News
Within The Woods: The Precursor to the Evil Dead
In 1978 three friends in their early twenties shot a short film called Within The Woods. This film was used as a selling tool for investors in order to get funding for a feature length film. It was made for almost no money and was never intended to be seen outside of friends and investors. Luckily, investors loved the short and the three friends were able to make the feature that would go down in horror history. The friends? Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi, and Bruce “The Chin” Campbell. The film? Evil Dead. Since writing my review for The Evil Dead Anthology back in January, where I talked about how the set didn’t include this short, I have been asked a few times if it is available to watch somewhere. Well, we did the digging for you and here is the NSFW video below:
[youtube id=”_WjQTMvyJWw” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]
It always blows my mind watching this, not only seeing very young versions of Bruce Campbell and Ellen Sandweiss, but also seeing the seed that would become Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. Everything from the ominous camera staggering fluidly through the woods, to the creepy sound design, Bruce Campbell being abused at Sam Raimi’s delight, and even Scotty still kind of being useless. There are shots/sequences the would be reused for the rest of the franchise and an ending that is both ambiguous and dark that would later become a franchise trademark.
It is great to see the genesis of what would be my favorite film series starting here. Admittedly, the quality isn’t the best for this video and it never will. The short was never intended to be seen publicly and few copies remain of it. In fact, this version was taken from a 16mm print of it that was transferred to VHS that was then digitized. Through of it the print was beaten and handled roughly. With transfer issues aside, its still awesome seeing the seed that will grow into the Evil Dead series and a good way to get pumped for ASH VS. THE EVIL DEAD!
To learn more about the history and making of Within The Woods and the other Evil Dead movies buy The Evil Dead Companion
Check out the latest on Ash VS. The Evil Dead HERE
And don’t forget our recent interview with Tom Sullivan!
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
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Movies
‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
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News
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
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