Spoilery 'The Evil Dead' Remake Details

Ghost House Pictures, the company run by Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, is getting ready to shoot a remake of The Evil Dead down in New Zealand, with Fede Alvarez directing from a script he co-wrote. (And one that Diablo Cody revised.)

We know that the basics of the story are much like those of Raimi's original The Evil Dead: five young friends go to a remote cabin for a weekend where they are besieged by a supernatural evil.

We've had a few details, too, about how this version will differ from the original. I won't recount those above the jump for the spoiler-averse. Along with a repeat of those details below, we've got a report that includes a lot more information about the film. This is also potentially very spoilerish stuff, and it will show just how different the new Evil Dead will be. Put it this way: there are more than a few comparisons to The Shining being thrown around.

Moviehole got hold of a recap of the script. Here's the block recap of the story setup as described by the site:

Mia and David, estranged siblings who have recently lost their mother (Mia's taking it the hardest being that she's the one who spent most days at the hospital watching her mother deteriorate) have reunited, along with some old friends and his David's fiancee, for an intervention at THAT old cabin. It's here that the near rehabilitated Mia will also toss the last of her drugs down the well and finally go cold turkey.

There is a storm, the Book of the Dead is found, and one of the kids starts trying to transcribe sections of it. Mia, meanwhile, may be suffering the effects of some kind of demonic possession, though her friends think many of her complaints are just the result of her trying to kick the drugs.

I'm loathe to reveal too much more of what the report says, but you can head to Moviehole for the other details. The site says there is a lot of potential for gore and violence in the script (supporting a recent assertion from Diablo Cody)  but from the description on hand this sounds a lot less like a direct remake of The Evil Dead than it does a sort of new thing altogether that uses the title and basic setup of the classic original film.

The chief complaint is that there isn't a lot of humor in the movie, but to some extent that just makes me think that Moviehole's writer is really only familiar with Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Because while there are some jokes in the first movie, it is hardly the laugh riot of Evil Dead II. Regardless, I'm happy to hear that there are quite a few differences between this film and the original. While I'm hardly clamoring for this new version I'm still game to see what all involved manage to do with it.

Too bad this one won't get an October berth. Sony will release The Evil Dead on April 12, 2013.