Director of upcoming Evil Dead spin-off teases the horror movie - "crazy, lots of Deadites, a big statement"

Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie in Evil Dead Rise — (Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Director of the upcoming Evil Dead spin-off movie Sébastien Vaniček has confirmed that he is in the early stages of scripting the story, teasing that the horror flick will make "a big statement," whilst also taking into account the legacy left by the franchise’s past directors, including Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi.

"I need to have strong characters. I need to have a big statement. I need to have an intelligent movie or smart movie. And after, as soon as I have this, I will be able to do something crazy and with a lot of Deadites and things like that, and to have a strong movie," said Vaniček in an interview with ComicBook. "But I need to have a really strong basis and I think that the strong basis is in Sam Raimi's work, so I'm trying to take the best of every part of even that."

The franchise has so far spanned over five films and one TV show starting with Raimi’s 1981 The Evil Dead. In 2013 we saw Fede Álvarez’s remake of the original Evil Dead, then 10 years later Lee Cronin’s spin-off Evil Dead Rise graced our screens starring Vikings’s Alyssa Sutherland as the new Deadite host. Now it is Vaniček’s turn to bat.

Earlier in the interview, Vaniček went into detail about how past Evil Dead directors inspire the new movie, "I love what Sam Raimi did…he did a lot of crazy shots and he wanted to shock the audience, and that's something I really identify with." The horror helmer continued, "I also like the vision of Fede Álvarez, for example, in 2013 when he thought, 'Okay, let's do an Evil Dead movie, but let's do it a more realistic way,'" said the director. “And I'm thinking about doing something that would give justice to both of these visions.'"

The upcoming spin-off was announced earlier this year under Raimi and Robert Tapert's Ghost House Pictures banner. No official plotline or cast list has been revealed at this time, but if Vaniček does indeed take the best aspects of the previous movies, we cannot wait to see what he has in store.

Vaniček's Evil Dead spin-off does not yet have a release date. Evil Dead and Evil Dead Rise are available to watch on Netflix now. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies, or keep up to date with upcoming horror movies heading your way this year.

I'm the Junior Social Media Editor here at GamesRadar+, handling all of Total Film's social platforms. However, I also write, covering all things film and TV for the site's entertainment section. I joined GamesRadar+ in 2023 and have been here ever since. I previously worked in communications after graduating with an MA in journalism. In my spare time, you can find me binging horror movies or getting lost in a cosy little game on my Switch.