Few movie franchises are so influential to horror as Evil Dead. It’s funny, campy, bloody, and overall a masterpiece, responsible for making a genius out of Sam Raimi and transforming Bruce Campbell into a pop idol for his acting as Ash Williams — and Campbell himself has brought us confirmation about the next chapter of the franchise, Evil Dead Rise, in an interview for Knox News (also via Dread Central).
In order to escape contamination risks, filming on Evil Dead Rise should start this year in New Zealand, probably the safest country to shoot a film due to its low rates of coronavirus cases. Why is this amazing news? Because we always need more deadites, the zombie-like creatures possessed by demons summoned by the Necronomicon. And the sooner we get more of them on our screens, the better.
The new Evil Dead movie was officially announced last year, with the bittersweet news that Campbell would not be returning as his iconic character. Campbell is still attached to the project as producer, though, which is why he can confirm a lot of information about the movie. As expected, Evil Dead Rises will have a new hero to fight the evil, a female protagonist that gets involved with evil to protect her family as Campbell explained.
“We’e going to have a heroine, a woman in charge, and she’s going to try and save her family…(…) The main key with Evil Dead is they’re just regular people who are battling what seems to be a very unstoppable evil, and so that’s where the horror comes from. It’s not someone who’s skilled. They’re not fighting a soldier. [Or] a scientist. They’e not fighting anybody more than your average neighbor. This one is going to be a similar thing.”
Campbell also reveals that Evil Dead Rises will show the fight against deadites in a more “modern-day urban setting,” a first in the movies, which usually revolve around a cabin in the woods. The movie is going to be written and directed by Lee Cronin. If his impressive first feature The Hole in the Ground wasn’t enough proof of his talent, Cronin was handpicked by Raimi himself.
Evil Dead Rises is just the latest chapter in a glorious history that started in 1981 with the original Evil Dead, which was then followed by two cult sequels in 1987 and 1992. The story of Ash Williams fighting evil continued in the successful TV show Ash vs Evil Dead, which ran from 2015 to 2018, while a cinematic reboot starring Jane Levy was released in 2013. There’s no lack of blood, inconsistencies, and greatness across every new Evil Dead chapter, and Evil Dead Rises promises to change things once again for the franchise, keeping it as fresh as a recently-killed deadite.
via Collider