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.