Episode Ninety-Four - Evil Dead (2013)

04/23/24 • 95 min

"Evil Easter" concludes, with a look at 2013's Evil Dead...uhhh, remake? Reboot? Re-imagining? Look, whatever you want to call it, it's another movie where a bunch of kids in a cabin get murdered by demonic forces, okay? The question is, without the franchise's beloved, iconic leading man, Bruce Campbell, and with series director Sam Raimi now just in a producer role instead of in the director's chair, could new director Fede Alvarez and a brand new cast manage to capture the bloody-good-time spirit of the original trilogy? And what tone would the 2013 entry even aim for, given the tonal smorgasbord of the first three movies? Come with us as we head to the cabin, stupidly read from the obviously evil book, and seek to answer these questions, and more.

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Episode Ninety-Three - Evilspeak (1981)

Our "Evil Easter" month kicks off with Evilspeak, from 1981...or, uh, 1982. Look, we'll explain. All you need to know is this a Satanic Panic-fueled story of a bullied young cadet at a military academy who uses an Apple II computer to translate the Latin passages in a mysterious old book he finds, in the process allowing demonic forces to take over the computer, and - eventually - him, as well. Yeah, yeah, a really common story, but this one has Clint Howard in his first movie leading role! A gory cult classic that was intense enough to end up on the infamous UK "Video Nasties" list, Evilspeak still didn't manage to earn any sequels, even in a decade quick to create supernatural-slasher franchises when it could. So, what happened? We discuss this, as well as our thoughts on the film, and Clint Howard as a performer, in general.

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Episode Ninety-Five - The Avengers (1998)

May is here, and that means it's time for "Summer Sweeps," a five-episode look at failed cinematic adaptations of classic television series. First up, The Avengers. No, not those Avengers! We're talking about the 1998 attempted-blockbuster, starring Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, and Sean Connery, based on the cult-classic British spy action-comedy series of the '60s. While the original show - which had a fascinating development history - was popular in both the UK and North America, and made stars out of both Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg, the '98 movie was, well, less well-received. But what went wrong? Does the movie manage to capture the campy-charm of its source material? Can the entirety of a decade-spanning, ever-evolving series really be encapsulated in a 90-minute movie? And is there a potentially more successful longer-cut of the film, waiting to be seen? We discuss all this, and more!