Bruce Campbell, who has starred as Ash Williams in Sam Raimi‘s Evil Dead trilogy since the original in 1981, reveals that Evil Dead Rise, the fourth in the franchise, will begin shooting this year. The original Evil Dead was a low budget horror film, but quickly became a cult classic among horror fans everywhere. The film tells the story of a group of teens who were on their way to a small vacation in a remote cabin. The kids end up summoning an army of Deadites, who are ancient demons that can possess the living. 

Due to the popularity of the original, Raimi made two other films, Evil Dead 2 (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992). In 2015, a television series was released, called Ash vs. Evil Dead. The series ran for 3 seasons on STARZ. The Evil Dead films are often considered some of the greatest horror movies ever made. 

Rumors of  a fourth film have been floating around since the release of Army of Darkness. In 2013, a remake of the original film was released, although the character of Ash was not the film’s protagonist. Raimi stated that the intention was to crossover the characters from the 2013 film with Ash in a future sequel, yet the follow-up never ended up happening. However, during the summer of 2020, Campbell revealed that a new Evil Dead film was going to happen, although Ash wouldn’t be in it. 

When Campbell spoke to Knox News, he announced that Evil Dead Rise is set to begin filming later this year. Campbell will serve as producer, and he will be in New Zealand to shoot. While Campbell hasn’t given away too much details on the plot, he did mention that “it’s out of the woods”. 

Evil Dead Rise is set to be directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), who was hand-picked by Raimi. There is no official release date as of yet.