For a little over 40 years, the Evil Dead franchise has given fans nightmares, laughs, and moments where the two halves meet in bloody brilliance. The tradition of heading out to a creepy cabin, reading some forbidden Latin, and dealing with the consequences has seen Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s vision change hands and deliver insane kills each time out.
The 2023 movie release Evil Dead Rise is no exception, as you can see in the red band trailer freshly released. While the setting is now an apartment building in a very urban setting, the dead have been awoken and the blood is flowing. What’s more, this gruesome trailer released by Warner Bros. features a violent scene I can’t stop thinking about; and it’s all thanks to a rather horrific scalping.
Since this is a red-band trailer, the audience is allowed to be treated to some of the bloody delights director Lee Cronin will be delivering in Evil Dead Rise. Scalpings on their own are, naturally, gorey and terrifying; whether or not they take place in a theater, or during the originally intended streaming release this film had in mind. So the moment where a Deadite possessed young woman rips skins her friend’s head is built to be impactful from the jump.
What makes this Evil Dead scalping even more shocking is that it’s done without the aid of any surgical implements. This movie doesn’t seem shy about breaking out the tools, as we do see an eye-opening experience with a needle getting up close and personal. But to scalp someone, without tools, requires a lot of force and probably hurts even more. Rather than easing into things inch by inch, it’s one huge shock of pain that does the job.
What’s even crazier is, based on what we know about Evil Dead Rise, a scalping is merely the beginning. Huge amounts of blood have been cited in the production of this new chapter, and we can already see some of it on display thanks to Lily Sullivan’s Beth.
Wielding a huge chainsaw, she appears soaked head to toe with blood and ready to take on any evil in her path. In other words, Ms. Sullivan has officially been baptised by blood into the Evil Dead family of heroes that includes Bruce Campbell’s Ash and Jane Levy’s Mia.
Family ties run deeper than blood in the Evil Dead saga, and as we’ve seen before, you only hunt the ones you love. Yet despite all of the huge frights and red-band goodness we’ve been shown in this trailer, it’s that scalping that truly haunts me. Of course, there’s time for that to change between now and the picture’s theatrical release; which is still a wonderful fact to reflect on after Warner Bros.’ huge theatrical shakeup made it so.
Where better to share a scalping than with a crowd full of frightened strangers? That’s exactly what you’ll be able to do when Evil Dead Rise haunts a theater near you, starting April 21st. If you’re in the mood to revisit some adventures in the realm of this storied franchise, you can use your Hulu subscription to stream the 2013 Evil Dead legacy-quel. Just because you know not to read the Latin doesn't mean you can't watch the unfortunate fools who didn't heed the warnings.
