 2011, Bruce Campbell stated in an AskMeAnything interview on Reddit.com, "We are remaking Evil Dead. The script is awesome [...] The remake's gonna kick some ass "? you have my word." The film was officially announced that July.

Actor Shiloh Fernandez was cast in the lead male role of David. Initially Lily Collins was scheduled to play the lead female role of Mia, but dropped out in January 2012,. with Jane Levy replacing her the next month. Lou Taylor Pucci, Elizabeth Blackmore, and Jessica Lucas later joined the cast.

In January 2013, lvarez commented on the ambiguity of the film's relationship to the original: </ref>}} lvarez, who also has a background in CGI, also confirmed in an interview that the film does not employ CGI (except for touch-ups): "We didn't do any CGI in the movie [...] Everything that you will see is real, which was really demanding. This was a very long shoot, 70 days of shooting at night. There's a reason people use CGI; it's cheaper and faster, I hate that. We researched a lot of magic tricks and illusion tricks."

Sam Raimi's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 can be seen in an opening scene with David and Mia as they arrive at the cabin. The 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 has appeared in almost all of the movies that Raimi has been involved with over his career.

Release

TriStar Pictures released the film theatrically on April 5, 2013, in the United States, with Sony Pictures handling other markets. Fede lvarez tweeted on January 28, 2013, that the film first received an NC-17 rating, which prompted cuts in order to obtain the contractually obligated R-rating. The film has been rated uncut as an 18 by the BBFC for containing strong "bloody violence, gory horror and very strong language". StudioCanal handled the release of Evil Dead in the United Kingdom.

Evil Dead premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX on March 8, 2013. The music for Evil Dead, composed by Roque Baos, was released by La-La Land Records in a 40-minute digital form and a 70-minute physical release, on April 9, 2013.

Home media

Evil Dead was released on DVD and Blu-ray, on July 16, 2013. The Blu-ray exclusives include commentary from three of the cast, and screenwriters Fede lvarez and Rodo Sayagues, behind the scenes and a featurette, while the regular DVD includes three other featurettes.

Extended cut

An extended version, that has yet to be released, featuring an alternative ending and various other deleted clips and dialogue, some of which were featured in the original trailer but subsequently removed from the theatrical version, was aired in the UK, on January 25, 2015.

No one has yet confirmed whether this was an intentional debut for the anticipated "extended cut", which fans of the film have asked about since the theatrical release, or whether StudioCanal UK had inadvertently supplied Channel 4 with the wrong copy of the film.

lvarez has confirmed on Twitter, that the version aired was not the extended cut.

Channel 4 has subsequently confirmed that the wrong copy of the film was supplied to them and that they have sent it back. They added that they have no other information on the version which aired and since the "extended/incorrect" version has been returned to StudioCanal UK they would not be airing it again. However, the extended version still airs on Film4. It was aired again on 13 February 2016, and yet again, on the night of 14 June 2016.

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $25.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office. It went on to gross $54.2 million domestically and $43.3 million internationally, for a worldwide take of $97.5 million, against its $17 million budget, making it a box office success.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 62% based on 182 reviews, and an average rating of 6.1/10. The consensus states: "It may lack the absurd humor that underlined the original, but the new-look Evil Dead compensates with brutal terror, gory scares, and gleefully bloody violence." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale.

Evan Dickson from Bloody Disgusting reviewed the film at SXSW and went on to say, "Evil Dead is amazingly gory and fun" and gave the film 4/5 stars. Chris Tilly of IGN gave Evil Dead 9/10 and called the movie a "terrifying, exhilarating and relentlessly entertaining new chapter in the Evil Dead story". John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, calling it a "remake that will win the hearts of many of the original's fans." Independent horror review site HorrorTalk gave the film four stars out of five saying it is "the most unrelenting and bloody horror film to come out of a major studio in a very long time". Emma Simmonds of The List commented, "Evil Dead has ample cheap shocks and few bloodcurdling frights but it builds to something gorily bravura and, if that's your bag, you'll come away satisfied. It's a while before anyone picks up a chainsaw, but boy is it worth it when they do." Matt Singer called the film "an assault on the senses" and "a success, one that out-Evil Deads the original movie with even more gore, puke, blood, and dismembered limbs. It may not be wildly inventive, but it is effective, and plenty faithful to the spirit "? and tagline "? of the first 'Ultimate Experience in Grueling Terror.'"

Richard Roeper rated the film one star out of four, criticizing the film's unoriginality, the characters' lack of intelligence, and the film's reliance on gore for what he felt were cheap scares. He concluded his review by saying, "I love horror films that truly shock, scare and provoke. But after 30 years of this stuff, I'm bored to death and sick to death of movies that seem to have one goal: How can we gross out the audience by torturing nearly every major character in the movie?"

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2013	Golden Trailer Awards	Best Horror TV Spot	TriStar Pictures and mOcean for "Everything's Fine"
	Fright Meter Award	Best Makeup	Evil Dead
		Best Special Effects	Evil Dead
		Best Ensemble Cast	Cast of Evil Dead
		Best Horror Movie	Evil Dead
		Best Director	Fede lvarez
		Best Actress	Jane Levy
		Best Supporting Actor	Lou Taylor Pucci
		Best Score	Roque Baos
		Best Editing	Bryan Shaw
	Golden Schmoes Award	Best Horror Movie of the Year	Evil Dead
	International Film Music Critics Award	Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror Film	Roque Baos
		Film Music Composition of the Year	Roque Baos for the composition track "Abominations Rising"
		Film Score of the Year	Roque Baos
	IGN Summer Movie Award	Best Horror Movie	Evil Dead
	Key Art Award	Best Audio/Visual Technique	Screen Gems & mOcean for the trailer "Filthy"
2014	Empire Award	Best Horror	Evil Dead
	Fangoria Chainsaw Award	Best Makeup/Creature FX	Roger Murray Jane O'Kane
		Best Wide-Release Film	Fede lvarez
		Best Supporting Actor	Lou Taylor Pucci
		Worst Film	Evil Dead
	Saturn Award	Best Make-Up	Patrick Baxter Jane O'Kane Roger Murray

Possible sequel

At the SXSW premiere, lvarez announced that a sequel was in the works. In addition, Sam Raimi confirmed plans to write Evil Dead 4 with his brother; it was later specified that this film would be Army of Darkness 2. At a WonderCon panel in March 2013, Campbell and lvarez stated that their ultimate plan was for lvarez's Evil Dead 2 and Raimi's Army of Darkness 2 to be followed by a seventh film which would merge the narratives of Ash and Mia. On October 30, 2013, co-writer Sayagues confirmed to DeadHollywood that he and lvarez would not return for the sequel. That same month, lvarez took to his Twitter that the rumor was not true.