Less than a week after its theatrical release,Evil Dead Risedirector Lee Cronin is already discussing what chaos the Necronomicon will cause next.
The fifth installment in theEvil Deadfranchise,Evil Dead Rise, takes a similar route asScream VIby taking the Necronomicon out of the rural, abandoned cabins it usually calls home and bringing it into the city. The movie stars Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echolls, and Nell Fisher. It also featuresa brief cameo by Bruce Campbell, whose voice can be heard shouting, “It’s called ‘the Book of the Dead’ for a reason!” over an old recording.
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WhileEvil Dead Rise’s ending didn’t explicitly set up a sequel, the Necronomicon is known for its dedication to wreaking havoc. In an interview withVariety, Cronin broke down four possible paths he sees a possible sequel taking. Cronin referenced the recording featuring Campbell’s cameo, saying he’d like to tell the story that led to the situation audiences only heard a snippet of inEvil Dead Rise. He also expressed interest in following Beth and seeing what she would get up to after surviving the events ofEvil Dead Rise.
Beyond that, Cronin seems to be of two minds on where the Necronomicon should find its next victim. He thinks there’s still a story to tell in the apartment building that Beth and Kassie escaped from. On the other hand, he’s tempted to take the Necronomicon back to its rural roots. “Because of the opening and the closing, there’s that continuation of how this evil has a gate. That brings us back into that forest context, which excites me because I love that I broke the mold, but wouldn’t it be fun now if I went back to the cabin in the woods? It could be a cool journey.”
Later on in the interview, Cronin also revealed the origin ofEvil Dead Rise’s horrifying cheese grater scene. He explained that the idea came to him at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic while working on the movie’s script. “It was necessity. It was the hunt for something different…I always wanted there to be a fight in a kitchen. Being Irish, the kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s where people congregate. I knew I wanted there to be this domestic showdown in that kitchen and thought about the different things that could be used in there. It was just one of those moments where I thought, ‘I don’t think I’ve seen anybody use a cheese grater before, or certainly not in a horror context.’” He revealed he now has a cheese grater tattoo in honor of the grisly scene.
Although all of Cronin’s ideas would make for great movies, one feels the most like the classicEvil Dead. Taking the franchise back to the woods brings the story back to its roots and would allow Cronin to explore how a story like the original 1981Evil Deadfunctions forty-plus years later. While 2013’sEvil Deadtook the opportunityto use the bones of the original to tell a new story, it didn’t feel like the movie took advantage of the fact that the characters were armed with much more technology than Campbell was in the ’80s. Maybe the nextEvil Deadmovie will more deeply explore how modern-day characters can use the tools around them to defeat the ancient evil trapped in the Necronomicon.
