The 2013 Evil Dead remake almost had a much more disturbing ending. Director Fede Alvarez has been chatting with fans about the project on Twitter and mentioned that he shot an ending in which Jane Levy’s Mia, who has apparently just triumphed over the dark forces in the forest, finally falls victim to them.
Alvarez explains that The Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi saw advised that audiences would feel that Mia “deserved to live” after surviving her ordeal and the scene was cut. Now, nine years on from its release, we can see it for ourselves:
Alvarez also posted the page from the script, revealing that his original idea was for Mia to explode with “gallons of blood and guts flying everywhere”. Well, you can’t deny that the guy doesn’t get what people want from an Evil Dead movie:
The franchise will make a triumphant return later this year with Evil Dead Rise. This is essentially ‘Evil Dead 4’ and will move the action from rural woodland to city, seeing three sisters dealing with Necronomicon-based Deadite action. Sadly, Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams won’t be along for the ride, having hung up his chainsaw after Ash vs. Evil Dead was canceled in 2019.
Evil Dead Rise is apparently complete and has been rated R by the MPAA, so expect to see a debut trailer soon. We don’t have an exact release date yet, though it’s expected to air on HBO Max in mid-late 2022.
In the meantime, if you want to take another trip to the woods, the 2013 remake is available to stream on Starz and can be digitally rented at all the usual places.