Evil Dead Rise’s director took his big theme from Steven Spielberg

The first Evil Dead movie in 10 years. Evil Dead Rise has no problem reinventing Sam Raimi’s iconically gonzo horror franchise. Lee Cronin’s new standalone take on the storied franchise is a smart, snappy blend of the original films’ over-the-top mayhem and the 2013 remake’s relentless horror, but it’s also a personal film for the Irish horror auteur.

Before Evil Dead Rise’s premiere, Cronin spoke to Polygon about the inspirations for his radically different yet extremely faithful take on Raimi’s Evil Dead films, and his own very wholesome relationship with his family — which inspired him to create some truly messed-up fictional families.

Polygon: You’re only the third person to make an official Evil Dead movie. What’s Evil Dead to you?

Lee CroninEvil Dead has been a part of me since I was a child and began to appreciate horror films. Evil Dead also has a pure and unfiltered energy, both in the horror, the gore, as well as the filmmaking. It’s something that carries this really exciting, independent streak that always motivated me when I was younger. Like, Yes, you can too!. So it’s also been a little bit of a guidebook to me in terms of how to go about making a movie, and how to be motivated to keep on pushing and make something happen.

Parallels are many between Evil Dead Rise Your debut is a great way to start off. Hole in the Ground. You’ve talked in the past about how you’re attracted to telling stories about family — why do you think that is, and what makes Evil Dead Good for what?

I think it’s the ultimate universal theme. Recently, [I thought] about the things I’m working on, and all of them lean back to a version of family, like clinging onto that thing. It was terrifying. Can I share a story other than about my family?!

Image: A24

In a sense, all stories are about family. Even if it’s a war story, and it’s about a band of brothers grouped together. It’s that camaraderie, there’s a sense of family there. And so you watch a mafia movie, it’s about family, whatever it might be. So I think what specifically I’m drawn to is, it’s in my head, it’s what I call the family wound, and everybody has one. There’s no perfect family, there’s no perfect format for family.

So it’s a really, really interesting place as a horror filmmaker, and as a storyteller that likes tension, dread, and atmosphere to actually poke your fingers into that space and take a look around.

This appeals to your storytelling skills, and not only as a horror film maker?

I’m kind of a child of Amblin and that world, and I’m a big, big Spielberg fan. When you look into those movies, it’s often families in parallel, and families at crossroads. Look at E.T.Chief Brody [in Jaws]Who goes out on the water in order to protect their family? So I think it’s the things that influenced me. And then my experiences with family growing up, and the observation of the highs, lows, ups, downs, the breaks, the victories — all of that stuff is just a really, really fertile place.

You’ve also focused on motherhood in both these films — what makes that dynamic potent to you?

I’m extremely close to my mother, and to my sister, who’s the next in age. My sister’s a mother with three kids. It’s a little unit I created based on her family. Evil Dead Rise. Every other adult in my immediate family was already an adult when I turned 10 years old. My sister, for example, was 18 years old. Then my brother was older and then I also had my parents. So, it wasn’t until very late that I found my voice.

But also, being at a young age and then seeing the power and strength of the female maternal figures in my family who I was really, really close to — it’s just a theme I’ve been really interested in, because it’s a beautiful thing. It also has very specific challenges for mothers. It just strikes me as a place that’s interesting to analyze and tell stories about, in a really universal thematic way.

The solution is simple. Evil Dead Rise, where a lot of the fear comes from moments where characters don’t recognize a family member, or characters voicing extremely negative thoughts about their loved ones.

Yeah, it’s pretty dark. I’m really close to my extended family, and love spending time with them. We’re good friends. This gives me confidence to mess around with family structure and place it in an extremely, very dark place.

I think there is something very powerful about losing identity with someone that’s very, very close to you, and struggling to hold onto that identity. It’s why in Evil Dead Rise, there’s that scene in the middle of the movie where little Cassie is talking to her mom through the peephole. Although it’s got some humor, and it’s played in that way, it’s also kind of dreadful, because she’s a 9-year-old kid that’s completely conflicted and confused by what she’s experiencing in that moment.

Warner Bros.

I think one of the most terrifying things in the world is the first moment you see someone in your life in a different light you’ve never seen before. So let’s say you’re in a new relationship, you’ve been dating for a year, all is brilliant, you have your first argument, and you hear that person’s voice pitch in a way you’ve never heard of before. Or you see a look in their eyes you’ve never seen, and you go Oh my god, I don’t recognize this person. It is quite frightening to me.

You incorporate children into your horror a lot. Do you believe that children have a natural fear of them?

What about those little Bastards that are so frightening? Yeah. [Laughs]

Look, it’s a twofold thing for me. It’s the films I watched when I was younger — quite often family and children are in peril. It was like I looked at everything. E.T.The TV film was on. It is a good idea to use a different language.For example, I viewed The Goonies — those type of movies were the sort of things I watched a lot. And then in turn, I’m not a parent, but I’ve got three siblings. Between them all, I’ve got nine nieces and nephews. This means I also have to interact with young people.

They’re very interesting eyes into terrifying worlds, whether they be the object of terror or the person that is terrified — it’s a recurring theme, I guess, or a recurring type of character. It’s just a matter of observation and influence.

Evil Dead RiseThe movie is currently playing in theatres.