EVIL DEAD RISE Director Says Film is Firmly Set in the Evil Dead Universe and Will Expand It
Evil Dead Rise is coming and it seems like a lot of fans are excited about this next chapter of the Evil Dead Franchise! This film comes from director Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) and producers Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. We now have some new insight to share with you that I think you’re gonna like.
In the fifth Evil Dead film, “a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.”
During a recent interview with Total Film, Cronin talks about this next chapter of the franchise and what he was trying to accomplish with it, saying:
"It still needed to maintain some of the claustrophobia and that translated really well from the cabin into an urban environment. This is about a family in a rundown building stuck in their apartment, so it follows the same rhythm but puts it in a more contemporary space."
He went on to explain that this film is very much set in the Evil Dead universe and also says there will be direct connections to those past films, which is pretty cool! He says:
"It's firmly in the universe. There's a lot of fun callbacks, and there are direct lines to the past. But part of the goal of making this movie was to create something that could expand the Evil Dead universe further."
I like that they are looking to expand the universe. I love this franchise and I’m a huge fan of Bruce Campbell’s Ash, but he’s retired from that role. It’s hard to imagine the Evil Dead franchise without Ash, but I really do hope that Cronin, Raimi, and the rest of the creative team pull off a great horror film that will propel the franchise forward!
Producer Raimi previously teased that the movie will be “terrifying” and “knock people's socks off”. Campbell also said that Evil Dead Rise is going to be a "much more excruciating" experience from an emotional level, saying:
"This one's dark, this one's pretty serious. Good, strong performances. It's a single mom who now has to deal with this book. These days it's more about the book. That book gets around, that book is handed around, passed along, people try and get rid of it, they try to bury it or destroy it and they really can't. So this book just keeps popping up, so really it's just another story of what happens if this book appears in this particular group of people's lives and how it intersects."
The movie stars Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings) and Lily Sullivan (Picnic at Hanging Rock), and they’re joined by Gabrielle Echols (Reminiscence), Morgan Davies (The End), and Nell Fisher (Splendid Isolation).
Evil Dead Rise is slated to hit theaters on April 21, 2023.