The Evil Dead Rise will soon bring Deadites back to theaters with director Lee Cronin takeover of the franchise created Sam Raimi. As in the previous Evil Dead movie, Evil Dead Height will release the demons when the family inadvertently reads defiant passages from the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead. Each trailer for The Evil Dead Rise filled with chilling footage, and early reviews praise the film as one of the best chapters in the franchise. So, it is not surprising that The Evil Dead Rise is one of the most anticipated films of 2023. However, some fans may still be scratching their heads to figure out how The Evil Dead Rise is in a franchise. After all, is the new film a remake, a sequel, a reboot, or just a completely independent story? The answer is not so simple.

COLLIDER VIDEO OF THE DAY

SCROLL TO CONTINUE CONTENT

Cinematic history of the Evil Dead

Bruce Campbell in his first role as Ash Williams in The Evil Dead
Image via New Line Cinema

Released in 1981, Evil Dead launched Raimi’s prolific film career and turned Bruce Campbell in the king of B-movies. The film is about a group of college students who accidentally unleash the dead while spending the weekend in a cabin in the woods. Incessant violence from Evil Dead attracted the attention of the master of horror Stephen Kingwhose flattering review of the film helped the film become a hit.

Unfortunately for Raimi, it took a few more years for his career to take off. After Evil DeadRaimi found himself at a crossroads between success and failure when crime wave failed at the box office. The only way out of his terrible situation was to return to the franchise that made him famous. With the help of King, Raimi was able to free evil dead 2 six years after the original, in 1987. evil dead 2 was ten times the budget of the first film, Raimi was asked to keep the story virtually identical to the original. Evil Dead. That’s why evil dead 2 part sequel, part remake Evil Dead. This history lesson is fundamental to determining what The Evil Dead Rise lies in the fact that it allows us to know how, from the moment of its creation, Evil Dead the franchise wasn’t as concerned with canon or the timeline. All Raimi wanted was to show great movies in theaters, and he did it.

Both Evil Dead And evil dead 2 Campbell stars as Ash Williams, a chainsaw-wielding warrior who fights the forces of darkness. Ash is back in theaters with Dark army in 1992, a time travel adventure that takes the hero back to the Middle Ages. Dark army starts right after evil dead 2ending, making it a direct sequel. However, after this third chapter, the cinematic franchise remained dormant for two decades. Certainly, Evil Dead comics and video games were still being released. However, the next film in the franchise, Evil Deadwill hit theaters in 2013.

Director Fede Alvarez2013 Evil Dead is part sequel and part remake, following the franchise’s tradition of putting quality over franchise cohesion. Thus, Alvarez’s film introduced a new hero, Mia (Jane Levy), who fights the dead in a cabin in the woods, just like Ash did in the first two films. While 2013 Evil Dead should have reimagined the franchise, the film has some clear ties to Ash Williams. Near the hut, we see the original hero’s car, and Campbell even appears in a post-credits scene. For these reasons, we cannot consider 2013 a remake. However, it’s not exactly a sequel because it’s a spin-off series. Ash vs Evil Dead, which stars Ash Campbell, does not take into account the events of Alvarez’s film. Most notably, in the series, Ash returns to the cabin in the woods to retrieve the Necronomicon that Mia should have.

And then we get to The Evil Dead Rise, with an invitation from a new director to take over the running of the franchise. The main elements are still part of the new movie, which will also revolve around the Necronomicon, dark spells, and the dead. However, the film will take place in a new location and with a completely different cast. So, given the franchise’s complex production history, The Evil Dead Rise reboot, standalone story or sequel? The answer is all of the above.

The Evil Dead Rise reimagines the franchise through Cronin’s eyes, so it’s only natural to see it as a reboot of sorts that could lead to the development of direct sequels in the near future. However, we can also see The Evil Dead Rise as an independent story set in the same universe as Ash and Mia’s adventures. After all, some elements connect all films. Also, one particular scene Dark army gives us everything we need to consider The Evil Dead Rise also a direct continuation.

‘Army of Darkness’ will let ‘Rise of Villains’ be a sequel

Bruce Campbell with his arrow in Army of Darkness
Image via Universal

IN Dark army, Ash is sent back in time and tasked with finding the Necronomicon. Ash finds a book in a graveyard, but there’s a catch. There are actually three Books of the Dead and Ash needs to figure out which one is the real one. Until recently, we thought that there was only one Necronomicon, and the other two books were bait. However, in a recent interview with Collider, Campbell revealed that the three books are real. As the star says, “there are three such books, as we learned in Dark army, so you never know where they’re going to pop up. So this story is really “where is the book now?”

By creating a canon of the three Books of the Dead, Campbell resolved all inconsistencies in Evil Dead franchise. Ash’s story is linked to one of the books, Mia took up a second copy of the cursed item, and now a third reappears in the Cronin sequel.

In short, there is no reason to worry too much about the status The Evil Dead Rise. You can just go to the cinema and enjoy the movie. However, if the canon keeps you awake in the middle of the night, the Books of the Dead is the perfect remedy. Evil Dead movie in a single timeline.

Evil Dead the franchise will rise again from the grave when The Evil Dead Rise called to theaters on April 21st.