Evil Dead Rise star Alyssa Sutherland had one of the most unexpected inspirations when it came to her Deadite possession in the latest gore-fest from the Evil Dead franchise. Although the 40 year old horror saga has had one foot in a sticky puddle of black comedy since Evil Dead II, the new movie isn’t playing things for laughs and is an unrelenting ride of terror from the start to finish. However, when it came to preparing herself for her central role as Ellie, Sutherland recently told Cherry Picks that she had a surprising Jim Carrey comedy performance that influenced how she played the part.
“I did a lot of prep and worked hard on creating a deadite movement for Ellie, both on my own in my hotel room and with the stunt team. I also watched a lot of films as reference points. Something kept telling me to watch The Mask, and I took inspiration from that of all places! I liked the joy of Jim Carrey’s character and wanted to incorporate that into Ellie as well as a rageful side.”
In many ways, it makes sense for Carrey’s maniacal performance as Stanley Ipkiss in the 1993 comedy to have wound its way into the fabric of the Evil Dead franchise. The story of possession at the center of both movies has a certain parallel, and it would not take much to turn The Mask into a horror in its own right, as was seen in the original Dark Horse comic books, and that fine line is something that Sutherland clearly pulled out for her role as Ellie.
Evil Dead Rise is One of the Best in the Franchise.
Despite reservations over Evil Dead Rise making a number of changes to the time-old tradition of the cabin in the woods setting and Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams having some kind of appearance, it seems that relocating the Evil Deadfranchise to a high rise apartment block has paid off by the bucketload (of blood, naturally). The film has landed one of the highest critic ratings of the entire franchise, and audiences are loving the horrifying and brutal gore-fest, which is set to gross an expected $30 million this weekend.
There has been a long wait for Evil Dead fans between each movie in the series, but that could all be about to change. Bruce Campbell, who doesn’t appear in Evil Dead Rise but is still part of the production team, has teased that new Evil Dead projects could be coming every couple of years in future. He said:
"The only problem with that is that it can get out of hand and if we jump into that world too quickly, it's hard to get it back. I think the stories will progress a little more now. We're going to try and do them more like every two or three years rather than every 10 years. It's also the first time Sam is working with his brother Ivan to create an overall Bible that will give future writers and directors an idea of where this thing should go next to potentially tie in some of these stories. So I think it's going to get a little more tied in as the years go by. But because it's all about the books. It could be a book in the past, a book in the future. It's yet to be determined."
Evil Dead Rise is out now in theaters worldwide.