The Evil Dead franchise is doing what it does best—refusing to stay buried. Evil Dead Wrath has officially entered production, according to Bloody Disgusting, continuing the franchise's unlikely resurrection after 2023's Evil Dead Rise proved there's still plenty of life in these deadites.
Rise was a pleasant surprise—a franchise entry that relocated the cabin-in-the-woods formula to a crumbling Los Angeles apartment building and actually made it work. It grossed over $140 million worldwide on a modest budget, which in horror economics means immediate sequel greenlight.
What makes Evil Dead so durable is its fundamental simplicity. You need: an ancient evil, some unlucky humans, and enough corn syrup to supply a small town's Fourth of July celebration. The franchise has survived recasts, reboots, and decades of dormancy because that formula is infinitely repeatable.
While the rest of horror has spent the last decade trying to be elevated—a term I loathe with the intensity of a thousand burning suns—Evil Dead has remained cheerfully unpretentious. It's not interested in being a metaphor for grief or a commentary on capitalism. It wants to spray blood on the camera and make you laugh while you squirm.
There's something almost quaint about that level of genre purity. In an era where every horror film comes with a think-piece ready analysis of What It All Means, Evil Dead just wants to show you practical effects work and creative dismemberment.
The franchise has also been smart about spacing out entries and trying different approaches. Sam Raimi's original trilogy established the template, Fede Álvarez's 2013 reboot went hard-R serious, the Ash vs Evil Dead series brought back Bruce Campbell for streaming glory, and Rise proved you could tell new stories in the universe.
Wrath arrives at a time when theatrical horror is one of the few reliable box office categories left. While superhero films stumble and action franchises age out, horror keeps delivering profits. The genre's low budgets and passionate fanbases make it recession-proof.
