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Sam Raimi – Fifty-Eight Years of Screams and Laughs!

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We’re here to celebrate Sam Raimi’s birthday. In fifty-eight years the man has certainly etched a niche upon the foundations of horror history. With one trilogy of movies alone Sam Raimi could have easily retired, sat back and lived off the ever-growing fandom of the Evil Dead franchise. But thankfully he wasn’t lazy.

 

Sam Raimi and the Evil Dead!

 

The first Evil Dead movie is proof of what one young man with a determined dream can accomplish.

 

Far from being a rich man, Sam Raimi was a simple film student who had to go door to door to local doctor and dentist offices to get funding for his little project – a small independent horror flick shot out in the woods called, Evil Dead. He quickly proved you don’t need a big budget as long as you have talent and a passion for what you’re doing, Sam Raimi not only made his horror film come to life, he brazenly cemented his legacy among horror fans for decades to come!

 

The Evil Dead was an immediate hit! But let’s be real, you don’t need me to tell you that. We all know what a success the movie was, and still continues to be today. I remember hearing how people ran out of the theaters screaming once the scares and gore of Evil Dead lit up the big screen. The dark incantations of H.P. Lovecraft’s greatest creation – the Necronomicon – were unleashed upon unsuspecting viewers and out of the shadows arose a legend to fight evil and send those nasty asshats right back to Hell. That legend was none other than his grooviness himself, Ash Williams.

 

Ash was brought to life by the one and only Bruce Campbell, a man who still to this day steps into Ash’s shoes to fight the legion of evil in Ash vs the Evil Dead.

 

For years there was talk about a fourth Evil Dead movie – or would it be a second Army of Darkness film? Then the age of the remakes befell us all, so it was no surprise to see the deadites get the reboot treatment. To be fair this is a rare remake I do really like. It went back to the original nightmarish quality the original movie had. For a lot of fans, Evil Dead is synonymous with slap-stick gags and laughs. And really, that’s ok. More people think of Evil Dead II or Army of Darkness when it comes to the movie legacy. But let’s not forget that the original movie was meant to be a serious horror film, one that sometimes is overlooked by the offshoot of its successful sequels.

 

So with the remake out people truly thought that was the end of any chance of any further sequels. If there were to be any continuation it would more than likely follow the remake. But little did we know what kind of treat Sam Raimi had in store for us! Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi teamed up again, dusted off the Necronomicon, got ready to unleash some groovy goodness and brought us Ash vs the Evil Dead, a series I certainly consider to be Evil Dead 3(4?).

 

I had the honor of meeting Bruce Campbell last week. He said that one of the good things about getting older was that it also meant Sam Raimi was older too and couldn’t hurt him as much. It really struck me that Campbell’s career is largely due to his friendship with Raimi. I’m not saying that without Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell wouldn’t have been a success. But we do have to admit, Campbell is one of the best gifts Raimi has given to us as fans. We love our Ash, a character created in the mind of a cool guy with a hilarious sense of humor.

 

Raimi And a Big Web!

 

Sam Raimi could easily go down in history just for the Evil Dead movies. But once again he proved the heights of his ambitions. Back in the early years of the Millennium audiences cheered as everyone’s favorite neighborhood Spider-Man swung into theaters and knocked our socks off. It’s said that today kids are clamoring over all the Marvel Studio films but don’t even realize that had it not been for Sam Raimi turning Spidey into a massive success there would be no Avengers films.

 

Just like his original passion to get Evil Dead onto the screen, so was his passion to bring his all-time favorite super-hero to life. Once again Raimi knocked on doors of studios and fought to make this movie happen. And wouldn’t you know it? It was another immediate success.

 

Sam Raimi is a dreamer who isn’t just content with sitting about and dreaming. He makes those dreams come true. He should be an inspiration to all aspiring artists, film makers and writers. Don’t be busy dreaming. Be busy with doing! Make dreams come true.

 

This has been Manic Exorcism. Happy Birthday to Sam Raimi! Thank you for all the laughs and screams!

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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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.

Evil Dead Rise

“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:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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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.

Happy Sad Confused

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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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

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.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

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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