The Evil Dead movies have always been a physical affair. Whether it was the original film, with director Sam Raimi chasing his actors through the woods with camera in hand, the slapstick carnage of sequels Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness where Raimi put Bruce Campbell through the wringer, or the wince-inducing pain and blood-rain of Fede Álvarez’s 2013 reboot, it’s a franchise synonymous with kinetic blasts of cinema. According to Evil Dead Rise filmmaker Lee Cronin – the Irish writer-director behind The Hole In The Ground, hand-picked by Raimi to take the reins on his demonic baby – the long-awaited fifth Evil Dead film firmly fits in that lineage. “It straps you onto a rocket that’s fueled by blood,” he grinningly tells Empire. “You can either get off or you stay on ’til it explodes.”
This time set in Los Angeles – and not, for once, in a creaky cabin in the woods – Rise is, as its director claims, “undoubtedly an Evil Dead movie, but it takes the lore and pulls it in a new direction”. That means no Ash this time, but the arrival of Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as Beth and Ellie, reunited sisters about to face a fresh batch of Deadites in the sprawling City of Angels.
For all that’s new, the carnage remains. “I had to hire an industrial kitchen to create the amount of blood we needed,” Cronin explains, going on to state that he spilled 6,500 litres of the stuff. Some of it, inevitably, even found its way home. “When I was checking out, I had to warn the landlord, ‘You’re going to find bloody handprints all over the apartment – but they’re not real, honest!’” Groovy, gory, and gratuitous? The Evil Dead is ready to rise again.
Read Empire’s full Evil Dead Rise story in the February 2023 issue, on sale Thursday 22 December and available to pre-order online here. Evil Dead Rise comes to UK cinemas from 21 April.