Thaw: Lee Cronin, the director of Evil Dead Rise, sets a follow-up

Last Updated on March 31, 2023

Director Lee Cronin is riding high off the great reviews he’s getting for Evil Dead Rise, and now it looks like he’s got another horror flick set to go at New Line, with them setting up another movie for the director called The Thaw. According to THR, the film is “set years after the polar ice caps have melted and the sea levels have risen, the story centers on a group of survivors at sea searching for a new home. Their prayers are answered with the discovery of an inhabitable town until, that is, they encounter a new nightmare living just below the water’s surface.” The writer, Jeremy Passmore, has a writing credit on New Line’s San Andreas, as well as the Red Dawn remake from 2012.

Cronin’s hiring proves that WB, which owns New Line, is high on the director following his turn at the helm of Evil Dead Rise. Our own Jessica Dwyer caught it recently and loved it so much that she gave it a 9/10 review. Initially, the film was set as an HBO Max debut but was so good that the studio opted to give it a big screen release, with it set to hit theaters on April 21st.

As per Jessica’s review:

“This is the type of movie you should watch with an audience of fellow horror fans who will get every in joke and who will scream and applaud at every gory moment right along with you.  Oh, and it’s the first horror film in say…30 years to give me a nightmare where I woke up yelling for my mom.  And once you see the movie you’ll wonder why the hell I was doing that because you really should be running away from mommy… she’s with the maggots now.”

Yikes. Evil Dead Rises hits theaters April 21st, but will you be checking it out? Let us know in the comments!