Evil Dead Rise director on cabins, peepholes, and creating the series' first big bad

In the run-up to its release, much has been made about Evil Dead Rise's gore. Hardly surprising, really, given its blood-soaked red-band trailer and that cheese grater moment that went viral as soon as the clip emerged online. But writer-director Lee Cronin is keen for horror fans to know that it's just as fun as it is ultra violent – and has more in common with Sam Raimi's campy Evil Dead II than any other film in the long-running franchise.

"Evil Dead, I don't want to say 'mean-spirited' because that sounds negative, but it does have a mean streak running through it," Cronin says of Fede Álvarez's bleaker 2013 reboot in a new interview with Total Film and GamesRadar+. "I didn't write any jokes for this film, except maybe some of the one liners, that [Deadite] Ellie comes out with; I was confident people might have fun with those. 

"But the biggest treat of all, as I've started watching the movie with audiences over the last few weeks, has been hearing the laughter because I didn't want people to come out of this having had an existential crisis. I really wanted to entertain people with this movie, and the more that message gets out there, that this is an entertaining romp, the better. Albeit scary and very intense and violent and all of these other things, but it's a bit of a rollercoaster, you know what I mean?

"The levity, I think, comes from the fact that even in dark times people are still themselves so little Kassie telling her Auntie Beth she'd make a good mom one day, she asks why and Kassie says because she knows how to lie to kids... Like, that's something a nine year old would say. It's not like they're not suffering from PTSD yet because they're right in the eye of the storm, and the over the top nature of some of the violence seems to get people cheering, too."

Starring Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland, Evil Dead Rise centers on sisters Beth and Ellie, whose strained relationship gets pushed to breaking point when the latter's kids, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher) find a mysterious book and some vinyl records in a bunker underneath their Los Angeles high-rise. Unaware of the dark origins of their discoveries, the youngsters ferry them back up to their apartment – and inadvertently unleash an all-powerful demon that takes up residence in their mother's body.

One major way in which Evil Dead Rise feels more reminiscent of Raimi's Bruce Campbell-led outings than its immediate predecessor is how much the unholy entities enjoy puppeteering humans, known as deadites, and tormenting their living victims.  

"I said to Sam [Raimi] early on, I love the psychological warfare. I love psychological horror, and the possessed could just wipe everybody out and be done with it, but they don't. If you're evil, and that's your MO, you create carnage and you toy and I find that super interesting. That gave me a reason to actually write Ellie - we've got this kind of big bad that Alyssa brought to the screen. It's a joy to talk to people about all the hard graft you've done, to be honest, because then you start to actually realize what you've done and why you've done it. But recently, I've been like, 'Oh shit, there's never really been a big bad in Evil Dead.' Of course, we've had Henrietta and things like that, but there's never been, like, the big bad."

For all its nods to the series' past, however, Evil Dead Rise freshens a lot of things up in other ways too; most notably in location, as it ditches the typical cabin in the woods in favor of a more claustrophobic, relatable setting. "I tried to look at things like, the apartment is the cabin; the corridor, elevator and underground parking lot is my forest to play around in. Then I started to look at other elements and I did see the front door like the trapdoor," Cronin notes, referencing how several of the past Evil Dead movies feature scenes where the main deadite gets chained in the basement. 

"I knew I needed to lock Ellie away for a bit, but I wanted there to still be horror through there so I needed a point of view, and the peephole just started to take on a life of its own. It was so fun to write a scene where you have a restricted, distorted view of what's happening outside and when Ellie lets loose on the neighbors, you can see certain things but you can hear even more and it all adds to the creep factor. We did it all practically, too, it wasn't a camera effect. So fun."

Cronin still allowed himself to get a taste of what it'd be like to film an Evil Dead movie in the woods, however, kicking the new one off with a seemingly disconnected cold open that sees a trio of twenty-somethings quickly regret booking that remote lodge by the lake.

"I like a prologue, as a viewer and a filmmaker, that gives me a taste of what's to come. I didn't want to go back to creepy old priests or someone hiding the book in the building, which just felt stiff," he recalls. "As much as I was happy to move the action to the city, and I wanted to do that, I was like, 'I'd love my chance to do the cabin. I wanted a little taste, and it gave me a chance to show fans that I know the material and I respect the material, but I'm also going to subvert it... so get ready for the subversion."

'Respect the material' might be putting it mildly considering Cronin has been an Evil Dead fan since he was around eight years old. "I love the independent spirit of the movies, the original ones, and their energy. Sometimes, you just can't escape your influences, the things that inspired you when you were younger, so I always wanted to make a movie like this, like an Evil Dead movie," he explains. 

"Then when it was rebooted really successfully, into a movie I have a lot of admiration for, I remember thinking, 'Damn okay, so they're gonna do more Evil Dead? I would love a shot at it someday.' It was just always in my mind and then I met with Sam because he liked my last movie," Cronin continues. "It was kind of a hard one to resist, you know, but had I not found a unique story or one that suited my sensibilities, I would have passed on the opportunity, genuinely. 

"It would have haunted me to the end of my days but and with the greatest respect, if the guys have come along and said, 'Here's an Evil Dead screenplay; it's cabin in the woods and this happens', I probably would have said no. I'd be like, 'I'll be there opening weekend, but it's probably not for me to direct.' With this, it's been great to hear people go, 'Oh my god, it feels so like an Evil Dead movie.' I always felt like I understood the DNA of what would make this movie work, but was able to apply that to a really different set of circumstances."

Cronin credits his debut feature for helping prepare him to direct Evil Dead Rise – and not just for the fact that it put him on Raimi's radar. "You have confidence, obviously, to go and make your first film but you also have certain fears. You'll always have fears making movies but maybe on two or three occasions on The Hole in the Ground, I should have pushed things further when I got scared. In this film, there were many reasons for me to be scared as a filmmaker and to be nervous, but anytime I felt that I just went storming into it. Instead of taking a step back and going, 'Maybe I can make this easier on myself', I would double down and make it, actually, harder. So it taught me to be a bit more gung-ho and to trust my own competence as much as I can." Groovy stuff.

Evil Dead Rise releases on April 21. While we wait, check out our list of the greatest horror movies of all time for some viewing inspiration, or our spoiler-free chat with the movie's stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland.