Director Lee Cronin on bringing Evil Dead Rise to life: ‘My father showed me The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II on VHS, back-to-back’

New Line Cinema and Renaissance Pictures present a return to the iconic horror franchise, Evil Dead Rise, written and directed by Lee Cronin. The movie stars Lily Sullivan, and Alyssa Sutherland. Moving the action out of the woods and into the city, Evil Dead Rise tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Sullivan and Sutherland, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. Evil Dead Rise is produced by long-time franchise producer Rob Tapert.

Director Lee Cronin on bringing Evil Dead Rise to life: 'My father showed me The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II on VHS, back-to-back'

Director Lee Cronin on bringing Evil Dead Rise to life: ‘My father showed me The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II on VHS, back-to-back’

An appetite for serving up bloody frights reunites the producing team behind the original and successive Evil Dead films: producer Rob Tapert and executive producers Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell. They are joined by accomplished filmmaker Lee Cronin to take the action to new places with Evil Dead Rise.

Since 1981, the cult classic The Evil Dead has spawned a long-lasting IP and a passionate fanbase that transcends generations. Tapert says, “The idea of how this was different from anything that had come before, moving it into an urban environment, was something that got everyone excited. One of the things that we wanted to do with this new ‘Evil Dead’ was change up what we’ve done in the past. What makes this particular incarnation different from anything that’s come before, in addition to the setting, is that it’s female-driven. Lee Cronin has introduced elements that aren’t in other Evil Dead movies. The drama plays incredibly well. But, he has included plenty of the tropes that we know— the devoted fans of the franchise are going to be more than satisfied.”

Irish writer/director Cronin remembers, “I had just premiered my debut feature, The Hole in the Ground, at Sundance in 2019. It was well received and, just before I was heading back home, the last meeting of my trip was with Sam and some of his development team. We spoke about a variety of different projects, and I must have left enough of an impression on them that they wanted to know what I might do with the Evil Dead lore, and where I might take it.”

Cronin was no stranger to the landmark horror franchise, having grown up with it from an early age: “My introduction to that world was when my father showed me The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II 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, watching those movies. They left an indelible mark on me. Later, I revisited them in my teenage years, so they stuck in my brain.”

A few years down the road, when he had started to build his film career, Cronin recalls, rather prophetically, “I remember thinking, ‘Something I would really love to try and do is to make an ‘Evil Dead’ movie or be involved in the universe.”

Touted to be the goriest/ the most spine-chilling horror film in the Evil Dead universe, Warner Bros. Pictures is set to release Evil Dead Rise in cinemas in India on April 21, 2023, in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.