Boo! It’s Bruce Campbell and the Evil Dead at New York Comic Con

We went to the Evil Dead panel at New York Comic Con, and it was transcendant! Bruce Campbell, that’s all you need to know. Not enough? He’s the star and producer of the franchise, as well as producer of the remake, though many TV crime fans know him best as Sam Axe from Burn Notice.

Also present to dazzle were new star Jane Levy and the remake’s director, Fede Alvarez, who was Skyped and offered the film’s helm by original director-writer-producer Sam Raimi himself. The shebang was moderated by Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly.

The original Evil Dead, also called “Book of the Dead” for obvious reasons if you’ve seen the movie, premiered in 1981. After becoming a cult classic, it was followed by Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992). Explaining the strategy for the remake, and over vocal protests, Bruce Campbell opined that he and Raimi just weren’t sure what fans really craved was a middle-aged dude hero, no matter how awesome. “Maybe it’s just too late to strap on that chainsaw one more time.”

Of course, the crowd tried to persuade him to ED4, begging for the “boomstick,” but he was unmoved, launching into a somewhat foul-mouthed and wholly entertaining tirade for the new film, concluding “if you need me to crown her [Levy], the new Ash, I’ll put that crown on my f**king self.”

We got to see a trailer cut with an emphasis on introducing our new heroine, named Mia now, not Ash as was. (It was hinted by Levy that if you take the initials of all the new movie’s characters, you may be able to do something fancy-necromancy with them.) Jane Levy says there’s no contest that the EV demons are scarier than the denizens of Suburgatory.

Original Synopsis: Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods, where they unknowingly release flesh-possessing demons.

Alvarez said he hoped to make a movie as “traumatizing” as the original.

Here’s a teaser from the trailer and the panel. Alvarez dedicated the trailer we saw to anyone in the crowd with an Evil Dead tattoo. (There were some.) At the trailer’s end, there was ecstatic happiness and, in fact, a standing ovation for the symphonic, horrific, integration of cabin, basement, book, vines, chainsaw… Yes, Bruce stalks you online, ED fans, and he's ready for you to stop whining and surrender to his greatness.

As you may know, “red band” means a trailer for mature audiences, so if you’re a horror freak, stampede over to watch the fresh, full-length, arterial-red band trailer for the absolutely heinous-looking new Evil Dead, because heinous is our highest praise. It’s safe to say the bloodthirsty crowd left in a mood of sunny optimism about the reboot. What do you think?

Bruce image courtesty of photographer Pete Labrozzi. Jane Levy image via JustJaredJr. Fede Alvarez via Geeks of Doom.