Fede Alvarez is in the director's chair on the April 12 release, while Raimi and Campbell are onboard as producers. Take a look at the redband trailer below and chime in with your verdict, and good luck keeping your dinner down/fending off visions of creepy tongue-splitting possessed girls in your nightmares tonight.

Synopsis:

In the much anticipated remake of the 1981 cult-hit horror film, five twenty-something friends become holed up in a remote cabin. When they discover a Book of the Dead, they unwittingly summon up dormant demons living in the nearby woods, which possess the youngsters in succession until only one is left intact to fight for survival.

[Evil Dead on YouTube]

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I've also posted the trailer to Sam Raimi's original 1981 film, The Evil Dead, so that you can compare elements of the first film with Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez's remake.  As with most contemporary reboots,  Alvarez's moves a lot faster. (He's even lost the 'The' in the title for a more streamlined effect.)  That said, the new trailer suggests that his Evil Dead will borrow some of Raimi's filmmaking flourishes, particularly the way in which the camera would take the perspective of the evil spirit that infects the unfortunate cabin dwellers.  Like the original, Alvarez's version also has scenes involving evil vines and dismemberment by power tools, including what looks like a chain saw.

Despite these similarities, when I interviewed Bruce Campbell at NY Comic-Con, he told me that the new Evil Dead, which opens early next year, will actually be quite different.  For one thing, Campbell — who starred in the original trilogy and is a producer of the remake — said Alvarez's version will be "dead serious" and won't feature an Ash, the character he played. "There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional," Campbell explained. "We didn’t want anything compared to anything. We didn’t want to put any burden on any actor to act like Ash or to imitate him."

Related Story: Read Movieline's interview with Bruce Campbell.

Read More at: http://movieline.com/2012/10/14/bruce-campbell-interview-evil-dead-remake-fede-alvarez-jane-levy-sam-raimi/#utm_source=copypaste&utm_campaign=referral

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Related Story: Bruce Campbell on the 'Dead Serious' 'Evil Dead' Remake, Crowning A New Ash And 'P-ssy Filmmaking'

Don't be put off by the initial graininess of the footage, the focus gets fixed and the camera is quite steady which makes me suspect that this is just a smart example of guerrilla marketing.  (I wouldn't have posted it otherwise.)  In either case, the trailer certainly makes a compelling case for horror and gore fans to see the movie.  There's lots of blood, scenes of people removing infected limbs with kitchen and garden power tools and one particularly memorable shot of a young possessed woman slicing her tongue down the middle.  (I guess she wants to speak with forked tongue...ba-dump-bump!)

The trailer also suggests that Alvarez has adopted Raimi's technique of shooting scenes from the perspective of the fast-moving evil forces that invade and infect the group of  pretty-but-unfortunate souls who find the Book of the Dead in an isolated cabin. Prepare to scream, like the crowd members do at the beginning of the clip.

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The colorfully candid Campbell was on hand at the Javits Center to draw attention to the remake of Evil Dead that he, Raimi and Rob Tapert are producing.  (The three were producers of the original films as well.)  Set for an April 12, 2013 release by Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems division, Evil Dead will mark the feature debut of Uruguayan commercial producer Fede Alvarez and feature young cast that includes Jane Levy (Suburgatory) and Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield).  The screenwriters include Raimi and hyper-stylist Diablo Cody (Juno).  

Like the original, the remake is about a group of young friends in a remote cabin who discover The Book of the Dead and, one by one, succumb to its evil.  But, as Campbell tells Movieline, the comparisons end there.  Read on to find out how the movies will differ, what Campbell really thinks of basketball shorts, actress Jane Levy's performance,  CAA agents and George Lucas' decision to tweak his Star Wars movies. And if you haven't seen Panic Attack!, the short film that got Alvaraez the Evil Dead job, it's posted below.

Movieline: Those shoes are something else. Do you own them or did you rent them?

Campbell: These are mine, baby.

They’re beautiful.

It’s Comic-Con. C’mon, let’s step it up! I’m trying to encourage other people who go to Comic-Con: Put on a nice shirt –and pants, too. While you’re at it, could you press your fucking t-shirt? And what you think about the basketball shorts? Should we just get rid of those?  I’m trying to class this joint up a little bit.

How will Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead compare to the original?

Higher quality production, better actors, better special effects and a different telling of a similar story. You’ve still got your five kids and a nasty book in an isolated cabin.

Is there an Ash?

Nope. There are no similar characters whatsoever. And we wanted that. That was intentional. We didn’t want anything compared to anything. We didn’t want to put any burden on any actor to act like Ash or to imitate him.

I hear you turned down a cameo in the movie.

Nobody said “yes” or “no” to anything, so that’s false.  We discussed it as filmmakers: Would it be worth it? Should we do it? But the tone of the movie is dead serious. It’s not jokey enough. This not a funny movie. If there’s laughter, it’s nervous laughter. There will not be ha-ha laughter. None. It’s a full-on old-school horror movie with make-up effects.

Alvarez got this gig because of his short film Panic Attack!

That’s what got us started. Fede is a Uruguayan filmmaker. He made commercials, Pepsi commercials. He does Panic Attack! in his spare time.  He puts it out there on a lark. It went viral. Three weeks later, he was literally in Spielberg’s office. He met everybody. His agents are CAA now.  I can’t get those assholes on the phone.

How did he get on Sam Raimi’s radar?

Sam was one of his meetings. They liked each other.  Sam wanted to develop Panic Attack! into a feature, but that got bogged down. Fede was a big fan of Evil Dead, and so he pitched a story that we all liked.  The three of us — myself, Sam Raimi and Rod Tapert — decided to get back involved in this and support this guy. He’s a very smart, talented guy. I mean, he really is too smart for his own good.  [A man in basketball shorts walking through the conference room distracts Campbell.] See?  Basketball shorts. Would it kill him to put on a pair of pants? I hate how right I am.

I’m glad I wore long pants. You were talking about how the Evil Dead remake came to be.

So that’s how it was born. It could have gone either way, you know. The guy had never made a feature film before. He’s telling a story longer than a 60-second Pepsi commercial. That’s a big challenge, and he succeeded on many levels. His actors are good and solid and give great balls-to-the-wall performances when they have to. Fede was also very mature about the whole thing. He’s very respectful of the genre. He’s not making fun of it. He’s not punking it — he’s just telling his version of it. And he didn’t over-shoot it. He didn’t over-edit it. It’s such a well-edited movie, and that’s pretty rare.  Most movies — the editing sucks.  Like, they’ll never hang on a full sentence. They’ll come in halfway through. They’ll cut away after ten seconds.  There’s a lot of shitty work out there.

Where did you shoot the movie?

We shot it in Auckland, New Zealand because we did all the Hercules and Xena shows down there. The Kiwis are top-notch workers; great crew members. So, we just gave Fede all the support that we could possibly give him — a better budget, qualified crew members, good actors.  We liked his script and we left him alone.  You don’t need to sit over a guy’s shoulder.

You turning up on the set would probably be pretty intimidating.

I sat in on the auditions, and some of the actors that came in were like, Nyaaaaaa!  I felt bad because the idea was not to freak them out.  It was to let them know that we’re into it and we’re taking it seriously. And I just think we pulled the right actors. Jane Levy -- I’m going to crown her the new Ash myself.  She’s got it. She’s got it.  You never know, either. We thought she was good in the room, but you get on a film set and what are they like?  Are they tough? Are they pussies? Are they assholes? Are they crazy?

What were you?

Tough. And Jane was a tough little shit, too. Really tough. I asked her in the room:  “How are you with extensive special effects for an extensive period of time. Have you ever done that?”  No. “Well, do you know what that’s going to be like?”

What’s it like?

It’s the fucking worst experience you can think of. It’s terrible for your skin. You’re an hour and a half, two hours putting it on.  You shoot a 14-hour day, and it’s a hour to take it off. Then you start the whole damn thing over the next day. This goes on for 10 weeks.  I wanted to hang myself after those movies. And we pushed every actor to the limit.  Jane, we pushed her over the edge.

So, she’s the new Ash.

You said it, not me.

You said you were going to crown her the new Ash.

If they want me to crown her, I’ll crown her — because I support her. I’m really impressed with what she did.

Could this be a trilogy in the way that the original Evil Dead movies were?

Easy, but you have to talk to Fede about that because I don’t know if he would do it.  He’s got lots of crazy ideas.  I want to go to double bills. The original Evil Dead paired with the remake. It would be a great midnight double bill.  Alamo Draft House, Austin, Texas.  Lines around the block -- I’m telling you. I’ll go introduce it myself.

If you could fix anything about the original Evil Dead movies, what would you do?

I wouldn’t because that’s pussy filmmaking, man.  It is.  You see the garden hoses shooting shit?  Yep, that’s right!  We did the best we could, pal. In 1979, we got the movie in the can for $85,000.  You’re going to get what you get. We’re not George Lucas going back to fix our effects. Sorry man, you blew it. You got to get over it. You can’t obsess like that. That’s cheating.

What’s next for you?

I’m finishing Burn Notice. I’ve been six years on that spy show for USA. It’s been a fun show. That’s my day job, and it eats up seven months out of my life. So the other five months I don’t feel like doing anything. The last break I just worked on developing a bunch of new scripts because you can’t do stuff without scripts. I’ve got three new ideas that I got written up last year. I like all kinds of genres. I want to do a few more little low-budget movies. I love low-budget movies.

Are there any recent horror movies that you like right now?

I don’t watch movies — it’s the weirdest thing — because I feel like I’m going to work. I see actors looking at their marks. I see them cheating to the camera. I see out -of-focus shit.  I see a lousy shot.

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This is Capcom’s second attempt at computer-generating a proper canon film. The first, Degeneration, was one of the worst movies ever made.  Degeneration was true to its subject in the way that a hastily written homework essay is true to its subject: all the keywords are there but the author clearly didn’t care. The result is less exciting than a non-zombified corpse.

Damnation is a huge improvement over its predecessor and a lot more fun, too. The movie doesn’t just understand the Resident Evil games, it understands the core problem that comes with making a movie based on a video game: Take away our ability to control the characters and the characters have to give back much more in return. They have to be interesting on their own.

Damnation delivers everything Resident Evil game-franchise fans could want from a movie. The characters are much improved — not just graphically, but behaviorally.

Fan-favorite Leon Kennedy isn’t just back, he’s graduated with a degree in advanced ass-kicking and has been promoted to Chief Buttkicker. No more pining after Ada Wong, shouting impotently at locked doors or running around after little girls. His first actions in this movie are going rogue, making sarcastic remarks about a fellow agent careless enough to be mortally wounded (while said agent is still alive and can hear him), then kicking a Licker’s ass so hard it scampers for safety while he chases it down.

If you're wondering who Ada Wong is, you now know the only minor issue in the movie. It is absolutely built for fans and assumes the audience will be excited to see these people. That said, the characters are so well developed that even a total newbie to the world of Domestic Bad will get with the program in short order. Leon establishes that he’s an ass-kicker by immediately kicking ass, while triple-agent Ada breezes into a room and immediately manipulates the hell out of an entire country. She then kicks ass, too. Even when events from the games are referenced, it's never jarring, just brilliant for fans.

The key reason Damnation works as a movie is that it dumps these revered gaming characters into an entirely new situation. Instead of yet another generically evil corporation/facility/whatever, we join a civil war in the Eastern Slav Republic, which (despite a excessively long narrative intro) is the perfect setting for this new story. With opposing sides struggling for revenge, independence, and oil money, we finally have believable motivations for people to use the most awful weapons imaginable.  This new setting makes even the oldest tropes fresh; of course there’s another vast underground base, but this one has the single coolest elevator in movie history. And even when you arrive there you’re still trying to work out exactly who betrayed who.

That was where Degeneration failed so badly. The plot was cut-and-pasted from the games: a new secret underground viral base, a new letter for the virus name, and a new character looking for lost relative/friend who’s clearly, obviously, blatantly implicated in the outbreak. That wasn’t an addition to the RE story, it was a unreasonable facsimile, replete with a search-and-replace script. You could almost hear the scriptwriter sighing “done” as he stopped typing.

In Damnation, the characters might not be quite yet out of the uncanny valley, but they’ve climbed up the walls by punching their bare, badass fists into the rock with every step. It’s not realistic, but it’s not quite trying to be — think of it instead as a new kind of animation. The graphics are glorious, and though the producers are pretty blatant about showing off new special effects, at least they're badass about it. For example, Ada Wong shows off the new fluid physics with a cup of tea that she uses to attack the President of a sovereign nation and her armed bodyguard. That is what we call “adequate justification.” Even when the graphics engine shows off shafts of light cutting through rooms, it’s only because the rooms have also torn apart by tank shells and at least two mutant murder machines.

The filmmakers re-create the original Resident Evil 2 “drips from the hallway ceiling” scene just because they can. For the first time you believe that Lickers could actually kill men with guns, not just men with guns struggling with analog sticks. Mr. X is elevated beyond Tyrant to Terminator levels of brutality, with cinematic fights much more interesting than the boss battles found in the games. When Leon starts punching a monster in the face with a tank, you're excited enough to start screaming in italics.

Luke McKinney loves the real world, but only because it has movies and video games in it. He responds to every tweet.

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10. “I like a girl in a bikini: no concealed weapons.” — Francisco Scaramanga, The Man With the Golden Gun

The supernumerary-nippled Scaramanga, played by the great Christopher Lee, may not be one for sensible artillery purchases, but The Man with the Golden Gun certainly knows how to dress a woman for optimal security — and cleavage.

9. “I am invincible!” — Boris Grishenko, Goldeneye

As Bond films go, Goldeneye is relatively straightforward, but it does contain a few nods to the campier 007 flicks of yesteryear. One of them comes courtesy of  Grishenko (Alan Cumming), the Russian hacker  who ends every successful evasion of authority with a heavily accented proclamation of hubris that foreshadows his inevitable downfall. If only James Cameron had taken note before his controversial "I'm king of the world!" Oscar acceptance speech for Titanic.  

8. “The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success.” — Elliot Carver, Tomorrow Never Dies

Carver (Jonathan Pryce) is a compelling villain in a not-so compelling Bond film about a William Randolph Hearst-like media mogul who uses his control over said media to kickstart global warfare. The above quote demonstrates the fine line between being unhinged and just plain evil. Fox News could not be reached for comment regarding his passing resemblance to Rupert Murdoch.

 7. ““Such nice cheeks too. If only they were brains.” — Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Diamonds are Forever

It's no coincidence that Bond’s most long-lived adversary was also quite the wordsmith. With this little verbal bon bon, he  nicely captures the mixture of  arrogance and casual misogyny that makes Blofeld (in this instance, played by Donald Pleasance) one of the franchise's best villains.

6. “Of course Vargas does not drink…does not smoke…does not make love. What do you do, Vargas?” — Emilio Largo, Thunderball

In the hedonistic world of James Bond, it’s almost unthinkable that any character would abstain from the above-mentioned vices, let alone all three. No wonder Vargas chose assassin as a career.

5. “The first one won’t kill you. Not the second. Not even the third. Not until you crawl over here and kiss my foot!” — Red Grant, From Russia with Love

Sean Connery’s Bond was a cold and ruthless secret agent, and as such, his adversaries were the stuff of legend, often digging into deeper and darker places than the more fleshed-out characters of the later films. Robert Shaw’s magnificent turn as the psychopathic Red Grant is one for the ages.

4. “This time, Mr. Bond, the pleasure will be all mine!” — Xenia Onatopp, Goldeneye

This line from the 1995 Goldeneye may be in keeping with the double entendres that distinguished so many of the earlier Bond films, but it's delivered by the most confident, badass female villain (played by Famke Janssen) that Bond has ever faced.  The scene marks the moment when (most of) the vicious sexism of the 007 franchise was left behind.

 3. “East, West, just points of the compass, each as stupid as the other.” — Dr. No, Dr. No

Joseph Wiseman laid the framework for the Bond baddies, and consequently, for the spy villain archetype itself. He's clinically insane, emotionally detached and obsessed with world domination, as demonstrated by the above sentiment.

 2. “Kill Bond! Now!” — Ernst Stavro Blofeld, You Only Live Twice

That really says it all in a neat but expressive package, doesn’t it?  Normally a man of refined taste and precise language, even Blofeld has his breaking point.

 1. No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.” — Auric Goldfinger, Goldfinger

Goldfinger's icily matter-of-fact response to the about-to-be-lasered Bond’s sneering inquiry, “I suppose you expect me to talk?”, is villainy at its streamlined best: no bad puns or goofball cackles, just pure malevolence.  Nobody chilled the blood like Gert Frobe. Nobody!

John Jarzemsky is a contributor at LitReactor, Twitch, and can be read semi-regularly at his personal blog, the ineptly named Super Roller Disco Monkey Hullabaloo! or on twitter @jtjarzemsky. He is big in Japan.

The fifth installment of Resident Evil trumped fellow opener Finding Nemo (3-D). The newcomers performed decently well, but did not lift the overall lackluster domestic box office. $3 million of Resident Evil's weekend gross, or about 14%, came from IMAX. The previous installment, Resident Evil: Afterlife opened in 2010 in 3,209 theaters, grossing just over $26.65 million. The first Resident Evil bowed in 2002 in 2,528 theaters, grossing just over $17.7 million its opening weekend.

2. Finding Nemo (3-D) (Re-release)
Gross: $17,504,000
Screens: 2,904 (PSA: $6,028)
Week: 1

Landing at number two for the weekend, but the 3-D re-release's $17.5 million take compares with The Lion King's 3-D re-release, which grossed $30.2 million when it opened exactly one year ago. Still, the numbers are similar to the 3-D release of Beauty and the Beast, which came in at $17.8 million.

3. The Possession
Gross: $5.8 million (Cume: $41,167,112)
Screens: 2,860 (PSA: $2,028)
Week: 3 (Change: - 38%)

The Possession took third place in its third week, but it reflects an overall depressed box office. Its $5.8 million take compares to number two Finding Nemo with over $17.5 million, so a third place finish is really a reflection on the recent box office overall. The Possession added 26 locations in its third round and its weekend gross declined by 38% from the prior week.

4. Lawless
Gross: $4,219,000 (Cume: $30,140,754)
Screens: 3,063 (PSA: $1,377)
Week: 3 (Change: - 30%)

This is by far and away Australian-born director John Hillcoat's biggest feature success to date and there is still more life to the feature starring Sia LaBeouf and Tom Hardy. The period drama lost 75 theaters compared to the previous weekend, but its overall gross only declined a fair 30%.

5. ParaNorman (3-D, animated)
Gross: $3,039,464 (Cume: $49,335,710)
Screens: 2,326 (PSA: $1,307)
Week: 5 (Change: - 28%)

Still making it in the top 5 in its fifth weekend out despite competition from 3-D animated newcomer Finding Nemo, ParaNorman actually inched up a spot in the box office order from last week's sixth spot placement. Its overall gross dropped just 28%, which shows the animated feature still holding some momentum despite being in 530 less theaters compared to the week prior.

6. The Expendables 2
Gross: $3.03 million (Cume: $80,289,979)
Screens: 2,896 (PSA: $1,046)
Week: 5 (Change: -39%)

The Sly Stallone action-feature sequel hit the ground running when it opened, but suffered a large drop last week and another sizable drop in its fifth weekend out. It slid to sixth place from last week's fourth, grossing just over $3 million compared to last weekend's $4.75 million. It dropped 364 theaters in its fifth round. It may be difficult for Expendables 2 to match the overall $103 million box office take Expendables grossed in 2010.

7. The Words
Gross: $2,880,000 (Cume: $9,159,885)
Screens: 2,801 (PSA: $1,028)
Week: 2 (Change: - 39%)

The Words had a soft start last weekend and the Bradley Cooper Sundance Film Festival drama continues to fizzle. The title remained in the same number of theaters, but expect exhibitors to drop the feature, which may be hard-pressed to stay in the top 10 next week. It opened in third place last week with a $5 million gross.

8. The Bourne Legacy
Gross: $2,875,250 (Cume: $107,816,910)
Screens: 2,170 (PSA: $1,325)
Week: 6 (Change: - 28%)

Despite a big plunge last weekend and losing nearly 600 theaters, The Bourne Legacy managed to slow down the skid in its sixth round with a gross decline of 28%. Last week it had dropped almost 48% compared to week 4.

9. The Odd Life of Timothy Green
Gross: $2,511,000 (Cume: $46,284,000)
Screens: 2,415 (PSA: $1,040)
Week: 5 (Change: - 31%)

The peculiar fantasy feature also managed to put the breaks on a slide that brought the title down over $40% last weekend, though the title only scraped out a PSA just over $1K compared to last week's otherwise slow showing of $1,343.

10: The Campaign
Gross: $2,405,000 (Cume $82,857,000)
Screens: 2002 (PSA: $1,201)
Week: 6 (Change: - 29%)

Say adieu (most likely) to The Campaign's run in the top 10. It will still reap some cash as it continues its theater run. The Will Ferrel comedy compares to the actor's 2010 action-comedy The Other Guys, which grossed just over $119 million.

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12. Arbitrage
Gross: $2,069,770
Screens: 197 (PSA: $10,506)
Week: 1

Though only in limited release, Arbitrage is worth noting because it placed 12th in the overall box office its opening weekend, despite being in just under 200 theaters.

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18. The Master
Gross: $729,745
Screens: 5 (PSA: $145,949)
Week: 1

This was truly the big story of the weekend in terms of box office. It is the largest non-animated opening per-screen average ever. It outranked Moonrise Kingdom, which had set a new PSA average record only in May at $130,749. With Oscar buzz coming out of its debut at the recent Venice and Toronto film festivals, the film should have a healthy b.o. life this fall. It will be very interesting to see how the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed feature starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix will fare in wider release.