Evil Dead 4 will release on streaming service HBO Max. Sam Raimi’s low-budget horror movie The Evil Dead came out in 1981 and quickly became a cult classic. In 1987, Raimi revisited that movie’s cabin-in-the-woods horror premise, upping the crazy factor and coming up with the classic sequel Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn.
Those first two Evil Dead movies among other things established the career of Bruce Campbell, who would later return for Raimi in the spinoff film Army of Darkness, featuring his Evil Dead character Ash transported to a medieval setting to do more battle against the undead. Campbell’s character would later return again in the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead. There was also an Evil Dead reboot film released in 2013 but Ash was not in that one.
Ash will apparently not be back in the next Evil Dead movie either, though Campbell remains on board as an executive producer, and has been hyping the movie for many months. Now The Wrap reports that the film, officially titled Evil Dead Rise, is going ahead at HBO Max with New Line Cinema producing along with Raimi. The movie begins shooting next month in New Zealand. Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings) and Lily Sullivan (Picnic At Hanging Rock) head up the cast as a pair of sisters whose family reunion is interrupted by demonic entities. Lee Cronin (The Hole In The Ground) is directing after being tapped by Raimi himself for the task. Raimi can’t return as director of course because he’s too busy doing the MCU film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
In a statement Campbell said of the Evil Dead series, “At its core, ‘Evil Dead’ is about ordinary people overcoming extraordinarily terrifying situations.” He added, “I can’t wait for Alyssa and Lily to fill the blood-soaked shoes of those who have come before them and carry on that tradition.” Evil Dead Rise will in some ways break with series tradition however, as the movie is set in a city high-rise rather than a dingy cabin tucked away somewhere in the woods.
The change of scenery for Evil Dead Rise is indeed probably a good idea as the cabin-in-the-woods premise has become somewhat played out. Of course, it’s not always advisable to take classic horror franchises into high-rise building settings, as George Romero’s disappointing Land of the Dead proved. It remains to be seen how the shift in setting benefits Evil Dead 4, just as it remains to be seen how Cronin handles the movie’s demonic goings-on. Fede Alvarez was the last director to try to step into Raimi’s shoes on the Evil Dead movie franchise, and his efforts received somewhat mixed reviews from fans and critics. It also remains to be seen whether Evil Dead Rise gets any kind of theatrical run alongside its HBO Max release. It would certainly be disappointing to see Evil Dead become a small-screen only enterprise, but perhaps a limited theatrical release is in the cards for the next entry. Evil Dead 4 does not yet have a release date.
