What better way to celebrate Halloween than with a look at one of the most beloved horror series of all time? Warner Bros. and New Line have released a new look at Evil Dead Rise, a new film set in the world of The Evil Dead, and starring a whole new batch of beautiful young people facing off with Deadites…this time in the city, rather than in the country as with almost every previous iteration of the franchise. This installment comes following Ash vs. the Evil Dead, a TV series that brought Bruce Campbell back to the series, and was greenlit after failed attempts to make a follow-up that would have tied together the stories of 1992’s Army of Darkness and the 2013 remake of Evil Dead.
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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.
You can see the first look at a new Deadite below.
Despite fan concerns that the movie would be shelved like other Warner Bros. Discovery content, studio executives reportedly loved the new sequel, revealing that it will now get a theatrical release, rather than heading direct to HBO Max.
The first three films in the series were directed by indie film icon Sam Raimi, who served as a producer on the 2013 Evil Dead remake and also developed the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead. Raimi, high on the success of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, returned as a producer for Evil Dead Rise, and handpicked Cronin to helm this new installment.
“He had always liked Evil Dead, and I loved The Hole in the Ground. And that picture was brought to the executives that I work with and they showed it to me and I thought, this is really a great director,” Raimi told /Film in May of this year. “And we met and we talked and he said he really liked The Evil Dead. And I said, then why don’t you make the new one? I think you’re just the kind [of] guy I’d like to do it. He said, great. Let’s go. We put together a script and we gave notes and he made some changes and then we raised money for the movie and he went down to New Zealand to shoot it with my partner, Rob Tapert. Now Bruce Campbell is working with him in post-production sound.”
Evil Dead Rise lands in theaters on April 21, 2023.
