There has been a lot of discussion about certain movies having their content dumbed down to achieve a more family-friendly rating including some of the more recent entries in the Alien franchise and, reportedly, the upcoming MCU introduction of Blade. However, if there is one movie that everyone demands to receive an R-rating it is the Evil Dead franchise, so the news that latest movie Evil Dead Rise has secured the adult-orientated rating for “bloody violence and gore” ahead of its release on HBO Max later this year.

The Evil Dead has been a constant presence at the higher end of the ratings scale, with the original 1981 movie gaining and maintaining a NC-17 rating and all subsequent movies including the 2013 reboot gaining an R-rating for the excess use of blood, gore and violence. Considering Evil Dead Rise has the involvement of both Evil Dead alums Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell as producers and director Lee Cronin was picked by Raimi to work on the fifth movie in the franchise, there are not many certainties in the world, but this rating was one of them.

Evil Dead Rise, like its predecessor, will not involve Campbell in a starring role, but will also move away from the cabin in the woods location, bringing the Evil Dead to a cramped L.A. apartment block. The new movie will see sisters Ellie and Beth, played respectively by Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, who must face-off against the Deadites of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in a brand-new nightmare scenario that for the first time in the franchise also puts children in peril.

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Evil Dead Rise Abandons Everything Familiar To Tell an Original Story

EVIL-DEAD-RISE

Although Bruce Campbell had a short cameo in The Evil Dead 2013, the film featured a whole new cast but essentially remade the original 1981 movie for a second time – as Evil Dead II was also a new version of the same story. Campbell has ducked out of on-screen duties this time around, but Evil Dead Rise is also abandoning everything that has become synonymous with the franchise to deliver something brand new, but with the same black, Evil Dead heart at the center of it.

According to the blurb, in Evil Dead Rise "a road-weary Beth pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie, who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters' reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie's building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable."

Back in October, director Cronin shared the end of filming on the movie on his Twitter account, commenting, “8 months, 1 Covid Lockdown, 6,500 litres of blood, and more memories than my brain can even process. That is a wrap on #EvilDeadRise. Thank you New Zealand, it’s been a blast. Time to head home and cut this beast together.” In the following months, he has kept fans updated with the post-production progress, and with the rating for the movie now in place, it seems like everyone now just has to sit back and wait for a trailer to give a first glimpse at what the latest outing for the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis has to offer.