Evil Dead Rise writer-director Lee Cronin recently revealed why the fifth Evil Dead installment doesn't use the cult horror franchise's classic "cabin in the woods" setting.
Cronin explained why the action in Evil Dead Rise quickly shifts from a lakeside shack to a Los Angeles apartment block in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I wanted to have a cold open that gave people a taste of what was to come," he said. "I quite enjoy that in movies, I quite enjoy it in horror movies and I quite enjoy it when I write. It's this idea of giving people a starter before the main course kicks in, and so I knew I wanted to do that. But then I started to come up with these slightly subversive ideas where I could give you a taste of what was familiar, but then take that hard turn. So it just felt like a really fun thing to do. Also, in practical terms, I knew this film was going to be very contained and quite claustrophobic, and so I wanted an opportunity to open up the world as well."
"As a fan and as a movie nerd, I was like, 'I'm making an Evil Dead film,'" Cronin continued. "'I still want to be able to go to a cabin in the woods for a few minutes, even though the story that I’m telling is in a very different context and that context better suits the story I want to tell.' So I wrote that opening very early on, and while I would never usually share part of a screenplay, I just sent it to [executive producers Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell]. And it worked! They were like, 'OK, we know the movie that we're in,' because it had the tone, the atmosphere and the type of ideas in play. And on we went from there. We meet the family, and all hell breaks loose."
What's Next for the Evil Dead Franchise?
Cronin expressed similar sentiments in a previous interview, insisting that the Evil Dead franchise shouldn't remain limited to the secluded cabin set-up of its earlier entries. Instead, the filmmaker believes that future additions to the canon only need to take place in "an isolated place" to faithfully capture the spirit of the long-running horror series. Cronin even suggested that the next Evil Dead movie could be set on a space station since it meets his criteria of a small group of people cut off from humanity. That said, fans shouldn't necessarily assume that a movie set in space is one of the many Evil Dead sequel ideas he already has in his head.
Whatever direction Cronin, Raimi and Campbell do decide to take the franchise in post-Evil Dead Rise, it's all but guaranteed that the Necronomicon will continue to play a part in proceedings. The fancifully named tome (also known as the Book of the Dead) is a key part of the Evil Dead mythos and connects more recent series outings to their predecessors, particularly 1993's Army of Darkness.
Evil Dead Rise is currently streaming on Max.
Source: THR