Evil Dead Riseresurrected the horror franchise for the first time in a decade last year, delivering a brand-new chapter in the story of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis and the world of Deadites it is capable of unlocking. However, this movie proved that the franchise can deliver a truly horrifying tale without either a dilapidated cabin in the woods or Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams in tow.
Evil Dead Rise
Lily Sullivanplays Beth in the movie and, along with her on-screen niece, manages to survive this latest Deadite onslaught but not before witnessing the death of her sister, nephew and other niece. Witha newEvil Deadspin-off reportedly being in the works, MovieWeb caught up with Sullivan as she promoted her new movie,Monolith, and asked whether we will see her wielding a chainsaw again in the future. She said:
“There’s been lots of conversations happening. Jumping into the Evil Dead universe was obviously so much fun. And going from Evil Dead, full physical and absolutely pushing the boundaries in the physical sense, and then going full introspective and contained [with Monolith] and still creating the same level of chaos, I felt like Monolith was almost more exhausting, in a way. Horror and doing genre-based films, it’s just so addictive because it’s so much fun to exercise and entertain and push boundaries that you just don’t get to do in real life. I’m just so about it and so about telling spooky stories.”
Evil Dead Riseis available to stream on Max.
Lily Sullivan’s new movie has been waiting some time for its worldwide release. Having premiered in its native Australia back in October 2022 at the Adelaide Film Festival and internationally at SXSW in March 2023,Monolithis a sci-fi horror one-hander that sees Sullivan playing “The Interviewer,” the only actor to appear on-screen during the movie. While the majority of the movie is a brooding, tension building tale that does not require a lot of physical exertion, director Matt Vesely believes that Sullivan’s work onEvil Dead Risedefinitely helped her performance in Monolith.
Exclusive: Lily Sullivan and Monolith Director on Their ‘Bizarre and Psychedelic’ Experiences
Sullivan and filmmaker Matt Vesely spoke to MovieWeb about their intimate new movie, which centers on just one character at one location.
As part of the same interview, Vesely responded to the actress, saying:
“You brought a lot of that physical work to Monolith, which was something that surprised me. We’re so grateful that you’d just done Evil Dead. Because of that, Lily would do things like do pushups before a take, even though she’s just going to be on the phone for the take, just to get the adrenaline flowing in her body. And there’s obviously some physical work towards the end of [Monolith] that Lily was so prepared for… Being confident to do that, especially when you’re working quite quickly, it’s so valuable. So, thanks to [director] Lee Cronin and everyone at Evil Dead for giving Lily that crash class because we really benefited from it.”
Monolithreleased in US cinemas on February 16, and will be released on Blu-Ray on July 19, 2025.
