Daily Dead sat down with Fede Alvarez at the Los Angeles press day for Evil Dead, where the filmmaker talked about the pitfalls of launching one’s career with a remake, finding a final cut which not only passes MPAA standards but makes for the best movie, and figuring out what to do next both in and outside the horror genre.
Unlike so many reimaginings, sequels and reboots, Evil Dead has drawn equal parts enthusiasm and skepticism – early trailers met with euphoric excitement even as hardcore devotees of Sam Raimi’s original films bemoaned its existence in the first place. What may prove to be an equivalent obstacle to audiences entirely unfamiliar with its predecessors, however, is 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods, which so thoroughly deconstructed horror conventions – in particular the perils of visiting a decrepit wooden shack in the middle of nowhere – that tackling essentially the same story in a fully sincere way may prove impossible for them to accept. But Evil Dead director Fede Alvarez isn’t worried that Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon’s film will spoil his, for a few reasons.
“That movie is almost an homage to the original Evil Dead, and we were coming later as another story, so that was never a problem,” he tells Daily Dead. “But it’s such a love letter to horror on many levels, it made me crave a real, 100 percent classic horror movie. So when I watched it, I felt great, and it made me want to make this film the way we were doing it.”
Alvarez, whose previous work includes the science-fiction short Panic Attack, suggests that regardless of viewers’ affection for The Cabin in the Woods – or any other movie, for that matter – those who enjoy his film won’t be preoccupied by its predecessors. “I think when you watch a movie that works and you enjoy, you don’t think about other movies,” he says. “You just care about what’s going on with the characters on screen, and what’s going on with the story. On a more philosophical level you may think about those things, but when you sit down in the theater and you start watching the film, the whole world shuts down and all you care about is what’s going to happen next on camera.”
For the rest of our interview with Fede Alvarez, watch the video below. To catch up on our recent Evil Dead coverage, visit the following links:
*Note: This video interview does contain spoilers.
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