by Matthew Pejkovic
It is hard to think of a horror franchise that has delivered blood drenched nightmare fuel as consistently as the Evil Dead series.
Since its 1981 grindhouse beginnings with The Evil Dead – directed by innovative young filmmaker Sam Raimi on a microbudget and starring chisel jawed actor Bruce Campbell – the Evil Dead movies have evolved with every new entry without losing its madcap, gore drenched spirit, whether it be a Looney Tunes inspired splatter-fest (Evil Dead II) or an action adventure in medieval times (Army of Darkness.)
Evil Dead Rise, the fifth film in the franchise, continues this tradition by taking the horror out of the woods and into the city. Written and directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), the New Zealand shot Evil Dead Rise stars Lily Sullivan as Beth, a guitar technician and roadie who, after months on the road, shows up unexpectedly at the door of her estranged sister Ellie’s (Alyssa Sutherland) rundown Los Angeles apartment. It doesn’t take long for this family reunion to be interrupted by horrid flesh-possessing demons who won’t stop until limbs are torn and souls are swallowed.
Sutherland, a former model who has transitioned to a successful acting career that includes a memorable turn as Queen Aslaug in the History Channel series Vikings, delivers a chilling performance in Evil Dead Rise as a single mother who is the first to be possessed by a macabre and homicidal demon. An in-character Sutherland, with wide smile and bad intentions, adorns much of the Evil Dead Rise marketing materials, and is one-part of an entertainingly gnarly performance that is sure to frequent the nightmares of many who will watch the film. Sutherland’s body movements are especially creepy, and are the result of a unique method of preparation.
“I had a whole playlist of music, and I spent a lot of time in my little apartment in New Zealand listening to weird instrumental bass stuff, and I just kind of created a movement for the character while listening to that music,” said Sutherland. “That was the basis and I built upon that. It just became this weird part of me, and so when the cameras were rolling, I just pulled it out. It’s wrong, but I so enjoyed it! I had so much fun being a demon.”
With Sutherland playing the monster, Sullivan takes on the role of a reluctant monster slayer who must undertake a crash-course in body dismemberment. As any Evil Dead fan knows, that means rivers of fake blood projected from numerous orifices. It is reported that 6,500 litres of the crimson goo was used during the production, and if the conclusion of Evil Dead Rise is any indication, Sullivan wore half of it.
“I bathed in (fake blood) for a long time!” said Sullivan. “It’s a form of torture. You think the last 20 pages that we will shoot that in like two weeks, but it ended up being a month. I had to walk around with a water spray bottle because everything is sticky, everything sticks to you. My clothes… taking off my costume at the end of the day… it’s a form of torture.”
The catalyst for the bloody events seen in Evil Dead Rise, of course, begins with the Book of the Dead (also known in the original film as the Necronomicon), an unholy tome filled with strange writing and illustrations inked in blood upon pages of human skin. Curiosity and temptation are what draws many to the book, although the “dark arts” is not something the superstitious Sutherland is interested in messing with.
“I’m such an easy scare,” she said. “I’m pathetic…. you know when you wash your face, you scrub your face and you’re leaning over the sink to do that final rinse with water…every single time without fail I think, oh my God I’m going to look up into the mirror and there is going to be someone behind me! Every single night I go through that torture!”
Sullivan, however, is more than game for a good old scary time, a trait she has inherited from the women in her life: “The women in my family… like my grandma would do the Ouija board, she’s got super witch vibes. My mum grew up in a house where the shower would turn on or off, or the beds would rattle… but I would always watch horror, so I totally got that fascination.”
Something neither Sutherland nor Sullivan are scared of is the reaction Evil Dead Rise will receive from fans. “I am confident with the script that Lee Cronin wrote,” said Sullivan. “Being an OG fan himself… like, it [Evil Dead] was the first horror he ever watched…it’s in his blood as a fan making an Evil Dead film. I feel so proud of because Evil Dead Rise is laced with the mythology, and it’s laced with iconic moments. I feel that handing over the chainsaw and the demon to two women is such a power move, but also an awesome exploration in pushing it forward from the cabin to the city.”
Evil Dead Rise is currently playing in Australian cinemas.
