Evil Dead 2013 was an ambitious feat in more ways than one. One of the most revered horror films of the 1980s, Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead captivated generation after generation of film fans thanks to its gratuitous gore, bizarre humor, and the chainsaw-wielding Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) at the helm. To remake such a film was always going to be controversial – especially as a debut feature.
After cutting his teeth on short films, Uruguayan director Fede Álvarez met with Raimi to discuss working on a reimagining of the beloved franchise. And he got the gig, releasing his own dark and doom-filled version of Evil Dead in 2013. It proved a hit, lauded by many for its unique take on the story while paying homage to the Deadites that paved the way for its success. Evil Dead Rise followed in 2023 from Lee Cronin, and an untitled fifth installment is coming to our screens, further expanding the world that horror fans simply can’t get enough of – and with good reason.
Almost 20 years later, it was revealed that the Evil Dead 2013 director would be working on an upcoming Alien film, which we now know is Alien: Romulus. Plenty of buzz has surrounded the standalone film in the iconic Sci-Fi franchise, with much of the excitement coming from Álvarez’s involvement – especially after the release of THAT blood-spattered, scream-filled trailer.
And Evil Dead 2013 showed us a decade ago exactly why Álvarez is the perfect man for the job. We take a look at the modern classic and his work that has followed to explore why he’s the only director fit to tackle the Xenomorphs.
Evil Dead 2013: A feature debut with a bang
Álvarez began his career in cinema with a series of short films, beginning in 2001 with Los Pocillos which he directed and edited. He picked up his pen and wrote, directed, and edited El Último Alevare in 2003, followed by 2005’s El Cojonudo and 2009 short Ataque de pánico! He also produced and acted as visual effects supervisor…And animator.
Not satisfied with spinning six plates on a film production, Álvarez took on a project that many directors dare not approach, let alone for their feature film debut – Evil Dead. More than 20 years after Army Of Darkness hit our screens, Álvarez penned a script for the “reimagining” alongside Rodo Sayagues, which was then edited by Jennifer’s Body creator Diablo Cody since English was not the writers’ first language.
Raimi and Campbell returned to the franchise as producers on the film, with Campbell announcing the news in 2011 that Evil Dead was getting the remake treatment during a Reddit AskMeAnything. He wrote: “Newsflash: We are remaking Evil Dead. The script is awesome. I will be one of the producers and possibly play the milkman.” In July 2011, the project was officially announced.
As surreal as it was for audiences to see a relatively unknown director take on the world-renowned Evil Dead franchise – it was certainly more surreal and daunting for Álvarez himself. Speaking to Collider on the impact the film had on his career, he said: “Three years ago I was in my house doing commercials going ‘Oh, whatever’ doing stuff. I did a short and suddenly, one week after I uploaded it I was sitting with Sam Rami signing a deal with him to do another movie that didn’t happen, but still there.
A week after that I was like ‘Well, we’re gonna make a movie, awesome.’ And then we had a process with that movie where somebody had to write it and that’s why the movie never happened because they wrote something that was like ‘Eh.’
During the process of that, Sam and I were getting along pretty well and Sam goes ‘Well, you want to make Evil Dead?’ ‘…What?’ We started doing Evil Dead, and that’s when I asked him ‘Please, can I write it this time?’ And he said ‘Sure.’ Maybe he didn’t trust it was going to be good, but I’m happy that he liked it. And suddenly I’m here making a movie. But dude, three years ago I was thinking about selling my car and moving back to Uruguay, nothing like Hollywood.”
From a cabin in the woods to stardom
Many were dubious of whether Evil Dead 2013 could possibly live up to the legacy of its predecessors – they were all proved wrong and covered in a bucket of blood to boot, you know, as about 70,000 gallons of it was used to make the film. The film grossed $25.8 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office in a milestone achievement for horror.
It went on to gross a whopping $54.2 million domestically and $43.3 million internationally, for a worldwide take of $97.5 million against its $17 million budget, and garnered positive reviews from fans and critics alike. Doused in gore and gratuitous violence with a dark and brooding tone that sets it apart from The Evil Dead, it’s easy to see why.
Evil Dead 2013 was widely praised for striking the seemingly impossible balance within horror of paying homage to the original film while presenting fans with a fresh narrative that expands the franchise. Much like the first film, the Álvarez remake sees a group of friends journey to a cabin in the woods to be stalked by demons, turning them into Deadites, but we get to know the characters far more intimately.
In the original film Ash and the gang are enjoying a break to destress and partake in nature, while in Evil Dead 2013, we are plunged into the woods with no contact with the outside world in a bid to combat Mia’s (Jane Levy) addiction issues. The abundance of nature with a desaturated color planet draws inspiration from the world of J-horror and personifies the somber nature of the group’s trip and the horror soon to follow, broken only by lashings of red hot, vibrant blood.
And, because it’s an Evil Dead film, there’s lots of it. Though CGI is used within the film, Evil Dead 2013 stays true to the practical effects of the franchise, and it pays off, with some of the most stomach-churning kills of the franchise’s history packed into 91 minutes.
“We were committed to one thing: making sure that we kept everything that is necessary and timeless about the original and updated the rest,” Álvarez told Female.com.au. “We kept the idea of a group of best friends in what is meant to be a safe place. Once there, they try to kill each other. For me, that is a very scary feeling, worse than strangers menacing you in a zombie movie. Your best friends are turning against you one by one. The walls are closing in. That is part of the magic of the originals. It has always stayed with me.”
Álvarez’s world of horror remakes
Following the success of Evil Dead 2013, Álvarez released Don’t Breathe in 2016 to similar fanfare. Starring Jane Levy alongside Stephen Lang, Dylan Minnette, and Daniel Zavotto, the film sees a group of teenagers break into the home of a blind Gulf War veteran, Norman Nordstrom, whom they think will be an easy target.
They couldn’t be more wrong, as they find themselves fighting for their lives against a savage force of evil. It received a sequel in 2021, set eight years after the events of the first film, in which Nordstrom’s quiet life is disrupted when his daughter Phoenix is kidnapped. In 2018, Álvarez helmed The Girl in the Spider’s Web which he co-wrote alongside Jay Basu and Steven Knight, and based on the 2015 novel of the same name by David Lagercrantz.
In 2022, he dipped his toes into another revered horror franchise – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Set several decades after the original film, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the story by Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues follows young entrepreneurs Melody (Sarah Yarkin) and Dante (Jacob Latimore), Melody’s sister Lila (Elsie Fisher) and Dante’s girlfriend Ruth (Nell Hudson) as they disrupt the small Texas town Leatherface resides in with their view of creating a gentrified, trendy area to live.
Much like Evil Dead 2013, Álvarez penned gentle homages to the original film while also bringing the franchise into the modern era with a fresh set of characters and narrative. Unlike his outing into the woods, however, his Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake received a much more mixed response, with many criticizing its comments on social media, social issues, and modern buzzwords, which failed to add any meaningful message or deeper horror. It was praised for its gory elements, delivered in droves – most notably in the film’s iconic bus massacre.
Speaking to Latin Horror back in 2022, Álvarez gave us an insight into the fun he had with the film, despite some of its backlash. He said: “It is a great set-up for us to come in and have fun in a way because these things are, you know this is not a preachy drama. This is something you go crazy. You bring a chaotic story you make sure you confuse the shit out of everybody about what this is supposed to be about. You bring all the themes but you don’t give any straight answer about who is right and who is wrong. You just show it as life is… because that’s where the true horror happens.”
Tackling the Xenomorphs in Alien: Romulus
Back in 2019 following Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, it was announced that further Alien films were in development. But it wasn’t until three years after that Álvarez was announced as the writer and director after he pitched his own story co-written with Rodo Sayagues, one that is a standalone narrative taking place between the events of Alien and Aliens. The stacked cast includes Isabela Merced, Cailee Spaeny, Archie Renaux, David Jonnsson, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu, with a terrifying, blood-soaked trailer giving us our first glimpse of them in character as well as the hair-raising return of the Xenomorphs.
Taking notes from his stellar work on Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Álvarez revealed that he was taking the practical effects route when it came to creating the seventh film in the franchise, Alien: Romulus. He told The Hollywood Reporter: “I have this obsession with no green screens, so we built every creature and set. Everything had to be built so we were really living and breathing in these spaces.”
He went on to explain how they recreated the monsters: “For the creatures, we brought in all the guys from Aliens. They were in their early twenties when they made Aliens, and they were a part of Stan Winston’s [special effects] team. And now we had them at the top of their game. They have their own shops, and so we brought them all together to work on all the creatures because we went with all animatronics and puppets at every level. I even got the chance to be under the table with them, puppeteering all these animatronics.”
Little is known about the plot of the film, set to release on August 16, with an official synopsis revealing: “Young people on a distant world find themselves confronting the most terrifying life-form in the universe.” Álvarez himself shone a light on the narrative in an interview with GamesRadar, sharing hints when explaining the choice of the title: “It’s based on the Romulus and Remus myth. If people aren’t familiar, it’s the creation myth of Rome. Romulus killed Remus. It’s not a siblinghood that went down the right path. [Alien: Romulus] is a film about siblinghood.
A lot of the character stories are related to siblinghood. As you may know, Weyland-Yutani, which is the big company in the Alien movies, has this obsession with Rome and Imperialist iconography. You really have to go deep into the canon, but a lot of the planets, and a lot of names come out of the early Roman Empire, either from rivers or cities. And there’s a station where most of the story takes place. It’s called the Renaissance Station, and it’s made of two big models that are connected. One is Remus, the other one is Romulus. And that’s as much as I can tell you.”
A collaboration worth waiting for
If any contemporary filmmaker could do justice to the Alien franchise – it’s Fede Álvarez, and Evil Dead 2013 is all the proof we need. His deeply unsettling and unfathomably dark brand of horror is the perfect fit for Alien in deep need of a runaway hit release. 2012’s Prometheus and 2017’s Alien: Covenant were deeply criticized by many, and with a seven-year gap between the last release, the franchise deserves a revamp.
With the sparse details we do have about Romulus, it seems safe to say Álvarez is sticking close to what he knows with a young cast set to be butchered in a visual delight of practical effects-based gore. Evil Dead 2013 showed Álvarez’s talent at crafting rounded, engaging characters that you get to know on an intimate level, compounding the horrors and trauma that inevitably befall them and heightening the audience’s reaction. Alien boss Steve Asbell revealed (per Space.com) that Álvarez’s Romulus pitch was “just a really good story with a bunch of characters you haven’t seen before,” seemingly following the perfect recipe of Evil Dead.
Like Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Romulus will be a film that exists within the universe of Alien not as a remake, sequel, or prequel, but as a standalone story in the franchise. It’s the perfect vessel for Álvarez, who has already established himself as a prolific storyteller with the chops to deliver harrowing and horrifying stories (just look at Don’t Breathe, for one). His films so far have focused on prey trapped by a predator hellbent on tearing them apart – and there are few monsters scarier than the Xenomorphs for the director to play with, except perhaps, the Deadites.
With a penchant for gore, jaw-dropping visuals, claustrophobic spaces and rampant terror, Álvarez was straight out the gate running with Evil Dead 2013, and his craft has only improved since, so we can’t wait to see what he can do with a setup as terrifying as Alien.
Watch Evil Dead 2013 for free on Pluto TV.
