EW ZEALAND-BASED PRODUCTION DESIGNER NICK BASSETT had a head start when he was hired to work on Evil Dead Rise: a veteran of TV show Ash Vs Evil Dead, he was well-versed in Sam Raimi’s universe. With the film centred on the apartment of Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), a mother who becomes possessed and menaces her children, two elements came to the fore in his initial discussions with director Lee Cronin: claustrophobia and family.
“His desire to create a level of isolation and claustrophobia was always a part of the design brief,” Bassett tells SFX. “What was really at the heart of it is that this is different because whereas most Evil Dead films would go to the cabin, and it would be this doomed place, this was going to come into the household.
“The great thing about doing a franchise is there’s points of reference all along the way,” he adds, “And you can go ‘Where are we going to sit on that barometer?’ We sat somewhere between the 2013 film and Evil Dead II. Tonally, Lee had a pretty strong vision of where he was going, and we were all just along on that journey.”
THE NECRONOMICON
In terms of the book, I was very
