Last week, we saw a green band trailer for the upcoming Evil Dead film Evil Dead Rise, which you can see in the embed above, as well as a red band trailer, which can be seen on YouTube. Writer/director Lee Cronin sat down for an interview with Empire magazine to discuss standout moments and images featured in the trailer – and during their conversation, Cronin revealed that his movie has a different edition of the Necronomicon in it than we saw in the previous Evil Dead movies. This isn’t just because the book was redesigned by the new film’s crew. Inspired by a scene in Army of Darkness, Cronin decided to have the evil in his movie be unleashed by a different book.
Cronin explained, “We probably worked on (the book) for three months. It’s all completely hand-made, hand-drawn. It’s got a different visual style to what you’ve seen before internally. I even brought in little hints of Celtic influences and different things to give it a hell of a lot of personality. It’s the bastard cousin of the other books, and they’re the bastard cousin of this. There are connections to the past (films), lines are drawn. In one of the early meetings I had with (franchise creator) Sam Raimi, I said, ‘You know the way in Army Of Darkness, there’s three [Necronomicons]? You had one, (Evil Dead 2013 director Fede Alvarez) had one, I’m going to take the other one.’ It gave me that platform to nudge things forward, and also to showcase that we live in a world where there is more than one copy of the Necronomicon. Those books may all have slightly different personalities – it’s not exactly the same book, necessarily, that Ash had in the cabin. But it’s very, very firmly related. It could even be more dangerous…“
Click over to Empire to find out what else Cronin had to say about what we were shown in the trailer.
Sam Raimi handpicked Cronin to write and direct a new Evil Dead movie after seeing his feature directorial debut The Hole in the Ground. The story Cronin crafted for Evil Dead Rise has the following synopsis: A road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.
Although the film is set in Los Angeles, filming actually took place in New Zealand. Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland star as the estranged sisters at the heart of the story. Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, and Nell Fisher play Ellie’s three kids. Mia Challis is playing Jessica, “an 18 year old girl, who is obsessed with fashion and Instagram. Jessica loves to be the center of attention, although she is smarter than she lets on”.
Evil Dead franchise star Bruce Campbell doesn’t appear in the new film, as he has formally retired from playing the role of the bumbling hero Ash, but he did produce the film alongside Raimi and Rob Tapert, as those three hold the rights to the series. Evil Dead Rise is a collaboration between Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, and Ghost House Pictures.
What do you think of Evil Dead Rise featuring a different edition of the Necronomicon? Let us know by leaving a comment below.