Evil Dead Spin-Off Coming From Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures
Here's something of a surprise: a new "Evil Dead" movie is on the way! After successfully relaunching the franchise with last year's nasty, gory "Evil Dead Rise," Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert's Ghost House Pictures have tapped up-and-coming filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček to helm what Deadline is describing as an "Evil Dead" spin-off film. I'm guessing they're calling it a "spin-off" rather than a sequel to imply that this new entry in the series will not connect to the recent "Evil Dead Rise." It's also unlikely to be a direct sequel to the original "Evil Dead" trilogy or the 2013 reboot.
In other words, it's time for a brand new story with brand new characters set in the "Evil Dead" world. I like this approach — you don't need connecting stories for an "Evil Dead" film. All you need is the basic set-up and you're free to run wild with it! Besides, since Bruce Campbell has retired from playing Ash, I'm much more interested in seeing new characters go up against the Deadites.
A new Evil Dead movie is always a good thing
So what is this new "Evil Dead" movie about? We don't know! Details are currently non-existent. The franchise began in 1981 with Sam Raimi's original "The Evil Dead," a DIY affair with gnarly make-up effects about a group of college kids who accidentally open a portal to another dimension full of pain-inflicting demons. Raimi followed it up with the sequel/reboot "Evil Dead II" in 1981. The trilogy concluded with 1992's "Army of Darkness." At the center of all three of these films was Bruce Campbell as Ash, a reluctant hero who eventually ended up with a chainsaw for a hand. Ash returned in the TV series "Ash vs. Evil Dead," which ran for 3 seasons. There were also video game and comic book continuations of the story.
The series got new life in 2013 with Fede Álvarez's ultra-gory "Evil Dead" reboot, a movie that asks, "What if we took all the fun out of the original movie and made something very unpleasant instead?" In 2023, the series returned again with Lee Cronin's "Evil Dead Rise," a pic that took the story from its traditional "cabin in the woods" setting and took place in an apartment building in the city. Now here comes this new movie. Will it return to the woods? Will it embrace a new setting? The sky is kind of the limit here. Go crazy with it, I say!
As for director Sébastien Vaniček, he recently made the French killer spider movie "Infested (Vermines)," which earned some positive reviews on the festival circuit and is destined to stream on Shudder this year. I haven't seen "Infested" yet so I can't speak to the film's quality, but I'm always up for new "Evil Dead" mayhem, and I'm interested to see what Vaniček, who is also co-writing the new movie, comes up with.