Written by: Sam Santiago
EVIL DEAD WRATH Is Taking Us Back to 1972... But Do We Really Need an Evil Dead Prequel?
Do we really need an Evil Dead prequel? Well, it looks like we're getting one whether we're ready or not.
The news has our minds racing down some dangerous roads already. Picture it: a CGI Ash Williams appears at the end of Evil Dead Wrath, Bruce Campbell records a quick voiceover from the comfort of his living room, cashes a check, and suddenly we're being funneled directly into the events of Sam Raimi's original The Evil Dead. Badda bing, badda boom.
Sure, that could happen. Lord, we hope it doesn't. Then again, this is Hollywood we're talking about.
While we're still trying to wrap our heads around director Sébastien Vaniček's upcoming Evil Dead Burn, which arrives in theaters on July 10, another entry in the legendary horror franchise is quietly taking shape behind the scenes. Evil Dead Wrath, directed by Francis Galluppi (The Last Stop in Yuma County), recently wrapped production and is currently slated to hit theaters on April 7, 2028.
Until now, very little had been revealed about the project. Thanks to a recent interview with franchise producer Rob Tapert, however, we finally know one major detail that nobody saw coming.
Evil Dead Wrath is set in 1972.
That places the film chronologically before Ash Williams ever stepped foot inside that cursed Tennessee cabin. Before the deadites. Before the chainsaw hand. Before the boomstick. We're going back in time to the disco era folks.
According to comments Tapert made during a discussion with students at Michigan State University, Wrath isn't just another sequel. It's a full-fledged prequel.
"Evil Dead Wrath is yet another great departure. It predates everything. It takes place in 1972."
That's a fascinating concept on paper. The Evil Dead franchise has spent decades expanding outward through sequels, remakes, television series, alternate timelines, and medieval adventures. Going backward into unexplored territory could offer something genuinely fresh.
Of course, prequels are tricky beasts and usually muddled up worse than a clogged toilet at LAX.
Part of what made Raimi's original film so effective was the mystery surrounding the Necronomicon, the cabin, and the ancient evil lurking in the woods. Horror often loses some of its power once every question gets answered. Sometimes the shadows are scarier than whatever is hiding inside them.
Still, Galluppi's involvement gives us reason to remain cautiously optimistic. Tapert described the film as being heavily influenced by 1970s filmmaking aesthetics, with the production intentionally recreating the look and feel of the era.
"It will feel like a 1972 movie because the director and his DP want to imitate the film's look and feel of something that's called Ektachrome 100, which was a film stock. Still available. A lot of movies shot on back then. And so it's very warm, very tungsten."
That's music to our horror-loving ears and sends shivers down our film loving spines.
Rather than relying on modern digital gloss, Wrath appears to be embracing the gritty cinematic DNA of the decade that gave us classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Black Christmas, and The Exorcist. If Galluppi can capture even a fraction of that atmosphere, we may have something special brewing. Many have tried in the past...with varying results.
Tapert also compared the film's storytelling approach to the work of Quentin Tarantino.
"Very Tarantino-esque, very deliberate."
That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who saw The Last Stop in Yuma County, Galluppi's tense, slow-burn thriller that also happened to be set during the 1970s.
The cast for Evil Dead Wrath includes:
- Charlotte Hope
- Jessica McNamee
- Zach Gilford
- Josh Helman
- Ella Newton
- Elizabeth Cullen
- Ella Oliphant
Producing duties once again fall to Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, while Bruce Campbell and Lee Cronin serve as executive producers alongside Romel Adam and Jose Canas.
For now, we'll remain cautiously optimistic with a tinge of doubt.
The idea of exploring a world before Ash is certainly intriguing. Whether that's a story that actually needed to be told is another conversation entirely. Horror history is littered with prequels that explained far too much and stripped away the mystery that made their franchises special in the first place.
Let's just hope Evil Dead Wrath remembers one important lesson.
Sometimes the dead are better left buried and digging up the past can have some dire and disturbing results.