Evil Dead Spinoff in the Works From Sebastien Vanicek

A new Evil Dead spinoff film is in the works at Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, and now Sébastien Vaniček is reportedly attached to direct the project. 

Story details haven’t been revealed yet – nor has the connection to the main Evil Dead universe. Vaniček is best known as the director of Infested (aka Vermin). That modern-day Arachnophobia told the story of a 30-something loner who collects exotic animals and accidentally lets a deadly spider that rapidly reproduces loose in his French apartment complex. It won the prizes of “Best Picture” and “Best Director” at Fantastic Fest, which has become a premiere festival for genre films. 

Back in December, Evil Dead franchise icon (and producer) Bruce Campbell teased that the franchise was going to be ramping up its content production following the release of Evil Dead Rise: 

“We’re going to do them probably more like every two to three years now, rather than every 10 years,” Campbell explained to Collider. “But, hey, we’ve seen with Star Wars – you don’t want to wear people out. Keep them guessing! We never wore out our welcome with Evil Dead because we never choked them.”

At this current time, there are a lot of ways for Evil Dead to expand. Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin has already expressed his desire to continue his version of the franchise, with its new lore: 

“Look, [another Evil Dead] is always a possibility,” Cronin told THR last year. “I had a great experience making this movie with some really great people, and in success, that makes you look at what is possible next… it’s also very tempting to look back into this world, particularly the characters that have survived and the new lore that I’ve brought into play,” he continued. “So it’s certainly something to be discussed. It’s something that we discussed on set, because when you’re making a movie in a franchise, you’re always talking about what’s next and what’s possible.”

There’s also the classic Evil Dead franchise, with its mix of comedy and horror that many fans also want to see continue – something Campbell is very much in favor of: 

“Fede Álvarez wanted to do a straight version because the original Evil Dead is sort of melodramatic. [Evil Dead Rise director] Lee Cronin, his background is drama, I don’t think he wanted any winking at the camera. And we don’t ever try to put these guys beyond their comfort zone. I would like to see another Evil Dead 2-type movie. We’ve got a couple more in the pipeline and it would be nice to jolly it up a little bit, but we try to respect the filmmakers. If they’re better at doing a straight horror, that’s okay.”

Campbell carried the spirit of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead Trilogy into his Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015-2018), but there’s certainly room for more of it – as another TV series or a movie. 

It’ll be curious to see what kind of shape Sébastien Vaniček’s version of an Evil Dead spinoff takes.