Cronin explained his decision to move “Evil Dead” to L.A. in order to avoid repeating the same story once again:
“I kind of knew instinctively that if I came back with a cabin in the woods take, it was just going to be more of the same. It was going to be like, ‘How do we mash this up? How do we double down on what’s already been doubled down on?’ So instinctively I felt like I needed to take it to an urban context … I felt the city, the urban jungle, was the polar opposite to what we’ve seen before. So if you’re going to make a change, you really got to make a change, in a way.”
Producer Rob Tapert, who has guided the series ever since the first film, reminded Cronin to not “lose sight that ‘Evil Dead’ is about a group of four or five people that get trapped and get chopped up,” an element that the filmmaker said is “important to be true to the DNA of what an ‘Evil Dead’ story is.” Just because the Deadites are invading the city doesn’t mean that they’re turning into generic zombies. The sadistic creatures lay at the black heart of “Evil Dead Rise,” their mean-spirited natures and over-the-top violent tendencies making them “way more sinister with way more personality” than your standard horde of undead. Hopefully, these demons can bring a little mayhem to the City of Angels.
