Writer/director Lee Cronin’s contribution to the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Rise, aims to stand out from the pack due to the fact that it’s set in Los Angeles – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t going to be any wilderness to see in the new film. An image from Evil Dead Rise is featured in the latest issue of Total Film magazine, and in this image we see something supernatural going on at a lake. Thanks to Games Radar, the image can be seen at the bottom of this article, along with a behind-the-scenes picture of Cronin on set.
Evil Dead franchise creator Sam Raimi handpicked Cronin to make a new Evil Dead movie after seeing his feature directorial debut The Hole in the Ground. The story Cronin crafted for Evil Dead Rise has the following synopsis: 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.
Cronin told Total Film that Evil Dead Rise is “firmly in the universe (of the other entries in the franchise). 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.“
Although the film is set in Los Angeles, filming actually took place in New Zealand. Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland star as the estranged sisters at the heart of the story. Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, and Nell Fisher play Ellie’s three kids. Mia Challis is playing Jessica, “an 18 year old girl, who is obsessed with fashion and Instagram. Jessica loves to be the center of attention, although she is smarter than she lets on”.
Campbell does not appear in the movie, as he has formally retired from playing the role of Evil Dead franchise hero Ash, but he did produce the film alongside Raimi and Rob Tapert, as those three hold the rights to the series. Evil Dead Rise is a collaboration between Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, and Ghost House Pictures.
Cronin added, “There’s no Ash in this story and there’s no cabin in the woods, and they’re two iconic elements of what Evil Dead is. But the movie does include the book and an extraordinary amount of vicious, malevolent Deadites, so I was always pretty comfortable making that move [to LA]. 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.“
Evil Dead Rise was originally intended to be released through the HBO Max streaming service, but the film scored so highly at test screenings that it’s going to get a theatrical release on April 21st.
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