Evil Dead Rise Trailer: The Deadites Are Back In A Whole New Location
For the first time in nearly a decade, a new "Evil Dead" movie is on the way. "Evil Dead Rise" officially has a first trailer, which means it's a real movie, which is still hard to believe after years of sequel discussions and rumors. Writer-director Lee Cronin has assured fans that the film will exist in the same universe as the original Sam Raimi classic, featuring buckets of blood and plenty of Deadites — despite the fact that, according to early synopsis from Deadline, it's moving the action from a secluded cabin setting to a Los Angeles apartment.
Ahead of the trailer's release, word was that "Evil Dead Rise" wouldn't feature some of the franchise fixtures Raimi fans know and love, like Bruce Campbell's Ash or Raimi himself behind the camera. But both Raimi and Campbell are producing along with Ghost House Pictures co-founder Rob Tapert, meaning the new flick has the official approval of three of the men who brought us the original, blood-soaked, and wonderfully batty trilogy.
The Necronomicon takes LA
If that gnarly red band trailer is too much for you, we've included the tamer regular trailer at the bottom of this post.
"Evil Dead Rise" is once again set to bring back the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead that royally messed up Ash Williams' life back in 1981. This time around, though, the book will find its way into an LA apartment building, where it unleashes all sorts of hellish scenarios on a mother named Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), her three kids, and Ellie's sister Beth (Lily Sullivan). Gone is the familiar cabin in the woods that anchored both "The Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead II," along with Fede Álvarez's gnarly, reboot-adjacent 2013 film.
While most of the coverage of the new film has been focused on the new setting, I'm even more intrigued by the other part of the synopsis: what the hell is going to happen to a trio of kids thrust into the messed-up world of "Evil Dead"?! We'll find out when the film hits theaters, but until then, we'll have to speculate based on this first look and "The Hole in the Ground" filmmaker Cronin's words on the film so far. In December, Cronin told Empire that "There's more Deadite dialogue than ever before" in the new film, and that the movie used 1700 gallons of fake blood.
Though it's been a while since we've gotten a new "Evil Dead" film, the franchise itself has been anything but dead. From 2015 to 2018, Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and Tom Spezialy brought fans even more Ash in "Ash vs Evil Dead," a series that ran for three seasons on Starz. While the series was ultimately canceled, Campbell has also mentioned that an animated continuation may be in the works.
"Evil Dead Rise" hits theaters on April 21, 2023.