Sam Raimi’s firstEvil Deadmovie introduces the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, an ancient text that unleashes a relentless, bloodthirsty evil. 1987’sEvil Dead IIsees the return of that same “Book of the Dead.” At the end of that film, the reading of a particular incantation sendsBruce Campbell’s Ash Williams back to the Middle Ages for the third film in the series,Army of Darkness. In that installment, the only way Ash can make it back home is by tracking down the Necronomicon in that time period. During that search, Ash finds not one, but three versions of the book, and one of those books is the source of evil in the franchise’s newest addition,Evil Dead Rise.
TheLee Cronin-directed film relocates the mayhem from a cabin in the woods to an apartment building in Los Angeles. That’s whereAlyssa Sutherland’s Ellie lives with her three kids (Morgan Davies,Gabrielle Echols, andNell Fisher.) While Ellie’s sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan), is in town for a visit, an earthquake unearths this Necronomicon, and it funnels its evil straight into Ellie, turning her into a deadite.
WithEvil Dead Risenow playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to havean extended chat with Cronin. During that conversation, he reconfirmed the existence of the three Necronomicons, explained what makes them different, and even teased the possibility of a fourth book.
“I think Sam’s book was the original, right? And there was something very basic, like as in the very beginnings and the origins of what it was. And then Fede [Álvarez]’s book I think showed a certain brutality in the way it’s designed and the way it looked, and it had a methodology behind it also in terms of giving a guidance to the amount of innocence that’s taken and how that might bring rise to something into the world. This book, to me, is one that has a certain amount of character and a little bit of life to it in the sense that it actually activates, it moves, it drinks a little bit of blood. And I think each one of the books, I kind of look at them almost like gospels in the Bible. It’s like the same story told a slightly different way by a different person. And who knows? Maybe there’s a fourth book out there. Maybe it’s an inverse of everything we know.”
[Editor’s note: The rest of this article contains spoilers for Evil Dead Rise.]Not only did Cronin tease the potential of a fourth book, but he also revealed that they have discussed the possibility of the books uniting, kind of like hisEvil Dead Risedeadites do to form The Marauder.
“We discussed that for fun on set. I think it’s possible because all of these books exist in the same world. To me, there is a timeline that’s linear from Sam’s first story all the way through to this. It’s just happened to different people in different places with different books.”
Eager to hear more spoiler-filled information from Cronin on the making of the film? You can find just that in the spoiler half of our interview at the top of this article! And if you’re looking for even moreEvil Dead Risetalk after that, be sure to catch Lily Sullivan’sCollider Ladies Nightinterview below:
