It Looks Like Evil Dead Rise Is Bringing Back The 'Boomstick'
The "Evil Dead" franchise has accrued a lot of famous objects over the years, and the upcoming "Evil Dead Rise" looks like it's bringing back all of the classics. We already knew that "Evil Dead Rise" was going to focus heavily on the Necronomicon Ex Mortis — the Book of the Dead — and the red-band trailer featured a great glimpse of new hero Beth (Lily Sullivan) wielding a bloody chainsaw, but we now have evidence of a boomstick, too! Empire Magazine revealed an image of Beth with a double-barrel shotgun alongside their interview with director Lee Cronin back in December, and it looks perfect. The movie looks like it's tonally right between the original "The Evil Dead" from 1981 and its 2013 reboot, and having all of the tools of the Deadite-trashing trade around is enough to make any fan start drooling. Seriously, can't it be April already?
"Evil Dead Rise" will blast its way into theaters on April 21, 2023, which means fans are going to have to sit tight just a little longer. It's been a decade since Fede Álvarez's gorgeously gory "Evil Dead" shocked and amazed franchise fans with a brutal update on the classic formula, so it's the perfect time for another "Evil Dead" to, well, rise!
Blowing away some Kandarian demon dorks
"Evil Dead Rise" will be set "firmly" in the "Evil Dead" universe, which means that the same insane rules that apply to the movies and Starz television series apply here. The formula tends to be pretty much the same across the franchise: someone finds a freaky book bound in human skin, reads from it, and the Kandarian demons possess everyone they can, creating an army of Deadites bent on destruction. The scariest thing about Deadites is that they still look like the people we once loved, and can even tap into their memories to try and convince you that they're still human, but they're all evil.
In "Evil Dead Rise," Beth's estranged sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) ends up possessed, and Beth and Ellie's three children must fight against the reanimated corpse of their beloved family member. There's brief footage of the kids at a lake house, so it's entirely possible that they got the original Necronomicon from the original cabin, though I doubt that's the original chainsaw or boomstick. After all, Ash (Bruce Campbell) took those with him when he traveled into the Middle Ages in "Army of Darkness," and then used them again in "Ash vs. Evil Dead" years later, so those are probably in the back of the Delta. But why are we so excited about a shotgun, again?
The man, the myth, the boomstick
Ashley Joanne Williams, better known as "Ash, Housewares," is one of the greatest horror heroes of all time. Portrayed by the grooviest guy alive, Bruce Campbell, he started the "Evil Dead" franchise as a nebbish, nervous nerd and ended it as a sweet-talking, butt-kicking antihero who saved the world multiple times. In each iteration he uses some kind of long-barreled gun to blow away some baddies, starting with a rifle in the first film before being changed to a double-barrel shotgun in "Evil Dead 2." In "Army of Darkness," Ash gives a speech to the assembled medieval peasants trying to capture him, and it's become the stuff of "Evil Dead" fandom legend:
"Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This ... is my BOOMSTICK! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety-five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?"
Funnily enough, none of the guns in the original "Evil Dead" trilogy were ever Remingtons, but maybe Raimi picked that brand because it's fairly recognizable to Americans. The gun in "Army of Darkness" is actually a 12-gauge Stoeger Coach Gun, but I won't tell if you won't.
It just isn't Evil Dead without the boomstick!
One of the neat things about the "Evil Dead" franchise is that it offers opportunities for new heroes to join the Deadite-fighting fam, so it's entirely possible to have great "Evil Dead" stories without Ash at their center. The 2013 film's lead, Mia (Jane Levy), proved to be just as badass as Ash, using both a shotgun and chainsaw to dispatch Deadites, and Ash's friends Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago) from "Ash vs. Evil Dead" became compelling heroes in their own right, too. Will Beth and Ellie's kids be able to join the ranks of Deadite destroyers, or will they be doomed to fall before their demonic foes?
The new blood in the "Evil Dead" universe have one serious battle ahead of them, but at least we know they'll have the right tools. "Evil Dead Rise" hits theaters on April 21, 2023.