While the idea of a new Evil Dead movie without Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell on either side of the camera might be sacrilegious to some, it didn’t stop Fede Alvarez’s remake from hauling in almost $100 million at the box office on a $17 million budget, and it also drew some of the strongest reviews seen by any high profile horror remake.
The original duo were both credited as producers, though, and that’s continued through to HBO Max’s Evil Dead Rise, in which Raimi and Campbell have been heavily involved. Even the erstwhile Ash couldn’t settle on how to define Lee Cronin’s movie, but based on his comments it looks to exist somewhere between sequel, reboot and re-imagining, with the Necromonicon central to the story.
Production has been underway in New Zealand since the beginning of last month, and Cronin revealed a couple of weeks back that he’s about halfway through filming, so Evil Dead Rise has come together incredibly quickly when you consider how long it spent trapped in development hell before finally managing to escape.
A lot of fans have been hoping that Ash will show up for a legacy cameo, as tends to be the case whenever a popular property gets a fresh coat of paint decades down the line, but in a new interview Campbell looked to pour water on the speculation.
“I won’t be appearing in it, no. I’ll be in the upcoming Evil Dead game, which I think is due for February 2022. I just finished the voice for that. The nice thing is, your voice doesn’t age as much as your body, so I can milk that for a few more years.”
Evil Dead Rise follows two estranged sisters named Beth and Ellie who meet up in Los Angeles, only for their emotional reunion to be cut short after a mysterious and very clearly malevolent book is found in Ellie’s building, unleashing all sorts of monsters and demons, forcing them into a fight for survival, so Ash isn’t really required to suit the narrative.
