Here’s everything we know about Evil Dead Rise, the fifth movie in the horror franchise, from its release date and trailer to cast, plot, and more.
Sam Raimi launched the series with 1984’s The Evil Dead, a low-budget shocker hailed as one of the most significant cult films in the genre’s history, schlocky and grisly to a highly effective degree.
Raimi returned for Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, with the scares quickly making way for slapstick and fantasy elements. In 2013, the franchise was rebooted with Evil Dead, a reboot that rained gallons of blood on the audience and became well-loved by fans.
Evil Dead Rise is the next instalment in the series, and it’s set to be the scariest yet – so, here’s what we know so far, including its release date, trailer, cast, and plot.
Evil Dead Rise release date: When is it coming out?
Evil Dead Rise is due for release on April 21, 2023.The sequel was originally set for an exclusive release on HBO Max. However, amid David Zaslav taking over as CEO and the merger of Warner Bros. Discovery, it was given a theatrical release.
It will not be available to stream on HBO Max from the day of release, so you’ll need to venture out to the cinema to catch it.
Evil Dead Rise trailer: Is there a trailer?
Yes, there’s a teaser trailer for Evil Dead Rise, which you can watch below:
The trailer opens with Bruce Campbell, who famously played Ash Williams in the first Evil Dead movies, explaining that he’s not in it. He’s serving as a producer, and he believes it’s “amazing” and “the scariest one yet.”
The teaser itself is extremely brief, showing a young girl looking through the peephole of her door and seeing her mum with a sinister, blood-covered look on her face.
Who’s in it?
The known cast for Evil Dead Rise includes:
- Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie
- Lily Sullivan as Beth
- Gabrielle Echols
- Morgan Davies
- Nell Fisher
- Mia Challis as Jessica
- Tai Wano
- Jayden Daniels
- Billy Reynolds-McCarthy
None of the characters from 2013’s Evil Dead are expected to return, unless they appear in a cameo, nor is Campbell set to star – although some sort of appearance wouldn’t be that surprising, even as a quick nod.
Evil Dead Rise plot: What’s it about?
The official synopsis reads: “In the fifth Evil Dead film, 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.”
This book will be the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead at the centre of the Evil Dead franchise. However, Rise is a significant departure for the series.
Writer-director Lee Cronin explained to Total Film: “There’s no Ash in this story and there’s no cabin in the woods, and they’re two iconic elements of what Evil Dead is.
“But the movie does include the book and an extraordinary amount of vicious, malevolent Deadites, so I was always pretty comfortable making that move.
“It still needed to maintain some of the claustrophobia, and that translated really well from the cabin into an urban environment. This is about a family in a rundown building stuck in their apartment, so it follows the same rhythm but puts it in a more contemporary space.”
However, despite following the reboot, it’s “firmly in the universe… there’s a lot of fun callbacks, and there are direct lines to the past. But part of the goal of making this movie was to create something that could expand the Evil Dead universe further,” Cronin added.
