Characters / Evil Dead Rise

Character page for Evil Dead Rise.

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Beth

Bethany Bixler

Played By: Lily Sullivan

• Action Survivor: Much like every Evil Dead protagonist at the start of their journey, Beth is not the most capable fighter, but she grows to become more resourceful as she faces the deadites, and by the end of the film she becomes a full blown Action Girl.
• Alliterative Name: Beth Bixler.
• Berserk Button: She's noticeably hostile to being called a 'groupie', a button which the Deadites mercilessly slam more than once. At least part of her negative reaction over this seems to be because she's pregnant, most likely with the child of one of the bandmates she hangs out with.
• Chainsaw Good: She uses a chainsaw to defeat a monstrosity made out of her sister and her children, cutting Ellie's head off.
• Cool Aunt: Fits this trope perfectly. She brings gifts for the family and the kids especially enjoy her free-spirited humor and stories from her travels. But she also seems somewhat envious of her sister's more stable family life.
• Distaff Counterpart: To David from the 2013 remake, and furthermore to Ash from the original, being the sibling whose sister is possessed, and feels a sense of guilt for running off and pursuing her own happiness while said sister dealt with bad times at home.
• Innocently Insensitive: Twice Beth brings up Ellie's ex-husband, not realizing that he's now her ex and is basically absent from the kids' lives.
• Mama Bear: She risks her life numerous times to protect her nieces and nephew from the evil unleashed by Naturom Demonto.
• Noodle Incident: Beth's family history is not as detailed as David's, but it would seem her and Ellie's mother is a bit of a sore subject. Ellie says she looks like their mother when taking note of how she looks like she hasn't slept, and one of the last things the Evil says to her is that she resembles their mother, and that Beth will fail just as she did.
• Pregnant Badass: Beth spends an entire film in early stages of pregnancy, still finding enough strength to fight off evil.

Ellie

Ellie

Played By: Alyssa Sutherland

• Brown Note: Once she dies and reanimates under full possession, the first thing she does is cling to the ceiling and let out a shriek that causes pain to those who hear it, shatters all of the nearby glass, and boils the water in the bathtub.
• Dirty Coward: The Evil possessing her is abundantly malevolent and monstrous and delights in the terror it causes, but it's very quick to turn Ellie's voice on and plead for mercy from Beth in the instances where she has the upper hand.
• Disappeared Dad: Ellie's husband Jay walked out on her two months prior to the film for unknown reasons, and Ellie was hit hard by it, as were her kids.
• Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: She hits Beth in the nose when she jump scares her as a joke.
• Evil Redhead: Once she gets possessed, her red hair starts contrasting with her deathly pale skin, making her look even more demonic.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Her voice frequently dips into a demonic baritone.
• Eye Scream: Attempted on Bridget with a tattoo gun, and done to Gabriel moments later with her teeth.
• Glamour Failure: Fails to put up the right appearances when trying to trick Kassie.
• The Heavy: She is the main threat the protagonists face in the movie, while the actual Big Bad is the Naturom Demonto.
• Heroic Resolve: Unlike Cheryl and Mia, Ellie actually dies before reanimating fully possessed. Given the way she stumbles over words and moves as though being dragged when attacking her family at first, it seems this happened because the Evil had trouble possessing her and forcing her to attack.
• Mama Bear: The real Ellie's last words before she dies are "Don't let it take my babies."
• Nightmare Face: The film makes great use of Alyssa Sutherland's elastic face to give Ellie some absolutely terrifying expressions.
• Offing the Offspring: Her main goal after getting possessed is to murder/possess her children. She gets two out of three.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Though thankfully not onscreen this time, implications are that Ellie went through what Cheryl and Mia from the prior films did at the hands of the Evil, but with elevator wires instead of tree branches.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her irises actually turn a very pale white, which looks blue in the corridor lighting. However, her sclera turn red and bloodshot, giving her this effect.
• Slasher Smile: Frequently wears one once she gets possessed, to terrifying effect.
• Tempting Fate: Ellie scolds her children in motherly concern after they come back to the apartment and she realizes they took the elevator after an earthquake, something incredibly risky. Shortly after, when taking laundry to the bottom floor, she pauses near the stairs and opts to take the elevator, with the camera pointedly focusing on the word 'Exit' plastered over the door, indicating that Ellie might've ducked her imminent Demonic Possession had she maintained caution.
• White and Red and Eerie All Over: Her look as a Deadite, with a deathly pale face and vividly red hair, making her look not unlike a demonic clown once her lips are covered in blood. Enhanced by her Prophet Eyes.

Danny

Played By: Morgan Davies

• And Then John Was a Zombie: Makes it almost to the finish line before finally getting offed and killed. Unlike Bridget and Ellie, he gets no spoken word lines and no scenes to himself as a Deadite, reanimating and almost immediately becoming Ellie's right hand.
• Big Brother Instinct: Smashes a chair over Deadite Ellie's head when she's menacing Bridget, and then throws Kassie out of the way when Deadite Bridget lunges for her, saving her life at the cost of his.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: His eventual death is terrifying and quite sad, as he is cornered by a Deadite with his weapon taken from him and no one to help him. Credit must be given, however, for first pushing Kassie to safety, and then setting Deadite Bridget on fire, dispatching her long enough that Beth and Kassie manage to escape.
• Genre Savvy:
  • He thinks, as Bridget does, that the Naturom Demonto is very bad news once he sees what's inside it. He still plays the recording, only to try and stop it once the incantation is underway—but the recording continues playing anyway.
  • Once Deadite Bridget goes down, he secures her to a bed with a sheet and a rope. It ends up being ineffective in stopping her from rising, but points for trying.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He's overcome with guilt and remorse over unintentionally setting the Deadites free.
• Too Dumb to Live: Displayed in regards to wanting to delve into a cracked vault just after an earthquake to retrieve dusty belongings, which puts him well in danger of being crushed by aftershocks or loosened concrete, even before the Naturom Demonto comes into play.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He's the one who finds the Naturom Demonto and accidentally unleashes the evil by playing the recordings.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Question answered. Once the incantation is underway, Danny's attempts at stopping it fail. He stops manually rotating the disc? It keeps going. He presses the stop button? No response. He tries to forcibly lift the needle? It shocks his hand. All evidence suggests that the demon was getting out of that book, whether someone played by the rules or not.

Bridget

Played By: Gabrielle Echols

• Bedsheet Ghost: Becomes this for a little while once she escapes the bindings Danny puts on her, but neglects to take off the plastic she's wrapped in.
• Big Sister Instinct: Displayed in regards to Kassie, albeit inverted with Danny as she's younger than him.
• Bugs Herald Evil: Her imminent possession by the Evil causes her to vomit up live bugs.
• Deadly Nosebleed: What her possession begins as, with black liquid flowing down out of her nostrils.
• Power Floats: She levitates behind an unwitting Danny and Kassie once possessed, so as not to alert them with her footsteps.
• Properly Paranoid: One glance at the strange book that Danny found after the earthquake, and she immediately decides that it's dangerous and needs to go back where it was found.
• Soapbox Sadie: She has a lot of elements of this, mentioning she was planning on going to a protest rally with a friend and scolding Danny as being culturally insensitive for asking Beth if she drank snake blood while in Thailand.
• The Tease: Hinted. When Jake offers her to come by to binge watch Nightmare on Elm Street, she immediately turns him and his baby brother down. She then watches through the peephole and gives a little smile when she sees he's tempted to try again. Even better, Kassie calls them her boyfriends...and she doesn't deny it.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: When finally cornering Danny, Deadite Bridget stabs him in the arm with a knife soaked in her blood, then vomits blood all over his face to ensure he's infected in an area that can't be cut off. Then she stabs him in the heart with the same knife.

Kassie

Played By: Nell Fisher

• Blatant Lies: Kassie's response when her mother says that Kassie better not have her scissors, she loudly slides them under the couch and shouts that she doesn't have them.
• Harmful to Minors: She's forced to witness some horrendous things throughout the film that could easily leave adults with PTSD.
• Improbable Infant Survival: She survives the movie along with her aunt.
• Nightmare Fetishist: She has a thing for things some may consider creepy, like treating a doll's head put on a spike as completely normal.
• Skewed Priorities: After the earthquake rocks the apartment building, Kassie is most worried about the dropped pizza. Ellie reassures her that she and her siblings matter far more than pizza.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: She's still a child, but is clearly more aware of her surroundings than she lets on, and is in the habit of mutilating dolls.
• Trauma Conga Line: Her dad is gone, everyone she grew up with is possessed and died trying to kill her except for Beth, and she's witnessed horrific violence and gore well before any child should.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Subverted, as its awareness she displays more than wisdom. She knows enough about the situation to understand that something is wrong with Ellie, visibly hesitating to unlocking the door when the Deadite is trying to trick her, but eventually unlocking it anyway because she thinks or hopes her mother might've regained some of her sanity. Once this mistake nearly kills her, she becomes depressingly aware that her mother, and later sister and brother, aren't coming back, and commends Beth on being good at lying to children when she tries to assure her otherwise.
• You No Take Candle: Averted for the most part, save for one humorous instance where she says "hunged himself". Most people in real life don't know the proper word for it, "hanged" or "hung", but this is a pretty distinctive mistake. "Hanged" is the proper word in the context of an execution.

Other Residents

Ellie's neighbors on the top floor of the high rise include Jack and Scott, a young pair of brothers, an old man named Mr. Fonda and his son Gabriel, and Jessica.

Played By: Anna-Maree Thomas (Jessica), Billy Reynolds-McCarthy (Jack), Tai Wano (Scott), Jayden Daniels (Gabriel), Mark Mitchinson (Mr. Fonda)

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• 13 Is Unlucky: They live on the 14th (so, the 13th in actuality) floor of the high rise and all of them meet grisly fates.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Jack, who is about Bridget's age, tries to invite her over for a movie marathon, but she will have none of his time.
• An Arm and a Leg: Poor Scott, Jack's younger brother, has his arms ripped off by Deadite Ellie.
• Death of a Child: The young Scott is not spared from Deadite!Ellie's rampage.
• Defensive Failure: Mr. Fonda comes to the aid of the others with a shotgun when Deadite Ellie attacks, but fails to keep his eyes on her once she's hit and she immediately kills him for this slip-up.
• Eye Scream: Deadite Ellie brutally bites Gabriel's left eye right out of his head. And then hawks it into Jake's throat.
• Failed a Spot Check: Since she was on a Facetime call Teresa, and thanks to taking the intact stairs on her floor, Jessica doesn't notice the carnage in the garage until she looks in her car's rearview mirror.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Scott is chased out of view of the peephole by Deadite Ellie, and we don't see how she kills him, only him getting thrown back into view later, minus his arms. Averted with Mr. Fonda—how he dies is not shown, but we later see that Deadite Ellie gutted him and yanked his intestines out.
• Hope Spot: The surrounding neighbors arriving just when Deadite Ellie is menacing her family makes it look like they're saved. The vicious sequence that follows only solidifies her as an unstoppable murderous demon.
• Hunk: Gabriel. A tall young man who walks around in a muscle shirt, which leads to...
• Implied Love Interest: Gabriel is an attractive young man who Ellie immediately turns to when she fears for the safety of her children, hinting that perhaps a replacement for the missing Jay is available. He and his father are deeply religious and kind to animals, and to top it all off, he has a name of biblical origin, much like David from the prior film. However, all of this is crushed hard when he becomes one of Deadite Ellie's first kills.
• Innocently Insensitive: When introduced to Beth, Mr. Fonda refers to her as "the groupie". Beth's betrayed look at Ellie and Ellie's guilty look suggests he's simply going off what he was told.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Since Jessica lives several floors below the rest of the tenants, she's completely oblivious to the demonic activity happening right above her.
• Red Shirt: All of them are killed by Deadite Ellie to show the remaining cast what will happen to them if she's allowed to get inside the apartment.
• Slashed Throat: How Gabriel meets his demise.
• Slept Through the Apocalypse: Averted. Jessica heard all of the things happening while Deadite Ellie was on the rampage and lost sleep because of it, but she mistook everything she heard for thunder.
• Wham Line: That's my gun, you thievin' cunt.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: A very gruesome display of what happens when this question is answered: Beth manages to kill the Marauder at the end, but the remaining Deadites still roam the building, leading to Jessica's possession that opens the film.

Deadites

• An Arm and a Leg: Dismemberment will not kill or purge these Deadites, but it will slow them down, as Scars Are Forever and they retain all wounds they accumulate. When Beth blows off Ellie's arm and leg, it forces her to merge with the Bridget and Danny Deadites to gain enough limbs to pursue them. It's implied this is what happened when the priest on the recording tried that method as well.
• Big Bad: Deadite Ellie is the main antagonist of the movie and gleefully takes her time killing people and letting their corpses be possessed by the other Deadites.
• Body of Bodies: If everything else about them wasn't bad enough, these Deadites have the ability to merge together to create a "Marauder" Deadite, which the possessed Ellie, Danny and Bridget do to pursue Beth and Kassie after Ellie is incapacitated by the former.
• Child Eater: This Evil is very deliberate when picking targets and very focused on desecrating Ellie's family. Deadite Ellie singles out Bridget as her first target despite others being closer and vulnerable, and a few minutes later, she announces Kassie out of the potential lineup as her target, and every Deadite from there on guns for Kassie at every opportunity, giving the impression that the Evil wants nothing more than to destroy the most innocent thing it can find.
• Color-Coded Eyes: Three different eye colors are used to designate different Deadites.
  • Ellie, the one originally possessed by the Evil, has extremely pale white eyes, highly contracted pupils, and red sclera.
  • Deadite Jessica, Deadite Bridget and several possessed neighbors all get the Supernatural Gold Eyes used before.
  • Deadite Danny has blank white Prophet Eyes unique to him. This is probably to help differentiate him from Deadite Bridget once they fuse with Deadite Ellie.
• Composite Character: These Deadites fuse qualities of both the ones from the original trilogy as well as the 2013 reboot, fitting the latter more in appearance and character but showing more qualities of the former as the movie goes on.
• Evil Is Petty: The disembodied entity, about to possess Ellie (which is terrible enough if it follows the pattern...), takes time to rip her earring right out of her ear first.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Rather than the foul-mouthed Creepy High-Pitched Voice from the prior movie, these Deadites' vocal layering largely takes on a low baritone. The high-pitched version does show up a couple times, though.
• Fatal Flaw: Unusually sadistic even by Deadite standards, this breed is so determined to torment victims that they end up paying for it. Deadite Bridget has Danny at her mercy, but targets Kassie (armed with Staffanie) instead. Deadite Ellie also doesn't properly restrain Beth when focusing on clawing open her stomach. Finally, the Marauder tries to drag Beth into a woodchipper in the final act, rather than attack her with tooth and claw. This ends up allowing Kassie to throw them into their own trap. Downplayed, because they're still very efficient threats and the "fatal" part rarely sticks.
• Flies Equals Evil: In the opening, when Teresa goes to check on Jessica at the cabin, a nearby flypaper is covered in the things. One also lands on Ellie's eye just as she first reanimates.
• From Bad to Worse: Unlike the original movie and reboot, this movie takes place not in a secluded cabin, but a populated high rise, and the characters lack the skills, knowledge, and abilities to purge the Deadites and stop the spread. As such, the situation quickly spirals, and by the end of the movie, a mass outbreak is on the horizon.
• Fusion Dance: In order to chase down Beth and Kassie, Deadites Ellie, Bridget, and Danny merge into one "Marauder" and become the Final Boss.
• Glamour Failure: While still capable of trying to trick victims by pretending to be well and normal, Ellie's Deadite either can't or won't render its face back to normal or clean up its bloody clothes, so Kassie obviously knows something is still wrong when she thinks of letting her in.
• Haunted Technology: Once the priest's recitation of the evil words in the book starts to play on Danny's record player, he tries to stop it, only for the voice to continue the incantation even when he stops the vinyl and shocking him when he tries to lift the needle. Thereafter, Ellie's imminent reanimation as a Deadite after dying is heralded by a haunted call on her phone.
• Hive Mind: Once the Deadites in the corridor wake up, they all begin to act as one to kill Beth and Kassie, chanting "Dead by dawn!" and "No way out!" as they do.
• Implacable Man: These Deadites lack the Super-Strength of those found in the 2013 version, but in contrast, are much harder to put down, and it is explicitly noted that immolation, live burial, and dismemberment—all validated as means of purging the demon in the prior movie—will not work on these ones. It takes being put through a woodchipper to kill the possessed Ellie, Bridget and Danny for good.
• Invincible Villain: These Deadites can't be purged or as easily killed as prior incarnations, and the Evil dwelling within them moves about freely if its hosts are destroyed beyond repair. There essentially is no defeating it, only running from it. While this could simply be the difference in the books that summoned the Evils, it's also worth noting that the incantation read aloud is much longer than prior versions.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: Played unusually straight in that, barring Ellie herself, men make up all five of the movie's first kills. In terms of who they actually target and attack though, this is still inverted: the Deadites downright ignore Danny in favor of gunning for Beth and Bridget, and then Kassie, with Danny only biting it once he directly intervenes.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Or, well, breaking it. As with the prior movies, the demon's power seems to grow as more victims become possessed, and by the time Beth and Kassie lock themselves in the elevator, it begins to flood the cabin with blood. Then it turns out liquids take up space and weigh a lot more than you think, and combined with the Marauder's weight atop the cabin, this pushes the elevator past its 900-pound weight limit, causing it to crash. Not only that, but the liquid inside cushions Beth and Kassie just enough that their bodies aren't smashed on impact.
• No Name Given: The demon responsible for possession and corruption of victims is the Kandarian Demon in the original trilogy and "the Taker of Souls" or "the Abomination" in the 2013 movie. Since this is the last of the three Naturom Demonto copies, it presumably has its own evil demon with the same tactics and different results, but it is given no name, title, or alias.
• Possessing a Dead Body: Just like the other Deadites shown, this demon is also capable of possessing living and dead hosts alike. Uniquely, it will use this to counteract any vessel that fights back against its control by killing them, then taking over, which it does with Ellie.
• Prophet Eyes: Danny's Deadite displays this.
• Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: Subverted. Neither of these is enough to kill a Deadite, but damage to the brain—as exhibited by both Ellie and Bridget—will "kill" the Deadite for a while until it reanimates.
• Sadist: It says quite a bit that this trope, which has been a cornerstone of the Evil throughout the series, sticks out here. Ellie's possession scene highlights how the demon doesn't just want to possess her, it wants to hurt her. It knocks her around, rips her earring out, and the last thing it does to her (that we see) is to twist her arm right off its elbow socket.
• Sinister Silhouettes: When the Evil traps Ellie in the elevator and rockets it to the top floor, Ellie wakes up and sees a figure in the hallway through the window, who doesn't answer her calls for help. This figure can be seen again in the same hallway when Beth and Kassie are escaping, vaguely resembling Ellie (who is dead back in their apartment), but no more detail is visible. However, Ellie and the other Deadites quickly reanimate almost simultaneously soon after.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: The standard Deadite eye color as fitting the trend set by the 2013 movie. However, Lee Cronin's Deadites lack the intensely contracted pupils or wide-eyed stare, allowing them to be more expressive.
• Voice of the Legion: These Deadites are quite a bit more chatty than those in the 2013 movie, more reminiscent of the original trilogy, and they always speak with this voice unless pretending to be normal for a spell.

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