In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE) in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. Last year, they proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct one new installment in the franchise and Francis Galluppi, who made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, to write and direct another.
Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn is set for a July 10th theatrical release, and while we wait to see how that one has turned out, Galluppi’s Evil Dead Wrath has already wrapped production and is scheduled to reach theatres on April 7, 2028. We don’t know much about Evil Dead Wrath yet, but Tapert has now revealed that the story takes place in 1972 – and he expects the film to have difficulty with the ratings board.
Plot details on Evil Dead Wrath are being kept under wraps, but it was announced that Galluppi has cast Charlotte Hope (The Nun), Jessica McNamee (Mortal Kombat), Zach Gilford (Midnight Mass), Josh Helman (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Ella Newton (Dangerous Animals), Elizabeth Cullen (Goolagong), and newcomer Ella Oliphant in his movie.
Rob Tapert is producing the project alongside Sam Raimi, with Romel Adam, Jose Cañas, Lee Cronin, and Bruce Campbell serving as executive producers.
Raimi made his feature directorial debut with the original The Evil Dead, which introduced Campbell as iconic hero Ash Williams. Ash returned for Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series, with Raimi directing the films and the first episode of the show. After seeing a short film directed by Fede Alvarez, the Evil Dead rights holders gave him the chance to make his feature directorial debut with the Ash-less 2013 Evil Dead. Then Lee Cronin was hired to make the Ash-less Evil Dead Rise based on the strength of his own feature debut, the 2019 film The Hole in the Ground. So Sébastien Vaniček being hired to make an Evil Dead movie right after entering the feature world with Vermin / Infested is very on brand for this franchise, and so is Francis Galluppi being hired to make one when he was fresh off of The Last Stop in Yuma County.
An animated series follow-up to Ash vs. Evil Dead is also in the works.
Evil Dead 2013, Ash vs. Evil Dead, Evil Dead Rise, and Evil Dead Burn have all been filmed in New Zealand, where Tapert lives, and Evil Dead Wrath followed suit.
While speaking at Michigan State University, Tapert said (with thanks to Dread Central for the transcription), “Evil Dead Wrath. This is yet another great departure. It predates everything. It takes place in 1972. It will feel like a 1972 movie because the director and his DP want to imitate the film’s look and feel of something that’s called Ektachrome 100, which was a film stock. Still available, but a film stock. A lot of movies [were] shot on that then. And so it’s very warm, very tungsten. So, but once again, now, two entirely different filmmakers, one that shoots everything on a 110-millimeter lens handheld, always moving, always shaking (Evil Dead Burn), and the other one is very Tarantino-esque, very deliberate. (Galluppi) made a movie, not a horror movie, that I liked a great deal called Last Stop in Yuma County. It’s worth looking up.“
Ash vs. Evil Dead confirmed that the events of the original The Evil Dead took place in 1982, so Evil Dead Wrath is taking us back to a point ten years before Ash crossed paths with the forces of evil.
Tapert went on to say that he thinks Evil Dead Wrath will have difficulty with the ratings board, as Evil Dead Burn did, but for a surprising reason: “That one, unlike Burn, has a lot of coming-of-age sexual hijinks in it, which the Evil Dead universe is not really known for, but this one does. And it goes there… I think it’s going to be the one since the first Evil Dead movie that may have the most difficulty with the MPA.“
Are you interested in seeing an Evil Dead movie that’s set in 1972 and includes coming-of-age sexual hijinks? Share your thoughts on Evil Dead Wrath by leaving a comment below.