Sam Raimi Will Direct His First Horror Film Since 2009’s ‘Drag Me To Hell’

Is it possible to miss somebody even though they never left? That’s the question I often ask myself about director Sam Raimi. While the filmmaker hasn’t directed a horror film since 2009’s “Drag Me To Hell,” he’s stayed busy on the backend, helping develop the popular “Ash vs. Evil Dead” television series and backing projects by notable horror filmmakers like Alexandre Aja (“Crawl“) and Fede Álvarez (“Don’t Breathe“). Valuable contributions one and all, but there’s a part of me that’s wished he would step behind the camera again.

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Well, consider this my Halloween wish granted. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Raimi has signed on to direct and produce a new “horror thriller” from Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, the screenwriting duo behind the 2009 “Friday the 13th” reboot and Dwayne Johnson‘s “Baywatch” movie. While not much is known about the script at this point, according to The Hollywood Reporter, studio sources have described the feature as “‘Misery‘ meets ‘Cast Away.'” Somehow, that description both makes no sense whatsoever and makes me desperately want to watch the film, so well done Columbia Pictures, I guess?

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While Raimi is best known—among genre fans, anyways—for his work on the “Evil Dead” series, the filmmaker has amassed a collection of dark thrillers that bode well for his upcoming project. “Drag Me To Hell” is the obvious title, of course, but 1998’s “A Simple Plan” and 2000’s “The Gift” might actually represent some of the best work of the director’s career. It will be interesting to see how Raimi’s tastes as a horror director have changed over the intervening decade; given his affinity for boundary-pushing directors like Aja and Álvarez, we may find the next horror film from Raimi to be a bit more gnarly than we expect. Count me in.