Repeat Business: 30 Horror Film Franchises Getting A Restart

10. The Evil Dead

One of the first cabin in the woods horror flicks to fill your trousers with whiff juice and cause girlish whimpers to emanate from your unkissed teenage lips, Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead embodied the low-budget terror of the 1980s video nasties era.

Now the Necronomicon is about to be re-opened. Produced by Raimi, original producer Rob Tapert and star of original Bruce Campbell, the remake has a new director in Fede Alvarez. Alvarez landed the gig after his short, Panic Attack! caught the attention of producers. He then bashed out the first drafts of the script. Diablo Cody, Juno and Jennifer’s Body scribe then came aboard to give the final draft a touch of contemporary sparkle.

As evidenced in the first red band trailer, Alvarez’s The Evil Dead cuts back on the original’s humour and ups the triptych of gore, possession and tree assault for a new generation. Jane Levy tackles the lead duties as Mia, the remake’s equivalent of Ash, and is joined by Lou Taylor Pucci, Shiloh Fernandez, Elizabeth Blackmore, and Jessica Lucas.

The Evil Dead will hit theaters on April 5th, 2013.

9. Wolf Creek 2

The film which made handfuls of backpackers rethink their hipster road trip through the outback, Wolf Creek, revived the Australian horror genre and brought our Antipodean film-maker chums to the forefront of the “torture porn” movement. A twisted tale which raked in $16 million worldwide was no doubt going to delve back into the sick world of Mick Taylor and another throng of gullible youngsters.

With a script and directorial duties handled by Greg McClean, writer and director of the original, Wolf Creek 2 promises to terrify the shit out of even the most backed-up of viewers. This time around the three backpackers are Rutger, Katarina and Paul, who visit the Wolf Creek Crater and soon encounter the area’s resident serial killer, Mick Taylor. Back in that role is the brilliant John Jarratt, for a sequel that director McClean describes as bigger and badder than the first. How anything can be “badder” than someone’s spine being severed after having several fingers removed is beyond me. Perhaps something involving a mouse trap and a bucket of acid.

Production started January 2013 in South Australia, seven years after the original. The flick already has worldwide distribution, although no release dates have been confirmed.

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