To no surprise, Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin wanted an insane amount of blood for his stamp in the iconic horror franchise. Talking with Variety, he opened up about the amount of blood while giving it real thought on how they could achieve such visceral violence.
The Evil Dead Rise director confirmed the film used 1,717 gallons (6,500 liters) of blood. To accomplish this, the crew needed an industrial-sized kitchen to store and cook up the sticky red liquid. Just from seeing the trailers, the characters are constantly covered in the stuff, so it needed to be ready for the film’s shoot that lasted from June 2021 to October.
“We had to hire out this industrial kitchen to cook the blood and keep it fresh, be able to heat it up, because characters were covered in it. There was a lot of management of liquid in this movie. I wanted blood to be a character, so it was important we got the viscosity and look just right.”
Evil Dead Rise director cooked up loads of blood
1,717 gallons of blood is a lot for a movie but not the most in history or for the franchise. According to Bloody Disgusting, the 2013 installment used over 50,000 gallons of blood. It was not confirmed how much total was used, but director Fede Álvarez said the mentioned amount was for one scene. That scene ended up being the climax, in which we get a brutal chainsaw death while it is raining blood. Add the other gory, bloody deaths; the film was well over 50,000 gallons.
Having a new director step in for Evil Dead Rise, who was not the helmer of the 2013 film or creator Sam Raimi, created some skepticism among longtime fans. When it released its red band trailer, we got a look at how violent it will be. In the footage from its various trailers, we have seen scalps ripped off, blood-filled elevators, and a painful-looking cheese grater to the leg attack.
The upcoming entry will be a new direction for the franchise. It will be set in an apartment complex in Los Angeles. It follows a family reunion gone wrong after an earthquake unearths the Book of the Dead, the Necronomicon. It will star Lily Sullivan (I Met a Girl), Alyssa Sutherland (The Devil Wears Prada), Gabrielle Echols (Reminiscence), Nell Fisher (My Life Is Murder), Morgan Davies (Terra Nova), Jayden Daniels (Head High), Mirabi Pease (Head High), Anna-Maree Thomas (The Sounds), and Richard Crouchley (Black Hands).
Evil Dead Rise hits theaters on April 21.