evil dead Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell comes out on home video next week. Universal's essential DVD release contains both the unrated "director's cut" and the theatrical cut, although the unrated cut runs just a few seconds shorter than the theatrical cut. The major change -- I'm told -- is a moment's hesitation before the main character considers... well... it has to do with a cat. In the theatrical cut, the character hesitates for a moment, which, frankly, makes the situation all the more squeamishly gruesome, and in the other cut, she charges right in for a more sudden and gorier effect. This tiny change says a lot about Sam Raimi, who was once a talented B-movie director with a narrow range, and has now graduated to one of Hollywood's major A-list players, as well as being one of the cinema's most interesting potential masters. Best of all, he shows up for work in a suit and tie. How cool is that?

Drag Me to Hell is currently one of my favorite movies of 2009, and I like it for some of the same reasons I like Raimi's Evil Dead trilogy. More than nearly anyone else alive, Raimi has a feel for the movement of cinema, and the sheer joy behind that movement. His films pulse and flow and dodge and dart and fly; they never move too fast or too slow and the cuts always seem to arrive right on time. His films aren't roller-coaster rides, exactly, nor are they meant to be "intense." It's more like they pick you up and carry you along; it's an exhilarating ride not because the vehicle is moving fast, but because the road is interesting.

I'm not sure how it hasn't happened yet, but we haven't reveled in all things Army of Darkness for Scenes We Love yet ... until now! It's time for some Sam Raimi love, instead of Raimi rants.

When it comes to beloved scenes, no actor or film reigns supreme than Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead 3. It's a movie of epic one-liners, ones so unforgettable that even Evil Dead: The Musical uses them (well before Ash uttered them!). Yes, it's also a movie with some great slapstick, but nothing beats the words that pass through Campbell's lips.

Whenever I watch it, I wonder if the franchise have been as popular without the third film and those oft-recited quotes. Would Ash have had even half the staying power, or would have been merely a genre hero? Whatever the case, we can be happy he's here, and he got to utter phrases like "Give me some sugar, baby," "This is my boom stick," and my favorite: "Well, hello Mr. Fancy Pants." No other man could've pulled that off, and that's what I love about it.

That scene is second in the compilation after the jump (see it in its entirety here), a mix that includes most of the famous lines Bruce uttered. But there are some that are missing. There's no Chinese fighter pilots, and no "Hail to the King," even though the original incarnation of the musical had a whole song dedicated to it. Check out the Ash wonder and then weigh in below: What's your favorite Ash line?

As encouraging as it must be for a filmmaker to be recognized or associated with just one iconic film or franchise, Sam Raimi is the creative force behind two of them. He launched his eclectic career almost 30 years ago with the original Evil Dead, a horror classic that spawned two sequels and countless imitators, and then established himself as an A-list adaptor of comic book material with Spider-Man, which also begat sequels, and perhaps more importantly, several billion dollars or so in worldwide grosses. His latest film, Drag Me to Hell, is a return to the genre material that helped make a name for himself, albeit with the sensibility of a guy who survived one of Hollywood's biggest franchises, and took a few lessons away from the experience to boot.

Cinematical recently sat down with Raimi to discuss his new film, and the director demonstrated that in addition to being a hit machine with the mind of a born moviemaker, he's also a smart, generous, and remarkably humble fellow. While discussing his work on the film, he took time to respond, and kindly, to folks who both love and hate his legacy, before deconstructing his acrobatic cinematic style, and finally, digging deep to find a few films that meant something special to him as a young cineaste. And while he managed to pick consummate summer movie experiences that, quite frankly, didn't actually happen during the summer, the convenience of a Google search and the forgiveness of a grateful nation lying in wait for his films more than makes up for his lack of seasonal accuracy.

Sam Raimi is currently gearing up for the release of Drag Me to Hell, his long-awaited, and (sorry, Kevin Kelly), brilliant return to Evil Dead-style horror filmmaking. Predictably – meaning we were instructed to ask on your behalf – discussion of Spider-Man 4 came up during Cinematical's recent chat with the director, and he talked about what his goals are in returning to the franchise for one more installment. Check back in the coming weeks for the rest of our Raimi interview, but here's what the filmmaker said about making a fourth movie in the multimillion dollar series.

"I learn lessons on every single picture I make," he said. "I learned a lot on [Drag Me To Hell], about timing, and that you don't have to give up any character at the expense of horror. It's just an excuse that maybe I've used in the past. As far as Spider-Man, I've learned a lot of lessons about what people didn't like and missteps that I'd made. But I learned those lessons on the previous two, I was just a little quieter about them. I made a lot of mistakes, and it's part of the reason I so want to make this next story of Peter Parker."

Hail to the king, baby! Our Ash is one step closer to being back.

I officially forgive Sam Raimi for any disagreement we have over Kirsten Dunst and Spider-Man. The director recently had a long chat with Empire magazine, and he had a lot of good things to say about the long-anticipated sequel in the Evil Dead series.

So far, he's seven pages into a script for Evil Dead 4, with brother Ivan, just as he hoped: "Every time I'm with my brother Ivan, we write another page of it. It's in Detroit and in my garage." Raimi continued: "There's some dialogue. Ash being an idiot. Ash taking some abuse. Some character stuff and then some structure of Act Two. Just other possibilities for things that could happen. It's ideas, jokes, things we'd like to see."

Of course, Bruce Campbell is "firmly in mind" to star, but I bet it would be more accurate to say that there's no project without him. Some recasts might work, and I might love Ryan Ward in Evil Dead: The Musical, but there is NO replacing Campbell's Ash.

The Raimis have secretly outlined what they want to see in the sequel, but what would you folks like to see?

Doritos happens to be throwing this little contest in Canada where a lucky creative type will win $25,000 and 1% of future Canadian flavour sales. To win, you've got to come up with a snappy Doritos commercial: "Make it yummy sounding. Get creative. Use humour. Be dramatic or even totally inane. Anything goes." ...Anything within reason, of course.

Well, a friend of mine, Toronto filmmaker Richard Pierre, just sent me his awesome submission and I had to share. If you're a lover of the wonderfully classic Evil Dead, or find yourself singing the ridiculously catchy "Join Us!" (a la Evil Dead: The Musical) at random, you'll probably get a kick out of the above commercial. (With an actor who even resembles Ryan Ward!) Richard merged the crunch of Doritos with the bloody mouthed world of the undead for one funny, appropriate, and homegrown clip. If you love it too, you can vote for him here.

I'm beginning to think that Evil Dead is just about the most wonderfully adaptable film out there!

Okay. Deep breath. Today I am just going to go all-out fangirl, unabashedly, unashamedly. Next week you can ask me to discuss the Bechdel rule or the future of the term "mumblecore." But on Sunday, My Name is Bruce comes to Austin as part of a tour around the country, with its filmmaker-star Bruce Campbell in attendance, and my goofy inner fan is taking the upper hand over the professional film critic.

I realize that My Name is Bruce is unlikely to be one of the great films of the century, or even as fun as Army of Darkness. I'm fine with that. Look, I paid to see Man with the Screaming Brain in a theater (also with Campbell in attendance). I don't care. All of you who would go see anything touched by Joss Whedon, even if he remade an Oscar-Meyer Wiener commercial, can have your sweet revenge on me now. And I know I'm not alone -- in Austin, tickets for the My Name is Bruce screening sold out in five minutes, and they had to add two more screenings, which also sold out speedily. I talked my husband into watching the first Burn Notice episode with me on Hulu, and now we've watched all of them and he's coming with me this weekend, threatening to bring a yogurt container for Mr. Campbell to sign. We do have our limits -- you can watch the entire series of Jack of All Trades on Hulu too, but I figured once was way more than enough for me.

I keep hoping Campbell will appear in something as good as Bubba Ho-Tep again. In the meantime, I'm finding my favorite Bruce Campbell moments in film (and TV) to enjoy while keeping my fingers crossed about My Name is Bruce. So for the rest of you die hard Campbell fans out there, here are seven of my favorite moments. (I wish I had YouTube clips but the studios can be such spoilsports about copyright.) I don't need to tell you to feel free to point out what I missed, or where I'm wrong, in the comments. I'm hoping someone will let me know if I missed anything worthwhile in Serving Sara, The Love Bug, or McHale's Navy.

Color me not surprised, but still disappointed -- after raising the hopes of Ash fans everywhere at Comic Con, Sam Raimi is throwing his best hero back to that damned back burner with regards to an Evil Dead 4. In a discussion with MTV, he said that there was too much work needed for Drag Me to Hell, so "we never did it," and it's back on hold. Raimi swears he'll still do it, but at this rate, it'll just end up being Bubba Ho-Tep with Ash instead of Elvis. Someone needs to point a boom stick at Raimi's back side and get his arse in gear.

According to Variety, 50 Cent, Mickey Rourke and Jason Statham (there's a trio that could kick anyone's ass) have signed on to star opposite Sam Riley in the English-language remake of 13 Tzameti. Film tells of a man who steals a mysterious package then watches it lead to all sorts of craziness. The film is currently shooting in and around NYC.

There is another face, however, that is heading for the shadows -- Rob Reiner. After picking up some Travel Writing, The Hollywood Reporter posts that he will direct a new film from Zoe Green called Book of Shadows. But the twist is -- this ain't no Charmed. Instead, it's pretty much a new Indiana Jones with adventure done romance-style. I'm not quite sure how this works, but a young man is on a quest to find this book to save the world, and "must embark on the perilous journey of first love and face many trials of maturity" to do so. ... Your guess is as good as mine!

This was supposed to be a list of horror movies appropriate for dates. Unfortunately, I kept coming up with reasons why each movie wasn't a good idea. While my rationale wasn't entirely realistic, it got me thinking about movies that open certain cans of worms. Pregnancy. Momma's boys. Infidelity. These seven flicks have got lots of relationship deal-breakers in them, and can lead to some date-damaging conversation, rather than sexy innuendo and rose petals to the bedroom. They might uncover questionable morals, or even some private kink that you just can't get into. And some will get just a little spoilery, but most of them are classics, so you probably know the gist already.

Either way, you've been warned!


Eraserhead (1977)

Henry Spencer (Jack Nance) is just a simple, nervous printer who thinks his girlfriend, Mary (Charlotte Stewart), has broken up with him -- that is, until he is invited to dinner with her and her family. He finds out that she has had an amazingly brief pregnancy, and has given birth to some sort of strange alien baby. Being the noble boyfriend, he marries her, and is quickly left with this weird, wailing tot when she abandons them. Henry starts to become unhinged, and that just doesn't bode well for baby.

While this may be a short film, Eraserhead is packed full of taboo dating topics. Pregnancy. Marriage. Accepting abnormal babies. Ditching the family when sleep-deprived. Infanticide. One minute, you're watching an eerie David Lynch movie, and the next, you're having discussions about what you'd do with alien babies, whether you'd be noble and marry the mother of your out-of-wedlock kid. Or heck, whether love would keep you with her even if it looks like she got horizontal with some other strange sort of being.

He's been pretty busy over the last few years spinning webs around Manhattan, but the big question has been: what's next for Sam Raimi? Sure, he's got a lot of possible flicks to produce, but there's been no solid word on scripts or directorial projects. Unfortunately, there's still no solid word, but in a recent interview with MTV, Raimi talked about all the projects and possibilities for his filmmaking future.

First up: Spider-Man 4. In June, Raimi was dreaming up a webbed world with even more villains, because I guess he didn't hear the complaints about the storylines in Spider-Man 3. That's been scrapped because Raimi won't be working on the story for the next installment: "It'll be a brand-new writer coming in with a brand-new story -- a fresh take on the Spider-Man series." Right now, they're looking for that writer. Raimi says: "We're hearing different versions right now and really enjoying the different stories. Hopefully, we'll hear one that sounds right for the fourth installment." Once that's determined, he'll see if he wants to direct.

Next: The Hobbit. Raimi, of course, really wants to do it, but he's deferring to Jackson. "Well, it really is Peter Jackson's project, and I wouldn't make any conditions." That being said, if Jackson won't, Raimi hopes he will be the alternate choice: "If [Jackson] didn't want to direct it, and he was producing it, then I would love to be considered for the project." Seeing that Jackson might be in talks for the film, I'm thinking the possibility of hobbits and Raimis is gone.

But what about Evil Dead? Raimi -- he's just sinister. He refuses to let these remake rumors ever officially die, leaving us in continuing anxiety. He says: "Maybe we'll make another one; it would be nice to at some point, if I could get together with Bruce and Rob, and we could get a story together and the financing. A lot of things would have to come together, but it would be nice." But he also mentioned the possibility of a new director and new approach, finishing off with: "I look forward to someone else reinterpreting it, or going back to the story with part four myself." If he wants to do it himself with Bruce -- awesome. If he doesn't... Mr. Raimi, the only way to go is to bring Evil Dead: The Musical to the screen.

But there's even more, so stay tuned for part 2!