LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� When director Lee Cronin set out to of the 鈥淓vil Dead鈥� franchise, he knew he wanted to bring a fresh angle to his version of the while still giving winks and nods throughout to his source material.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to reboot a reboot or reboot something from before. So, I needed to find a new world, new characters,鈥� he said.
After meeting who created the Cronin walked away with two stipulations for his new movie, 鈥淓vil Dead Rise,鈥� which hits theaters Friday.
He wanted to take the 鈥�'Evil Dead' lore鈥� to an urban environment, unlike the traditional rural cabin setting, and he wanted the story to center around a family.
鈥淭he cogs started turning in my mind and I knew family and city and a kind of a world that maybe people could identify with,鈥� he recalled. 鈥淚 started to look at the construct of that family and then to look at some of the people in my own life.鈥�
Those people included 鈥減owerful women figures,鈥� which inspired the director to make the first 鈥淓vil Dead鈥� installment with a cast primarily comprising women.
鈥淓vil Dead Rise鈥� follows two sisters, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and Beth (Lily Sullivan). After her children discover a strange book hidden beneath their Los Angeles apartment building, Ellie becomes possessed by a demon hellbent on destroying everything in its path, leaving Aunt Beth with the seemingly futile task of trying to escape with the kids.
That backdrop, Cronin said, was ripe for probing the psychological terrors that can stem from familial relationships and that would be compounded by the existential threat of a blood-lusting demon.
鈥淭hat works quite well in horror storytelling because every single human carries baggage with them every day,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t just lent itself to this exploration of maternal affairs and what it might mean if you鈥檙e a mother or what it might mean if your mother was to turn on you.鈥�
And although Cronin thought through his heady inquiry of maternal relationships and attachment theory, 鈥淓vil Dead Rise鈥� is, like the other films in its franchise, at its core a 100 minutes of entertainment.
While the film asked a lot physically of both Sutherland and Sullivan, they said it was ultimately an enjoyable and cathartic project.
鈥淭o see a really horrific woman and play a horrific woman on screen, that was wonderful,鈥� Sutherland said.
鈥淚 would love to say that it was like a real struggle to get to that place but I recognized that I am a little bit of a former people pleaser, and I had a lot of unexpressed rage and I just tapped into that,鈥� she added, musing that a lot of women can probably relate.
And although Sullivan recalled some of the physical demands put on her, including being completely submerged in fake blood, as being a 鈥渇orm of torture,鈥� she and Sutherland said their days were ameliorated by the fact that their contracts included a 鈥渟elf-care fund鈥� 鈥� which they both spent on frequent massages.
Krysta Fauria, The Associated Press
