There is no doubt that ‘Infernal Possession: The Awakening’ is one of the great surprises of this 2023 film course that has not yet reached its halfway point. The new installment of the saga started by Sam Raimi in 1981 has not only turned out to be a very solvent horror film, hilarious and wild like itself; has also given the hit at the international box office with more than 40 million dollars grossed worldwide during its opening weekend.
But today we are not here to talk about numbers – as much as I like it – but to talk about the approach of its director Lee Cronin to the universe of the Deadites and about a highly anticipated cameo that, perhaps, you could have escaped during the projection between tension, liters of blood and the occasional scare. Be careful, from here there will be small spoilers.
Groovy!
If anything makes ‘The Awakening’ work so well, it’s the way it works like a ‘Possession from Hell’ movie, with all its hallmarks and commonplaces, while, at the same time, plays his own game, distancing himself from the eternal figure of Ash. Cronin, during an interview with Insider, has celebrated this and the good acceptance of the public to his formula.
“They made it very clear that they didn’t want an Ash story, and it’s not that I didn’t want an Ash story, but I wanted to tell my own story. I think it’s something I’m very proud of, that people are enjoying this like a ‘Possession from Hell’ movie, but also enjoying it as something unique in so many ways.”
But be careful, because the fact that good old Ash has not made an appearance physically on the tape does not mean that he has not had his stellar moment. And it is that Cronin has confirmed that there is a cameo by Bruce Campbell in ‘The Awakening’ in which, most likely, he is giving life —or voice— once again to the protagonist of the original trilogy.
Said cameo can be heard during the scene in which Beth listens to the vinyls that give precise instructions to finish off the Deaditesand the filmmaker has thus spoken about the possibility that the tutor is none other than the hero with the chainsaw.
“There’s a Bruce Campbell cameo, and potentially that cameo is actually Ash Williams. Think about how time works for Ash as a character, and that voice you hear is etched into something a hundred years ago. And the fact that his particular phrase is a warning, it hints at someone who knows more than others… I know it sounds very cryptic, but it’s supposed to be that way.”
The events of ‘Terrifyingly Dead’ and ‘Army of Darkness’ make it clear that time doesn’t work for Ash like it does for other mortals, which makes it perfectly possible that the voice on the vinyls is his. Now, is it supposed to be cryptic? Does this mean that there are future plans to continue extending the saga? Will he take a look back to see what happened to Ash? It only remains to be patient, but something tells me that the success of ‘Infernal Possession: The Awakening’ is going to give us Deadites for a while.
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