MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE ON 'THE EVIL DEAD' FRANCHISE
With the release of Evil Dead four months ago, we can finally comfort our Deadite-hungry selves with the fact that one of the venerable horror film franchises in a generation can survive another generation with such fashion it doesn’t feel irrelevant nor out of place. The film proved to be quite a worthwhile success, too, strengthening the possibility of further installments in the franchise. Just as the internet was beginning to fill its film forums with wild speculations regarding more Evil Dead sequels, the franchise’s officials (Sam Raimi, et al) stepped into the crowd and made it known that they were planning on making an Army of Darkness 2 (basically an Evil Dead 4 in the original/Ash trilogy chronology) which would be helmed by Raimi himself, Evil Dead 2 (a direct sequel to this year’s Evil Dead in the second/Mia trilogy chronology) again led by Fede Alvarez and a final, currently untitled project that would merge the chronologies of both Ash and Mia trilogies.
When the word on more Evil Dead sequels were already in the pipe first made headlines on the internet, I was elevated by how well The Evil Dead is adapting to a new kind of generation. This year’s Evil Dead was initially deemed an unnecessary (a blasphemy even) addition to the honored franchise. Phrases like ‘cash-milking’ and ‘originality shortage’ had always been regular entries in Film Remake Repelling Dictionary, but the most ardent fans of The Evil Dead franchise (which are, without a question, enormous in number) took it one step further by beating down the then-rumored plan of an Evil Dead remake to an utter pulp. So much so the producers of the original trilogy (who also directly contributed to the production of this year’s Evil Dead) opted to scrap the idea of a remake due to an extremely negative fan feedback. They then decided to make the new Evil Dead more of a ‘loose continuation’ rather than a ‘remake’ to gain more positive public feedback. Aided with a wholly new look and a more brooding tonal concept, the Evil Dead released this April proved that there were still plenty of fans and casual film-goers who had missed the comeback of The Evil Dead franchise. This led to the point where the filmmakers agreed to sign on three more sequels.
First off, there’s nothing evidently wrong with the plan of adding more installments to The Evil Dead franchise. For the most passionate of fans, they might’ve regarded said plan as a long-anticipated path to relish the usual chopped-to-bits eye candies. But did they ever ponder about the other side of the coin? I was, too, overwhelmed by the sheer excitement over more Evil Deads, but then I realized that we’re living in the era of ‘heightened film industry’. Studio films nowadays feel more like stale commodities rather than pop art. More sequels, spin-offs and remakes are piled on one franchise after another it’s beginning to be a tasteless exercise. Exploiting public demands for greater amounts of profit becomes the default company policy for many film studios. One cannot scrape away the images of Marvel Studios when one is speaking about money in film industry. Marvel Studios has become a leading voice in film industry’s capitalistic ideology. An expected ‘box-office topper’. Their massive plan comprises making multiple films in a relatively short course of time with a large number of people committed to each film and creating a ‘cherry-on-top’ strategy where those films will then be merged in a massively-budgeted culmination of a single film. This is what they call a ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ (MCU) – the behemoth of current franchise trend. This is not to say I am antagonizing their position as one of the most successful film manufacturers and finding their films ‘tasteless’ is simply a task too implausible to do. But it is quite easy to give a quick glance over films today and catch an immediate scent of financial purposes. Marvel’s long-time rival, DC Comics, wanted to follow suit which fans hoped would be kickstarted with the release of Man of Steel earlier this year. And yes, The Evil Dead franchise had also caught the so-called ‘franchise fever’ by planning to make two individual films, each of which helmed by different directors, and merge them two in an ensuing cinematic offering.
This is problematic in at least two aspects. First, the creative aspect. The risk of attempting to merge two VERY different visions of two directors is extremely high. If you’ve seen the new Evil Dead, you’d immediately realize that Alvarez’s take on the Deadite tale is technically humorless, whereas Raimi’s classic Evil Dead is inherently more comic, slightly light-hearted in tone. This specific aspect is what I’d like to stress. MCU took a less risky approach by setting a standard for their films to meet. This, so far, has enabled each of their film to reach thematic panache that is similar to another, thus creating a tonally coherent cinematic saga. Comparing MCU to The Evil Dead franchise seems far-fetched at best, true, since the latter had already envisioned this kind of undertaking since day one, whilst the latter was resurrected after decades of burial. But I am simply pointing out that this kind of endeavor does not seem to adhere well to a series of hardcore horror pictures like Evil Dead which inevitably leads to the second aspect – the financial aspect. MCU creates a line of family-friendly superhero films that already pose a wide public appeal, hence their box-office successes. The Evil Dead films are more of a personal affair, akin to ‘fine arts’ that could only be completely enjoyed by the most faithful connoisseurs. Creating a mega production based on such a restricted audience demographic is, once again, wildly risky.
My comparing MCU to The Evil Dead franchise is meant to be a reflective view at what is regarded by many as an increasingly tiring business. There’s seemingly no longer a limitation to what a franchise can do, let alone a consideration. I am a passionate horror fan as am I an avid Evil Dead watcher, but if the so-called ‘original producers of the horror classic’ keep on propelling their ideas towards the capitalistic horizon, I simply do not think that the horror genre would be as cool as it used to be a generation ago.
