Evil Dead Rise’s Deadites Hide Clever Callbacks To Sam Raimi & Fede Alvarez’s Dead Movie Characters

Evil Dead Rise brought the Evil Dead franchise back to life, and though it’s a standalone sequel, it has some clever references to characters from Sam Raimi and Fede Alvarez’s movies. In a time when the horror genre is packed with reboots and legacy sequels, Evil Dead Rise stood out thanks to its new approach to a very well-known franchise. Written and directed by Lee Ronin, Evil Dead Rise is the fifth installment in the Evil Dead movie series but a standalone entry, meaning it doesn’t follow the continuity of the previous movies.

Evil Dead Rise follows Beth (Lily Sullivan), who goes to her estranged sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), for help. Before she can tell her what’s going on, an earthquake hits the city, uncovering a secret chamber underneath the building’s parking lot. Ellie’s son, Danny, retrieves phonograph records and a mysterious book, through which he unknowingly unleashes an evil force that first possesses his mom. Ellie turns into a Deadite, and that’s the beginning of a night of pure horror for Beth and Ellie’s kids. Despite not being connected to the previous movies, Evil Dead Rise has some cool but subtle references to them.

Evil Dead Rise’s Deadites Have Different Eye Colors That Represent Each Era Of The Evil Dead Franchise

Each Of The Main Deadites Have A Reference To Past Movies

When the evil force in the world of Evil Dead takes over a target, it possesses their mind and body, killing them and using them as a host. Once this force possesses a human body, it goes through physical changes, with their skin color turning either grey, white, green, or yellow, and their eyes changing to unnatural colors. In some cases, a black liquid comes out of their mouths and their fingernails become sharp. When Ellie is possessed, her eyes turn white with hints of red, a new Deadite eye color in the franchise.

However, when Ellie passes the spirit onto her teenage children, Bridget and Danny, their eyes take different colors that represent past eras in the Evil Dead franchise. Bridget’s eyes turn gold and brown, like the eyes of the Deadites in Fede Alvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead. Bridget passes it on to Danny, and when he transforms into a Deadite, his eyes turn completely white. The Deadites in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy had white eyes, which made them a lot more unsettling.

Evil Dead Rise’s Deadite Eye Colors Confirm A New Detail About The Necronomicon Differences

Each Era Of The Evil Dead Franchise Had A New Necronomicon

The trigger of the chaos in every version of Evil Dead is the Necronomicon. This is an ancient tome of prophecies, funerary incantations, and demon resurrection passages compiled by beings known as The Dark Ones. Reciting any passage from this cursed book unleashes the evil force, but every version of the Evil Dead has had its own Necronomicon. Alvarez’s Evil Dead had the Naturom Demonto, bound in human flesh and stitched together from different pieces of skin.

The book in Evil Dead Rise shares the name of Naturom Demonto, but it’s different as it has veins rather than stitches, teeth clamping it shut, and was inked in human blood. Despite being different books, the Deadites in each version of Evil Dead share some basic physical similarities, such as the different skin color and change of eye color, but the different eye colors in Evil Dead Rise show that the physical appearance of Deadites isn’t dependent on the book that unleashes the evil force.

The success of Evil Dead Rise has made way for a new movie in the franchise, though not a sequel to Cronin’s movie, instead being described as a new spinoff. It’s to be seen if the next Evil Dead movie will change the Deadite’s eye color again or bring them all together like Evil Dead Rise did, further proving that there is a connection between the different books.