'Evil Dead' Vet Bruce Campbell Welcomes Remake's Fresh Blood

By this point, horror fans have to be getting tired of the countless horror remakes and reboots hitting theaters at a frantic pace. No horror franchise is more sacred than director Sam Raimi's 1981 horror masterpiece "Evil Dead." The film's devoted fans were initially cautious of any attempt to remake the DIY classic, but producer (and original franchise star) Bruce Campbell assures fans that new director Fede Alvarez has the skills necessary to bring "Evil Dead" back from the grave.

"Sam met ['Evil Dead' director] Fede Alvarez, who did a short called 'Panic Attack,' " Campbell says. "It went viral. It was robots attacking a city and he just did such a clever job with it for, like, $12." Alvarez's inventive filmmaking style resuscitated Raimi and Campbell's long comatose plans for an "Evil Dead" remake. Their plans initially stalled in 2009 with Campbell stating that the reboot was going nowhere. But that meeting with Alvarez convinced Raimi that he was the director for the job. "Literally everybody in Hollywood was like, 'who's this guy from Uruguay, for God's sake?' And so Sam was in one of his meetings. Fede brought up an 'Evil Dead' remake, and we never found anyone that could do it and that got us excited about it."

When the film commenced shooting, producers Raimi and Campbell discovered just how inventive Alvarez was going to be: he insisted on only using CGI for minor touch ups, meaning that the film's elaborately horrific set pieces would have to be done using practical effects.

"Fede was a big proponent of that. As producers we wanted a little more 'digital' to help get things done easier on the set, but if it's practical then you've got tubes and wires and extra people and weird positions you got to hold your arm in. It's a whole different ball game and it takes longer. But Fede's point is so well taken. Ten years from now, the effects [in 'Evil Dead'] will look the same. They won't look dated."

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For a film with as much name recognition as "Evil Dead," foregoing CGI truly makes it stand out from its digitally enhanced peers, especially considering the supernatural elements germane to "Evil Dead." But Campbell makes one point clear: the film will feel unmistakably like an "Evil Dead" film.

"['Evil Dead' films have] things that are over the top, things that are outrageous, things that you normally wouldn't see in everyday life. They're a little more fantastic. It's not your six o' clock news horror film. It's not a big guy with a machete... It's a possessed chick with a nail gun."

Despite starring in all of the "Evil Dead" trilogy's installments, Campbell mentions that he was perfectly fine staying seated in his producer's chair during this outing. He thought that a cameo would be too big of a wink to longtime fans, and he "didn't want to have anything distract from this movie." But that doesn't necessarily mean that 1992's "Army of Darkness" was his last outing as Ash Williams. Apparently, Sam Raimi had one caveat for new director Fede Alvarez.

"Whatever we do, you can't screw me out of making another 'Evil Dead.' "

Check out everything we've got on "Evil Dead."