AUSTIN, TEXAS – MARCH 15: (L-R) Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi speak at the Q+A for the “Evil Dead Rise” premiere during 2023 SXSW Conference and Festivals at The Paramount Theater on March 15, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for SXSW)
Getty Images for SXSW
As legendary as the Evil Dead film series has become in the past 45 years, the horror geniuses behind the horror franchise — Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell — are well aware that there are plenty of qualified name candidates in Hollywood to direct new terrifying tales of the Necronomicon, aka the Book of the Dead.
Instead, producers Raimi and Tapert, along with Campbell — who has stepped back into an executive producer capacity for the franchise — have been taking a novel approach to the rebirth of the film series 13 years ago by hiring up-and-coming directors to reimagine the film series as it moves forward. As such, the trio hired Fede Alvarez to direct 2013’s Evil Dead, Lee Cronin to helm Evil Dead Rise in 2023 and Sébastien Vaniček to direct Evil Dead Burn, which blazes its way into theaters this weekend.
“We like to get a young voice and a new take for the franchise [with each Evil Dead film], and I think that has allowed Sam and me to keep the films fresh and original,” Tapert, along with Raimi, said in a recent Zoom conversation. “Because each guy feels like they need to top what the previous director has done, so there’s a friendly rivalry between them.”
Part of the reason each of the new directors has been successful in their respective visions for Evil Dead, Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn, Tapert explained, is because the stakes are incredibly high to deliver a film that will satisfy the fans of the original films in the franchise, as well as the new installments.
Erroll Shand on the set of “Evil Dead Burn.”
Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema
“For the new people coming in, the biggest challenge of making an Evil Dead movie is to not make a bad one,” Tapert observed. “So, they carry a lot of responsibility, and it makes them think and work all the harder. That’s why we get a fresh young voice [for each film]. We are getting people who really need this to work for their careers.”
Playing in Thursday preview screenings before opening in theaters everywhere on Friday, Evil Dead Burn stars Souheila Yacoub (Dune: Part Two) as Alice, who is grieving the tragic death of her husband, Will (George Pullar), despite their tumultuous relationship. After Will’s funeral, Alice retreats to her in-laws’ remote, dilapidated house, where, through the Necronomicon, a demonic spirit is unleashed and begins to turn the family members into Deadites.
Rated R, Evil Dead Burn also stars Hunter Doohan (Wednesday), Luciane Buchanan (Chief of War), Tandi Wright, Erroll Shand (Chief of War) and Maude Devey.
The Rebirth Of The ‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Began In 2010
Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert’s approach of employing fresh voices to continue their vision of the Evil Dead franchise makes complete sense, considering that the young director and producer were in their late teens and early 20s, respectively, when they made the proof-of-concept horror movie short, Within the Woods, starring Bruce Campbell, in 1978.
The short, of course, was fully realized as The Evil Dead in 1981, which was followed by Evil Dead II in 1987 and Army of Darkness in 1992. In the wake of the original trilogy, Raimi and Campbell became horror movie luminaries and Campbell’s chainsaw-wielding and boomstick slinging Ash Williams transformed into an antihero icon.
Ten years later, Raimi and Tapert formed their production company Ghost House Pictures, where the duo produced such hits as The Grudge and its sequel in 2004 and 2006, respectively, as well as 2007’s 30 Days of Night. Ghost House also released Drag Me to Hell in 2009, which was directed by Raimi. By decade’s end, however, the idea of continuing the Evil Dead franchise after Army of Darkness was in limbo until the idea of reimaging the original Evil Dead movie came about.
“We always hope to be another one, but we didn’t really have an idea to follow it up,” Raimi, who recently directed the horror hit Send Help, recalled. “Around 2010, Rob started saying, ‘Hey, we got a horror movie company, Ghost House Pictures, let’s get going a remake of the Evil Dead story, and I thought, ‘Yeah, if we can find the right director.’ So, he looked and looked and finally found Fede Alvarez, and I think that set the template.
Maude Davey, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, and Souheila Yacoub in “Evil Dead Burn.”
Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema
“After that, Rob and I just tried to find the best creative director,” Raimi added. “Somebody that doesn’t have a tremendous amount of experience but they’re still auteurs and are very creative but not set in their ways because the Evil Dead movies really want to deliver the next thing for the horror crowd.”
One of the biggest expectations that Raimi and Tapert have for every new director in the franchise is that they don’t repeat the creative approach of the original Evil Dead films, yet at the same time maintain the essence of the franchise while making the newest chapter their own.
“Their creativity, positive attitude and desire to thrill the audience were really important in hiring them, mixed with elements of the Evil Dead — the demons, the Book of the Dead and the specific props and lore that goes with it,” Raimi said.
Erroll Shand and Sébastien Vaniček on the set of “Evil Dead Burn.”
Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema
Sam Raimi Knew Sébastien Vaniček While Screening The Director’s Horror Thriller ‘Infested’
The original Evil Dead movie trilogy, of course, turned the horror film genre on its head by starting as a straight-up horror story in the original that evolved into horror comedies for the second and third films, as well as the vastly under-appreciated spinoff series Ash vs. Evil Dead from 2015-2018.
The new chapters in the Evil Dead movie series, beginning with the 2013 reimagining, got back into touch with the franchise’s horror film roots, however, and as such, have gripped audiences with liberal uses of blood, guts, gore and unnerving terror, which Sébastien Vaniček ramps up to a whole new level of intensity in Evil Dead Burn.
Raimi said he was convinced Vaniček was the right director for Evil Dead Burn after Tapert and Ghost House Pictures executive producers Romel Adam and Jose Cañas had him screen the French filmmaker’s 2023 horror thriller Infested.
“The film was great. It was very well made, very precise, intelligent and showed that he had aspirations to do things a little differently,” Raimi recalled. “The scares were working and though I didn’t see it with a crowd, I could tell it was a real crowd pleaser. He was the positive, fun, spooky and audience-thrilling-type of storyteller we were looking for.”
Naturally, Raimi and Tapert interviewed Vaniček after the Infested screening, but by that time, they already had their minds made up.
“It wasn’t the interview; it was his movie that did all the talking,” Raimi noted.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 30: (L-R) Sam Raimi, Souheila Yacoub, Sébastien Vaniček, Luciane Buchanan, and Hunter Doohan attends “Evil Dead Burn” Fan Event at The Saban Theatre on June 30, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Jon/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures )
Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures
Part of the “doing thing a little differently,” Tapert added, was how Vaniček subverted what are sure to be expectations by audiences when it comes to past Evil Dead films and taking slight detours that still pay homage to originals in a different sort of way. Tapert admitted that such moves, while ultimately satisfying, also come with a bit of trepidation.
“It’s a challenge for us when directors — in this case, Sébastien — come in and subvert expectations, but we have a canon within our universe that Sam and I at times have to let go of and say, ‘Okay, you can break that rule because it’s not really written in stone,” Tapert said, while Raimi added with a laugh, “It’s hard for us.”
And because of that canon, Tapert and Raimi are there to ensure that any subversions don’t go too far astray.
“It’s important to do so because much of the audience has seen other Evil Dead movies, and to deliver them something that they’re not expecting or in a totally different way is what these roller coaster rides and these journeys are all about,” Tapert said.
AUSTIN, TEXAS – MARCH 15: (L-R) Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell attend the “Featured Session: Evil Dead Rise: Flesh-Possessing Demons Come Home” during the 2023 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 15, 2023 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Amy E. Price/Getty Images for SXSW)
Getty Images for SXSW
Another reason it was important for Vaniček to keep the Evil Dead canon in mind is that Evil Dead Burn is part of a much larger narrative, Tapert said. (Note to audiences: Stay all the way through the end credits of Evil Dead Burn to get the fully fleshed-out picture.)
“We said to Sébastien, ‘You have to connect back to Evil Dead Rise somehow a little bit and push forward the lore of the book, what is the goal of the people with the book — the professors and all that — so he had to carry the ball and move those things down the field a little bit and that was a challenge with that movie for him,” Tapert explained.
“Left to all the directors’ devices, they don’t want to carry the water for what came before or what’s coming afterwards,” Tapert added. “But the one thing that Sam and I feel is that [the Evil Dead movies] can’t just be a whole series of standalones because the audience wants to start connecting the dots. Funnily enough, it’s a jigsaw puzzle in process.”
Evil Dead Burn plays in preview screenings on Thursday before opening in theaters nationwide on Friday.