When the Deadites Rose Again, So Did the People Behind the Camera
Long before the first scream echoed through the dilapidated Los Angeles apartment block of Evil Dead Rise, there was a quieter, more human struggle unfolding backstage. A struggle of bodies pushed to limits, budgets stretched like overused prosthetics, and actors wrestling with roles that left real bruises—inside and out.
The film may be about demonic possession, but the true story is about human endurance.
A Family Torn Apart on Screen, and Actors Pushed to Their Edges Off It
At its core, Evil Dead Rise is not just a horror story—it’s a film about a fractured family fighting to stay alive when hell breaks loose. Beth, the wandering, emotionally burdened sister; Ellie, the single mother overwhelmed by life; and the three kids trapped between adolescence and apocalypse.
Director Lee Cronin insisted the emotional arcs be steep, personal, and painfully grounded. But for the actors, especially Alyssa Sutherland (Ellie) and Lily Sullivan (Beth), that required digging into their own vulnerabilities.
Sutherland, known for her commanding presence in Vikings, found herself in a role that demanded the opposite: complete loss of control. She spent hours in the makeup chair transforming into the monstrous, skeletal Deadite version of Ellie. The prosthetics weighed heavily, the contact lenses were painful, and the demonic grin—now iconic—left her face aching.
But what people didn’t know was that Sutherland was battling chronic neck issues through the shoot. Playing a physically contorted monster didn’t help. She often returned home with muscle spasms so severe she could barely sleep. Yet she delivered some of the most chilling body performances in modern horror.
Lily Sullivan had her own mountain to climb. Much of the film was shot during the peak of pandemic-era uncertainty. She left her family behind in Australia to isolate and prepare for the role, spending weeks alone in apartments, rehearsing with crash pads and imaginary Deadites.
Isolation seeped into her performance as Beth—a woman who has run away from her responsibilities and must return home to face her demons, both literal and emotional.
It was art mirroring life in ways that felt unnervingly precise.
The Story That Once Happened in a Cabin Now Had to Survive a High-Rise
Moving the Evil Dead franchise from a forest cabin to a crumbling high-rise was bold, but bold ideas don’t always come with bold budgets.
Cronin’s team had to convert a warehouse in New Zealand into a multi-level, hauntingly believable urban hellscape. The goal was to create a space that felt claustrophobic and lived-in—without the luxury of Hollywood padding.
Sets were built, torn down, rebuilt, and repurposed. The hallway, which plays a major role in the film, went through three design iterations because the early versions didn’t allow enough space for the stunt work and “blood events.”
Ah yes, the blood.
More than 6,500 liters of fake blood were used during production, a logistical nightmare that required engineers, plumbers, and makeup artists to collaborate like they were planning a monsoon simulation.
During the infamous “blood elevator” sequence, the team battled clogged pipes, slippery floors, and machinery malfunctions. Sutherland, submerged in thick red goo, had to hold her breath far longer than expected because a pipe jammed mid-shot. The crew panicked, but she emerged, coughing and laughing, joking that she “swallowed the Evil Dead budget for the day.”
These are the parts of filmmaking the audience never sees: the chaos behind the chaos.
When the Kids on Set Had More Guts Than the Adults
The three child actors—Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, and Nell Fisher—carried emotional weight far beyond their years. Horror involving children is always tricky, both ethically and emotionally. The team established a “fear bubble”—a concept where kids learned the difference between set fear and real fear.
Davies, who played Danny, had scenes involving intense guilt, emotional breakdowns, and eventual possession. What the public didn’t know was that Davies was going through a period of personal transformation off-screen, part of his own gender journey. The heaviness of Danny’s arc hit close to home at times, and the crew created safe spaces for him between takes.
Fisher, the youngest, was shielded from the gorier elements. She would often film scenes with actors in partial makeup, then see the full Deadite versions only through jokes and rehearsals. Horror became play for her—an innocence that helped balance the darkness around them.
As Cronin said later, “The adults broke first. The kids never did.”
The Emotional Toll of Bringing a Mother’s Nightmare to Life
One of the most disturbing themes in Evil Dead Rise is motherhood turned monstrous. Ellie, once a nurturing parent, becomes a demonic force hunting her own children. Sutherland struggled emotionally with scenes where she had to terrorize actors playing her kids, especially the kitchen scene where she screams for them to “come home to mommy.”
She admitted later that she would hug the kids between takes, often tearing up because the idea of harming children—even fictionally—went against her instincts.
Sullivan faced the opposite emotional journey. Beth becomes the protector, the reluctant maternal figure. Yet filming her climactic scenes—holding crying children while covered in blood, exhaustion, and bruises—left her mentally drained. She confessed that some nights she cried herself to sleep after particularly intense days of filming.
But those tears made it on screen—in trembling hands, shaky breaths, and unfiltered panic that felt painfully real.
The Crew That Carried the Weight of a Franchise
Taking over a franchise made iconic by Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and a cabin in the woods came with pressure that could snap anyone’s confidence. Cronin’s script went through multiple revisions because he feared the fans wouldn’t accept a new setting or a new family.
He once told the crew:
“We’re not just making a horror film. We’re proving that Evil Dead can live beyond nostalgia.”
And with limited time, pandemic restrictions, and a production constantly walking the tightrope between homage and reinvention, the crew sometimes doubted themselves.
But every time the camera rolled, the performers delivered so fiercely that the crew found motivation again.
Where Fiction, Fear, and Human Grit Intertwined
By the time Evil Dead Rise wrapped, the cast and crew were physically battered, emotionally spent, and mentally transformed. What began as a horror film became a test of endurance—one that mirrored the story they were telling.
A family fighting off darkness.
A team fighting through exhaustion.
Characters battling possession.
Actors battling pressure, pain, and fear.
Reel and real blurred in ways that only the great horror films allow.
The Deadites may have risen on screen—but behind the scenes, it was the humans who truly fought the hardest.
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