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Evil Dead Rise director reveals Army of Darkness connection to explain third Necronomicon

January 11th, 2023 by Marc Comments

So, the trailer for Evil Dead Rises dropped a few days back (two of them, actually) and in it, we clearly see the other cornerstone of the Evil Dead universe, the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead that caused the release of the Deadites into the world of man… three times now.

The book, when read, has the power to unleash hell, literally, and it has been seen in every Evil Dead so far, from the original trilogy to Fede Alvarez’s remake to the Ash Vs Evil Dead TV series and in all those, the book was a constant, familiar looking tome of dread but here, in director Lee Cronin’s new movie, the book looks different and, at first, that irked me a bit… but then I remembered 1992’s Army of Darkness movie in which Ash, played by the always amazing Bruce Campbell, goes back to medieval England and must recover the Necronomicon if he is to return home.

In the movie, Ash is sent on a quest to find the book but when he locates it, there are three books and Cronin has capitalised on that:

In case you don’t know, Evil Dead Rises, as far as we know, is the third reality in the Evil Dead universe or, at least, the third story within the world and Cronin has justified this by using… canon.

Speaking to Empire Magazine, Cronin explains that he knew in his head why they could tell another standalone story in the world of the Deadites:

The Evil Dead series as is, is pretty lose with continuity with Evil Dead II being a remake of Evil Dead and Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness being a straight-up comedy with two separate endings which are both kinda canon, so insisting there is a linear story is a bold move… but I admire Cronin for wanting to do it.

“In one of the early meetings I had with Sam Raimi, I said, ‘You know the way in “Army Of Darkness,” there’s three [Necronomicons]? You had one, Fede had one, I’m going to take the other one.’ It gave me that platform to nudge things forward, and also to showcase that we live in a world where there is more than one copy of the Necronomicon,” he says.

“Those books may all have slightly different personalities — it’s not exactly the same book, necessarily, that Ash had in the cabin. But it’s very, very firmly related. It could even be more dangerous…”

I’m a sucker for someone making a movie like this and then being able to justify it based on a little-known part of the lore!

But, as we pointed out above, the book is certainly not the same one – it has big, pointy teeth for a start! – so, what’s the deal? Sure, Cronin says (above) that it’s ‘very, very firmly related’ but what is the deal?

“It’s all completely hand-made, hand-drawn. It’s got a different visual style to what you’ve seen before internally,” Cronin says.

“I even brought in little hints of Celtic influences and different things to give it a hell of a lot of personality. It’s the bastard cousin of the other books, and they’re the bastard cousin of this.”

The more I hear, the more I want to see this movie! And I really wanted to see it from the start… now, how about not just teasing the stories being related and pulling them all together? And let’s not forget the wonderful Dana DeLorenzo’s Kelly and Ray Santiago’s Pablo from Ash Vs Evil Dead? Let’s get the whole gang together.

A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.

“Evil Dead Rise” is slated to open in cinemas on April 21st 2023.

Source: Slashfilm

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….