“There’s lots of ways of putting blood on screen,” Cronin told Empire, including “red water with a bit of food coloring, digital blood, whatever it might be.” The crew of “Evil Dead Rise” stuck to the classic, extra-goopy form of prop blood, which looks great on screen but is, on a basic comfort level, probably a lot more involved for actors than blood added in post-production. “We used the old-school, sticky-icky [blood],” Cronin shares, “which led to people just caked and coated.”
One of the castmates who we see get caked in the stuff in trailers is Lily Sullivan. In one shot, she drips with dark red gore while brandishing a chainsaw a la Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) in the original “Evil Dead” trilogy. In another shot that appears to be an extra-intense homage to “The Shining,” her feet get yanked out from under her by the massive force of an elevator full of blood that ultimately lands on the camera screen. All of this bloody mayhem culminated when shooting came to a close, and Sullivan decided to get Cronin back.
“I got covered in litres and litres of blood when we wrapped by Lily Sullivan, who plays Beth,” Cronin told Empire. “She wanted her revenge for how bloody she’d been got.” By that point, apparently, the set had pretty much been subject to a deluge of the stuff, since the filmmaker said the movie was shot largely chronologically. “We watched our world just disintegrate around us as we went,” he shares, “the sets just getting bloodier and messier and pukier.” Now that sounds like a sight that would be Raimi-approved.
“Evil Dead Rise” hits theaters on April 21, 2023.