Now streaming on Showmax, Evil Dead Rise<\/em> leaves behind the woods for an old apartment building, where single mom Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three kids are about to have the most twisted family reunion ever with Ellie\u2019s sister Beth (Lily Sullivan). <\/p>\n\n\n\nFor writer and director Lee Cronin, it\u2019s a return to a familiar space. \u201cMy introduction to that world was when my father showed me The Evil Dead<\/em> and Evil Dead II<\/em> on VHS, back-to-back. I was nine years old at the time. There was a storm and the power went out, so it was a very particular experience,\u201d he reveals. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat The Evil Dead<\/em> did for sharing a cabin in the woods with your mates, Lee wanted to carry across into eerie, rundown apartment buildings. \u201cWe are in a world where people live in increasingly small spaces. There\u2019s a lot of horror just outside our doors and I wanted it to come and knock right on the front door, which is why I developed the peephole point-of-view,\u201d says Lee. <\/p>\n\n\n\nLee loosely based the children in the film on his own nieces and nephews. \u201cWhen I thought about the story being about family, I knew that children had to be in the story,\u201d says Lee. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to just take the obvious family unit; I wanted there to be that reality of existing cracks and fissures, which I thought made it easier to then dig fingers into and poke around, with some of the horror springing from that \u2026 Being an Evil Dead<\/em> movie meant that no matter what, some of those kids had to get possessed, and that would lead to even greater consequences. I really wanted to see what would happen with \u2018Deadite\u2019 kids [the demonically possessed version]. Rip a kid\u2019s limb off and throw it across a space and, for the audience, all bets are off at that point and anything could happen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nSince they were ripping off arms, special effects supervisor Brendan Durey had to come up with a brand-new stage blood formula for Evil Dead Rise<\/em>. His team mixed over 6 500 litres of it \u2013 around 1 300+ bodies\u2019 worth, since a typical human body contains around five litres. His team also had to figure out how to pump that blood out of severed limbs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cYou\u2019ve got to tune it to the right viscosity by using accumulators, pressure pots and tubes to force the blood out of different nozzles. It\u2019s about trying to assess how it works, and then get the tests in front of Lee to establish what\u2019s in his head and what he wants it to look like,\u201d says Brendan, whose team tested as much as they could before shooting started, since covering actors in icky, sticky blood meant long cleanup sessions later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe difficult part was the blood \u2013 how sticky it is and how it gets everywhere,\u201d explains actor Morgan Davies, who plays Danny. \u201cUnless you\u2019re careful, whatever hair it touches, on your head or your body, it\u2019s going to rip out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apparently you really can get blas\u00e9 about blood. Morgan adds, \u201cWe have arms and heads, skin and guts all over the set, and it becomes the most normal part of life. I was already kind of desensitised, because I\u2019m a horror fan, but it does become different when you\u2019re holding a dismembered arm. Even then it was, like, totally normal. And I bugged everybody, because I really wanted to keep my prosthetic arm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sam and Bruce executive produce this time. \u201cWhat\u2019s unique about the Evil Dead<\/em> universe is that these spirits that possess the living have a nasty sense of humour about themselves,\u201d says Sam. \u201cThat\u2019s a great playground for filmmakers and actors alike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nSam is confident that his gory brainchild is in safe hands. \u201cLee understands being the great puppet master \u2013 knowing where the audience will be, and not giving them the scare, but pulling them in and then giving it to them when they least expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Audiences agree: Evil Dead Rise<\/em> is the highest-grossing film of the series. The 18 HLV film was also nominated for Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Awards, where Alyssa was up for Best Actress in a Horror Movie and Best Villain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cI think great horror is something that you watch and then it follows you home, when you turn the lights out,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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