The first trailer for Evil Dead Rise is finally here, and not a second too soon. It’s been ten years since Fede Álvarez brought a darker and grittier version of Evil Dead to theaters, and we’ve been starving for more Deadites ever since. Sure, Ash vs. Evil Dead was lots of fun, but we missed the blood dripping on the silver screen. Fortunately, Evil Dead Rise’s trailer promises the movie will be as bloody as our wildest nightmares. There’s a lot to unpack in the new red band trailer, so let’s start chopping these gruesome images into pieces and digesting them one by one.
A Dark Family Affair
What makes Álvarez’s Evil Dead so delicious is that it doesn’t try to copy the style Sam Raimi imbued into the franchise. Instead, it brings something new to the table while still sticking to what makes the original trilogy so great in the first place. Evil Dead Rise promises to do the same, with The Hole in the Ground filmmaker Lee Cronin taking over the franchise’s helm while Raimi remains a producer.
For the upcoming sequel, Cronin is bringing the Deadites to the big city instead of confining evil to a cabin in the woods. The story also feels more personal, as the Deadites will possess Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), a single mother of three children. After that, it’s up to her sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan), to find a way to defeat evil. The opening scene of the Evil Dead Rise trailer already promises the sequel is a family affair, with Beth shielding her three nieces and nephews from the horrible vision of a possessed Ellie.
Ellie won’t be the only victim of the Deadites in Evil Dead Rise. The trailer teases the forces of darkness will spread through the whole family. For instance, we get a small glimpse of Ellie’s youngest daughter cutting a doll’s head off with scissors, a scene with a lot of Ari Aster’s Hereditary vibes.
In a blink-and-you-might-miss moment, it looks like the middle child of Ellie has also turned into a Deadite, contorting their limbs in unnatural directions on top of the kitchen counter. If that’s Ellie’s child, Beth might be forced to kill some family members to save others. Talk about high emotional stakes!
The Necronomicon Is the Culprit
The new trailer for Evil Dead Rise shows what’s behind the new Deadite breakout. As expected, the culprit is the Necronomicon, a cursed book made from human skin and written with human blood. The book contains all sorts of evil spells, including the ones that can open gateways to hell and bring demons to Earth.
The Book of the Dead is not the only relic Beth will find when visiting her sister. Together with the book, Beth will gain access to an old record that apparently contains Professor Knowby’s Necronomicon rites. In Evil Dead lore, Professor Knowby is the scholar responsible for recording the rite used to release the Kandarian Demon, the entity responsible for turning people into Deadites. In the trailer, we can hear the professor's dark magic words, which inadvertently brought a demon to Earth. One of these words is “Kandar,” a keyword that was repeated in every iteration of the franchise.
The Cabin in the Woods
While Evil Dead Rise takes place in an apartment in the big city, we’ll get at least some scenes in a cabin in the woods. Maybe those scenes happen in a flashback, or the movie will twist and turn unexpectedly. Be it as it may, it’s nice to see Evil Dead Rise homaging the place where the franchise came to life.
While we don’t know when the scenes at the cabin in the woods take place, the Deadites are also part of it. In the few flashes we get from the location, we can already see a Deadite ripping a woman's scalp and marching to the lake nearby.
In the cabin in the woods section of the trailer, we also see a Deadite floating over the water. That’s a new power for the franchise’s monsters, and it underlines how Cronin is not afraid to put his own spin on the lore.
Everything Is a Weapon
While the Necronomicon and the Deadites are the classic evildoers in Evil Dead lore, the fun of the movies and TV show came from the tradition of turning everything into a weapon. Sometimes it’s the hero who uses whatever they can find to fight evil, while other times, the Deadites get creative to take down their victims. In Evil Dead Rise, it seems like Ellie will use a tattoo machine to stab someone in the eye.
While eye perforations are always unnerving, the most painful moment of the trailer is, without a doubt, when Beth loses some skin to a Deadite with a cheese grater. Naysayers who felt the sequel wouldn’t honor the franchise’s roots just got a bloody confirmation they are wrong.
A New Groovy Hero Steps Ups
Every Evil Dead movie needs a hero. For most of the franchise, Bruce Campbell played Ash William. In the 2013’s movie, Jane Levy played Mia. Now, it’s time for Beth to take over the mantle of Deadite-slayer. While we have a new hero, the trailer nods to the original trilogy by showing Beth running in a hallway, covered in blood, with her eyes wide open in madness. That’s the same look Ash had when hunting Deadites, and the camera shakes come straight from Raimi’s playbook.
Ash and Mia’s favored tool for the Deadite-slaying was the chainsaw. So, Beth also had to use the weapon at some point to be a worthy successor. And by showing Beth wielding the chainsaw, Evil Dead Rise’s red band trailer delivers one more promise.
Beth is not the only blood-soaked survivor in the trailer, as it looks like Ellie’s youngest daughter will also be one of the last people standing. Maybe Evil Dead Rise can kickstart a new golden era for the franchise by making Deadite-hunting a family legacy.
The Evil Dead Rises
While Beth will probably have to face many evil creatures in the sequel, the star of the monstrous show is Ellie. The Deadite using her body will explore her motherly nature to trick her children into letting her in, which is obviously a mistake.
At a certain point in the trailer, Ellie’s voice changes, and the Kandarian demon say the woman is with the maggots now. After taking over a body, the Deadites always tease that person’s loved ones, spilling profanities and underlining how there’s no hope of recovery. That’s what makes Deadites so interesting, as they are the perfect mix of zombies and possessed people.
When a person turns into a Deadite, they become stronger, faster, more resilient, and can even climb walls. By the end of the trailer, we can already see Ellie in all her supernatural glory. We can’t wait to watch Evil Dead Rise in theaters and see her unleash her full power.
Game Recognizes Game
It might be the excitement bubbling in our brains, but Evil Dead Rise might be homaging other great horror movies. For instance, we get a small glimpse of a room filled with crucifixes that take our minds to The Conjuring 2. While the composition of the crucifixes is not the same, the blue light that involves the scene looks a lot like James Wan’s classic.
Also, remember when a little girl decapitated a doll? It’s hard not to think of that as a Hereditary nod when we also have a burning body in the same trailer.
Finally, it’s hard to deny the scene with blood flowing through some doors is not a homage to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shinning. Even the camera position seems to mimic the bloody elevator scene. Maybe these are unintentional references, but it’s fun to realize we can connect the Evil Dead Rise trailer with other beloved horror movies.
The forces of darkness will come back to Earth when Evil Dead Rise hits theaters on April 21.