August 12, 2016

This week on the new episode of the Blumhouse.com produced horror podcast Shock Waves, we had very special guest Fede Alvarez, the director of the upcoming horror thriller DON’T BREATHE (in theaters August 26th!) and the 2013 remake of the classic EVIL DEAD.

Regarding his remake of the classic film that put Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on the map, it was a success on a number of levels. Financial for sure. It did what remakes are supposed to do, which is take the material from the original and update it for a modern audience. And as far back as the promotional junket in support of the film, all sorts of rumors flew around about the future of the EVIL DEAD franchise.

An extended cut of the movie? A sequel? A cross-over bringing Bruce Campbell’s Ash into the fold? Well, with Alvarez on Shock Waves this week, we wanted to set the record straight on all of the above! First of all… the extended cut. Does it exist? Is it a director’s cut?

“Yes. There is (a longer version) but it’s not a director’s cut,” the filmmaker explained. “Usually what I do, like most directors, is you do a first cut, look at it, and it’s usually too long. So I made the decision, and I really cut it to the bone to make sure that’s the sharpest piece of storytelling I can tell. I try to take it to a very effective machine of storytelling if I can.”

“So on EVIL DEAD, we had a scene where David was going to the shed and chopping his girlfriend to pieces to fulfill the prophecy, and there were a couple of (other) things that were in the trailer. But the trailer is usually from that long cut; it’s what you send to marketing so they can start working on the trailer. So while they’re doing the trailer, we’re still editing the movie. So my cut is the movie they put out.”

“The extended version is just that longer version of the movie we had at the beginning which I didn’t think was the best version of the film. And that movie, it’s funny – it got leaked! It was an error – Sony shipped the wrong version to the UK, so the one that’s airing in the UK (on cable) is the extended version. I just thought they were going to do a new edition at some point, and now maybe they should anyways! The UK ended up airing the extended version. I was reading that tweet and looking at it and thinking ‘wow, that is the extended version!’ But it’s not a director’s cut. Director’s cut is the one you’ve seen.”

When asked if he’s OK with people seeing this alternate version of EVIL DEAD, he quickly replied, “Oh yeah, I love it. It’s just longer and drags a bit more in some points. It has some stuff that’s not awesome. If it wasn’t in my cut, there’s a reason for it, just like when you watch deleted scenes there’s reason for it. Sometimes the scene doesn’t work in the context of the movie. I wish it was more publicly available! But I like that it’s mysterious and kind of out there.”

As fans, we’d welcome an extended cut on Blu-Ray if Sony would be willing! And it seems like Fede has plenty of additional material laying around that could beef up that release. “I have to put some stuff out,” he professed. “I’ve been going through my EVIL DEAD dailies. I found a lot of crazy shots we were doing. We did an alternate ending that was actually just a reproduction of that final shot from EVIL DEAD 1 where the camera runs through the house and comes out and Bruce Campbell turns around and screams. We did the same thing with Jane Levy, and it was going to be one of the endings. I think one day I’m just going to do a gif of that. (Laughs) People will be like ‘where is that from?!’”

OK, but what about the rumors of a sequel and a cross-over event with Bruce Campbell? Co-host Turek joked that every time they mentioned it, he was convinced Alvarez, Campbell, Raimi and Tapert were “punking” us! That’s not entirely accurate, but he explained they were answering based on discussions they were having at the time. “There was talk. There definitely was. Because the first one was successful, it’d seem obvious to get together (and do another one), but thank God, Bruce, Sam, Rob Tapert or I, don’t think that way. You don’t make a movie just because you can, you make a movie if you have a good story to tell. Obviously, the market will push you. And the studio was pushing us to make one and put it out 2 years later. But that’s not a reason to make a movie.”

“Do we have a good story? Do we have something left to be told in this particular story? At first, we thought let’s find out. Then we’d sit down and discuss ‘well we could do this, or do that.’ One of the things we wanted to do was ‘you know what would be exciting? Let’s get Mia to connect with Ash.’ Right? Let’s show this is in the same world. And that’s why his cameo is in the movie. That could open the door for that movie. And that was really what I wanted to do at some point. But very quickly, the whole idea of doing the show ASH VS EVIL DEAD came about, and we all thought that maybe it’s better to bring Ash back to the world for the new generation, and showing to the world why he’s so cool. And maybe after that, is the time to do that story, Mia and Bruce getting together again. That was basically what happened back then. Let’s just give room to the show and they went away to do that, and it’s been super successful and I’m so proud of those guys. I’m really good friends with Bruce and seeing him back on screen, just kicking ass is a blessing.”

Despite the success of ASH VS EVIL DEAD, a cross-over with his Ash and the movie’s lead character of Mia is still not completely out of the question. “Depending on where that (TV) story goes, maybe we can connect the feature world with the TV world and we tell that story. But it has to be something that is great. If you’re motivated by the fact that you can do it, that’s when you do something that’s not pure.”

Co-host Elric Kane commented that it’d be interesting to combine worlds because the tones of both the show and the movie are so different, and Alvarez agreed. “That’s the challenge! That’s what’s interesting. That’s when there’s a door for something new. When you don’t know what it is, that’s when it might be great.”

You can listen to a whole lot more about EVIL DEAD embedded below on episode 12 of Shock Waves. The above chat comes in around the 1 hour 55 minute mark. Also, plenty of fun stories regarding his first horror recollections, making his short PANIC ATTACK, and his upcoming flick DON’T BREATHE!