Okay, it's sunken in now.
The remake is a terrible idea.
There are a few things that make Evil Dead really cool, and they are (in ascending order of importance):
* The fact that some friends got together and made an independent horror movie with real scares
* The Stooge-like "slashstick" in the 2 sequels, in which the table saw, rather than bending back from Curly's bald head, slices into his skull
* Sam Raimi's frenetic and energetic direction
and number 1
* Bruce Campbell as Ash
Note what was intentionally excluded -- concept, plot, and effects.
The concept and plot of Evil Dead (kids in a cabin, getting possessed because of a book that releases demons) is really not enough to hang a remake on. That's not why we watched these movies. We watched for the goofy Loony Toons-esque violence that caused real damage, to see Sam Raimi go batshit with the camera, and (I can't stress this enough) to see Bruce Campbell as Ash.
The remake will have none of this (well, possibly the shashstick comedy). Someone else will direct. Someone else will play Ash.
The result? Flop. I'm a fan, but I won't go see an Evil Dead movie without Sam and Bruce and the boys. I'm sure there are others. The sad part is, when ED 2006 dies more horribly than Jake the Red-neck, the studio execs (and Raimi, damn him) will shrug and say, "I guess the kids don't care for the Evil Dead." End of franchise.
It has to be what Sam and Bruce want. Or else the spores have really gotten to them. I don't know.
