Why is ‘Evil Dead Rise’ led by women and not by a hero like Ash?

The premiere of Evil Dead: The Awakening has arrived, the new installment of the franchise that Sam Raimi started in 1981, but now under the direction of Lee Cronin, with whom we spoke in Sensacine Latin America to resolve one of the doubts that fans have expressed: why did you choose him female lead and not by a strongman like Ash was (Bruce Campbell) in the original film?

The new installment of The Devil’s Awakening, now available at Cinemex and Cinépolis, is told by Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), an abandoned tattoo artist for her husband whose crisis forces her to plan a reboot with her children Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echolls) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) away from the city. Without warning, Beth (Lily Sullivan), a sound engineer, comes to take refuge at her sister’s house after learning of a unwanted pregnancy.

Their respective tragedies once an unexpected earthquake unleashes the diabolical presence of the book of the dead, whose pages hide bloodthirsty demons eager to use this family as their new puppets to unleash a brutal viscera bath suitable for all gore movie fans. A recommendation that Uncle Sensacine makes to all the horrorheads who are in this interview.

In fact, Evil Dead: Awakening falls like one more in the trends of the horrors of mothering, just as several local and foreign tapes have been handling it. Interestingly, Beau is scared, while on the billboard, he has a similar approach; Huesera, by Michelle Garza Cervera, among many others that have recently been shown in theaters or streaming services.

“I wanted to tell a story about a family, because I’m a fan of horror stories that dig their claws into the domestic aspect because no family is perfect, and each member has their own open wounds before the horror hits. When we brought Ellie and Beth together it felt like a very interesting metaphor for analyze the dark side of the family what happens when it falls apart?”, explained the filmmaker, via Zoom.

Is ‘Evil Dead: Awakening’ part of the universe that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell started in 1981?

What injuries do they have? In addition to the abandonment raised by both women; Kassie doesn’t have a father figure to follow, Danny takes refuge in music to evade the terrors of the real world, and Bridget is a feminist activist who, judging by her philosophy of life, detests men much more as a result of the departure of his father. Everyone in some way are vulnerable to the presence of the Deadites (demons in the saga).

Warner Bros

“It was interesting for me to get intense with the character, but suddenly everything became very physical work and I understood that it became a very rare gift especially for a woman in this damn business where (the heroes) are mostly men,” Sullivan commented. Cronin also justified using the figure of Campbell’s character in the saga, whose last appearance was in Ash vs. Evil Dead.

“And I took as an example Ash in the sense that he was a guy with many flaws and to a certain degree vulnerable like them, so I feel that in that strict sense we stand hand in hand with a line of similar heroes and villains,” said Cronin, who has made one of the most extreme horror movies so far in 2023 and It paints to be one of the best, subject to what the rest of the year says.