In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE) last year, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. It looks like they’re on track to do just that, as Deadline reports that Sébastien Vaniček has been hired direct the next entry in the franchise.
After spending a decade making short films, Vaniček made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, which premiered last year and showed viewers what happens when “residents of a rundown French apartment building battle against an army of deadly, rapidly reproducing spiders.” As Deadline notes, “the film won Best Picture and Best Director in its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest, and was also invited to the Sitges Film Festival, where it earned a nomination for Best Motion Picture and won a Special Jury Prize.” The Shudder streaming service has the distribution rights.
Details on the story Vaniček will be telling in the Evil Dead world have not been revealed.
Last year, Bruce Campbell told AV Club, “It’s all about the books now. It has nothing to do with (franchise hero Ash) or any particular character. In Army of Darkness, we first saw three books. So we know there are three out there, and none of them are any good. It’s about: where does that darn book wind up, who gets it, and what happens? But the universe is the same. It’s about innocent people with no special skills having to fight for their very lives. … I think the stories will progress a little more now. We’re going to try and do them more like every two or three years rather than every 10 years. It’s also the first time Sam is working with his brother Ivan to create an overall Bible that will give future writers and directors an idea of where this thing should go next to potentially tie in some of these stories. So I think it’s going to get a little more tied in as the years go by. But because it’s all about the books. It could be a book in the past, a book in the future. It’s yet to be determined.“
Sam Raimi made his feature directorial debut with the original The Evil Dead, which introduced Campbell as iconic hero Ash Williams. Ash returned for Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series, with Raimi directing the films and the first episode of the show. After seeing a short film directed by Fede Alvarez, the Evil Dead rights holders gave him the chance to make his feature directorial debut with the Ash-less 2013 Evil Dead. Then Lee Cronin was hired to make the Ash-less Evil Dead Rise based on the strength of his own feature debut, the 2019 film The Hole in the Ground. So Sébastien Vaniček being hired to make the next Evil Dead movie right after entering the feature world with Vermin / Infested is very on brand for this franchise.
Have you seen Vermin / Infested? What do you think of Sébastien Vaniček being chosen to make the next Evil Dead? Let us know by leaving a comment below.