“Evil Dead” Got NC-17 Rating, Was Edited Down to an R

When the red band trailer for “Evil Dead,” Fede Alvarez’s remake of the horror classic of the same name, came out, all I could think was how they’d run that in theaters under an R-rating. As it turns out, they couldn’t.

“Evil Dead” is a notoriously bloody film, but Alvarez seemed to have run with the violence and the gore to the point of exhaustion, by the looks of the trailer.

The first cut earned him an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, he reveals on Twitter. In other words, his film got the cold kiss of death.

“Was proud of scoring a NC17 when submitted! But we had to cut stuff out to get an R and get the film into theaters,” Alvarez writes.

Fans shouldn’t worry though: chances are high they’ll get to see the original, NC-17 rated cut on the DVD.

“Evil Dead” drops in theaters on April 12.