RAIMI TAKES EVIL DEAD
​IN A WHOLE NEW DIRECTION

"Why do all the dead have to be so gosh darned evil?" Sam Raimi mused before a phalanx of reporters on Friday at the premiere of "Evil Dead Rise," the latest cinematic installment of his long-running Evil Dead franchise. "In every movie, every TV show, every comic book, every video game, the deadites are evil, evil, evil. And that's just short sighted."

The mastermind behind Evil Dead, Evil Dead (the remake), Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Ash vs. Evil Dead, and Evil Dead Rise, was initially flummoxed when an entertainment reporter asked him what was next for the beloved franchise, but then he stumbled upon an idea that could take Ash on adventures in a whole new realm.

"The Good Dead!" Raimi announced. "That's our next film. Why not? Who's to say that Ash didn't stumble onto that same cabin, listen to those same passages from the Book of the Dead, and open a portal for creatures from beyond the grave that are kind, altruistic, and downright neighborly?"

Bruce Campbell, star of many of the Evil Dead incarnations, indicated that he would love to play Ash Williams once again if he'd be surrounded by happy-go-lucky corpses that fluffed his pillows and brought him beer instead of torturing him, dismembering him, and drowning him in hundreds of gallons of blood and mucous.

​"It's about damn time," Campbell said, dressed in an outrageously bright sportscoat while on stage at one of several hundred panels he speaks at each year. "Raimi has been getting his jollies watching unholy corpses kick the S-Mart out of good old Bruce for far too long. I'm all about a conflict-free, friendly-as-fruit-punch relax-a-thon with a bunch of blissed out deadheads fanning me with palm fronds. Bring it on!"

Fans of the Evil Dead universe were less enthusiastic about the potential reimagining of their beloved franchise. Social media posts ranged from "The only good dead is an evil dead" to "When you asked me to bend over, I should've known you were going to Raimi me!" That said, the powerful fan base seemed more apt to give "The Good Dead" the benefit of the doubt, especially compared to Raimi's other potential project: "The Distinctly Indifferent Dead."