Evil Dead Rise’s Look Was Inspired By Another Classic Horror Movie (Not Sam Raimi’s)
Writer/director Lee Cronin has revealed that the style of the upcoming movie Evil Dead Rise was inspired by another classic horror movie. Taking over the reins of the Evil Dead franchise from creator Sam Raimi and director Fede Álvarez, Cronin has shifted the setting from the woods to a crumbling apartment building. Despite this change, Evil Dead Rise has received widespread acclaim for its fresh take on the franchise while still delivering what fans have come to expect.
During an exclusive interview with Screen Rant for the movie’s home media release, Cronin discussed putting together the unique visual style of Evil Dead Rise. The writer/director explained that the visual language is in his head while writing a script for a project, but that he looked towards another iconic horror movie outside of Sam Raimi’s classic filmography for inspiration. See what Cronin explained below:
Cronin is a filmmaker who is driven when he writes. He writes to direct, so a lot of those ideas were formulated during the development and the writing process of the movie. He believes in unique viewpoints, aspects, and ways of telling a story, continuously refreshing the visuality, giving the audience a new experience, not just scene to scene but shot to shot. In this film, there are many detailed close-ups, and he prides himself on how that look creates a tonality, and feeds into the overall experience of the movie.
The building where most of the movie takes place is pretty claustrophobic and locked down, but Cronin and his director of photography wanted it to feel like it was kind of on an epic canvas. They talked about the movie Alien, where the audience is trapped inside a contained spaceship but still feels that sense of spectacle. They worked very hard on the choices they made with lenses and how they approached that to give the audience quite a widescreen cinematic feel.
Why Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead Style Remains So Iconic
Raimi’s style on the original Evil Dead movie and its sequels remains iconic for the horror genre. The director’s dedication to practical effects for the very bloody and increasingly outrageous stories not only led to the confidence of DIY filmmaking in future storytellers but also leaned into the darkly humorous nature of the various Evil Dead movies.
One of the more iconic elements of Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise that has remained even as Álvarez and Cronin have taken the reins from him is the motion shot of the unseen Deadite force racing through the scene towards the protagonist, which audiences see from the first-person perspective of the force. The 2013 Evil Dead rebootquel utilized it when Jane Levy’s Mia was first being targeted for her possession, while Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise featured it in multiple sequences, including its opening credits fake-out.
Raimi’s unique Evil Dead style transcends the horror genre and has influenced other filmmakers such as Jon Watts, who adopted the Raimi cam style of quick zoom-ups on characters for Spider-Man: No Way Home, making it all the more meaningful thanks to Tobey Maguire’s return for the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.
While already having an iconic look to the movies, writer/director Lee Cronin reveals Evil Dead Rise‘s style was inspired by another classic horror movie. Cronin has taken the Evil Dead movie reins from franchise creator Sam Raimi and Fede Álvarez, who became the first to direct an installment in the horror franchise without Bruce Campbell’s Ash and instead of Raimi. Shifting the setting from the woods to a crumbling apartment building, Evil Dead Rise scored widespread acclaim for its twists to the franchise’s formula while still delivering what fans have come to expect.
During an exclusive interview with Screen Rant for the movie’s home media release, Lee Cronin discussed putting together Evil Dead Rise‘s unique visual style. The writer/director explained that the visual language is in his head while writing a script for a project, but that he looked towards another iconic horror movie outside of Sam Raimi’s classic filmography for inspiration. See what Cronin explained below:
I’m very driven, when I write, I’m writing to direct, so a lot of those ideas were formulated during the development and the writing process of the movie. I’m not a filmmaker who — of course, coverage is part of filmmaking, but I try and look for unique viewpoints and aspects and ways of telling a story and continually refreshing the visuality, giving you a new experience, not just scene to scene, but shot to shot. All of those details really, and this is a film that is littered with so many detailed close-ups and moments. I wish I could remember the number, because I knew and I’ve forgotten it, but I think we’ve got something like — someone is gonna go and figure this out, and post it online, I hope, or maybe I have to call my editor — I think we’ve got like 2000 cuts in the movie where we cut from one picture to the next from the volume of that kind of kinetic visual energy that we wanted to capture. I try and pride myself on it’s not about just how things look, it’s about how that look creates a tonality, and feeds into the overall experience of the movie. Because it’s quite —we get the great outdoors in the opening, but once we go inside that building, it’s pretty claustrophobic and locked down. Something myself and my director of photography spoke about a lot was we still wanted it to feel like it was kind of on an epic canvas, the choices we made with lenses, and how we wanted to approach that, and to still give you quite a kind of widescreen cinematic feel. We talked about Alien, you’re trapped inside this contained spaceship, yet you kind of feel that width, you feel that sense of spectacle, and that was something that we worked in prep on very, very hard.
Why Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead Style Remains So Iconic
Despite over 40 years gone from when the movie first hit theaters, Raimi’s style on the original Evil Dead movie and its sequels remains some of the most iconic for the horror genre. The director’s dedication to practical effects for the very bloody and increasingly outrageous stories not only led to the confidence of DIY filmmaking in future storytellers, but also leaned into the darkly humorous nature of the various Evil Dead movies.
One of the more iconic elements of Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise that has remained even as Álvarez and Cronin have taken the reins from him is the motion shot of the unseen Deadite force racing through the scene towards the protagonist, which audiences see from the first-person perspective of the force. The 2013 Evil Dead rebootquel utilized it when Jane Levy’s Mia was first being targeted for her possession, while Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise featured it in multiple sequences, including its opening credits fake-out.
Raimi’s unique Evil Dead style wouldn’t be restrained to the horror genre field, either, as he carried it over into his work in blockbuster filmmaking with the Spider-Man trilogy, Oz the Great and Powerful and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This influence even expanded to other filmmakers, with Jon Watts adopting the Raimi cam style of quick zoom-ups on characters for Spider-Man: No Way Homean inclusion all the more meaningful thanks to Tobey Maguire’s return for the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.
