Evil Dead Rise Director Lee Cronin Says The Movie Is A 'Rocket That's Fueled By Blood'
Just what is it that makes an "Evil Dead" movie an "Evil Dead" movie? There's a relative amount of flexibility when it comes to tone. "Evil Dead II," aka "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn," is like a very bloody and very surreal Three Stooges comedy, where "Evil Dead" (as in, Fede Álvarez's 2013 re-imagining) and "The Evil Dead" (Sam Raimi's original 1981 film) try to play things with a straight face, their over-the-top violence, and, in the latter's case, accidental camp aside. And let's not forget "Army of Darkness," the PG-13 medieval sequel that dials down the gore while upping the slapstick to "Looney Tunes" levels.
With "Evil Dead Rise," the upcoming fifth movie in the "Evil Dead" universe, writer and director Lee Cronin seems to have latched onto the gore factor as perhaps the key to what makes the franchise (mostly) tick. When filming wrapped in October 2021, Cronin posted photos of himself and a pair of shoes covered in fake gore to mark the occasion, claiming to have spilled 6,5000 liters of I Can't Believe It's Not Real Blood over the course of shooting. Official images from the movie similarly show Deadites and peepholes drenched in gore, lest anyone is quick to assume the film will fail to deliver when it comes to the "splatter" part of being a "splatter film."
Cronin only doubled down on that promise during an interview with Empire Magazine. "['Evil Dead Rise'] straps you onto a rocket that's fueled by blood," he cheerfully informed the publication. "You can either get off or you stay on 'til it explodes."
Battling evil in the City of Angels
Perhaps the most interesting thing about "Evil Dead Rise," headed into its release, is how different it sounds from other "Evil Dead" films on paper. The movie takes place in a suffocating Los Angeles apartment building where Beth (Lily Sullivan), her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), and Ellie's three kids are forced to battle wicked demonic forces after some clown goes messing with a familiar evil-looking book. Much in the way of carnage ensues, so much so Lee Cronin told Empire he had to "hire an industrial kitchen to create the amount of blood we needed" for the film. He added:
"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!'"
Cronin, to his credit, showed real potential in his directing debut on 2019's "The Hole in the Ground." In some respects, that film is a lot like your average "Evil Dead" movie (the lack of Bruce Campbell aside); it takes place in a fairly remote location — a rental house near a forest in the Irish countryside rather than a cabin in the woods — and employs a number of Raimi-esque tricks (wild camera moves, amped-up sound effects) as its plot builds to a horrifying crescendo. It's no wonder Sam Raimi himself picked Cronin for the job of helming "Evil Dead Rise," as Empire noted. It seems the pair have a lot in common, not least of which is a fondness for drenching both actors and themselves in red goo.
"Evil Dead Rise" opens in U.S. theaters on April 21, 2023.