While the original trilogy of Sam Raimi’s horror film franchise “Evil Dead”— “The Evil Dead” (1981), “Evil Dead II” (1987), and “Army of Darkness” (1992)—rocks, most of the attempts to resurrect the film have been primarily non-starters. Granted, there’s only been one film since, Fede Álvarez‘s “Evil Dead” (2013), and there was also the series “Ash vs. Evil Dead” that lasted three seasons on Starz.
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But a fifth film is on the way in 2023. Titled “Evil Dead Rise,” the film is a supernatural horror written and directed by Lee Cronin, known for the 2019 horror “The Hole In The Ground” and handpicked by Raimi himself. The film stars Alyssa Sutherland, Lily Sullivan, Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, Nell Fisher, and Mia Challis. It centers on a twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
“It straps you onto a rocket that’s fueled by blood,” Cronin recently told Empire about the film’s energy. “You can either get off, or you stay on ’til it explodes. I had to hire an industrial kitchen to create the amount of blood we needed. 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!’”
Here’s a recent new synopsis from Warner Bros:
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.
“Evil Dead Rise” opens in theaters on April 21, 2023, via Warner Bros. Watch the new trailer below.