EJ Moreno sits down with director Lee Cronin…
To craft an Evil Dead movie, it takes a special type of filmmaker. Thankfully, the producers found the right man for the job in Lee Cronin, who is celebrating the home release of Evil Dead Rise.
In our interview, Cronin sits down with EJ Moreno to talk about all things horror, including VHS-era memories, iconic horror posters, and of course, Evil Dead Rise.
Diving into his history with the genre, the director spoke about growing up with iconic home releases like The Shining as well as the first two Evil Dead movies.
“I saw The Shining when I was very young, so that was definitely a rented VHS because my father was away. I got terrified. He found out that I was terrified. He went and re-rented it. Um, and then I had to listen to it all over again,” says Cronin. “Poltergeist was another one that I remember specifically being rented. And then Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2. My dad rented those out and showed them to me when I was about nine in a back-to-back watch. So, I was at quite an impressionable age.”
We also spoke about the now-iconic poster for the film, featuring Alyssa Sutherland sporting a devious smile while embracing her children. Cronin felt that perfectly captured the tone of the film.
“Thankfully, I worked with the people that I worked with at Warner Brothers and at New Line were very respectful of my creation of the movie and the things that I brought to them. And obviously, they’re great professionals that then propose lots of ideas and bring you options, and then you work in tandem on those things,” notes the filmmaker.
He adds, “So the poster we ended up with was kind of like a version of some other ideas that we brought together. But ultimately, what I like about the tonality is the fact that you, it’s kind of confrontational, right? Like you are looking at this clearly evil-possessed, damaged woman. And then you go, why the hell are her kids hugging her?”
Continuing, “That’s, in a way, the core of the story. It’s the corruption of motherhood and the fear that could go along with that. So it is quite a simple poster, and I think simple posters can work extremely well.”
In the fifth Evil Dead film, a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.
Evil Dead Rise is directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), with Sam Raimi, Bruce Cambell, and Rob Tapert producing. Featuring in the cast are Lily Sullivan (I Met a Girl), Alyssa Sutherland (The Mist), Morgan Davies (The End), Gabrielle Echols (Reminiscence), and Nell Fisher (Northspur).
EVIL DEAD RISE will be available on digital download from 14th July, and available to buy on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD, including a limited special edition SteelBook, from 17th July.
