Evil Dead Rise's Unsettling Cheese Grater Scene Came From The Director's Pandemic Quarantine
Do you ever find yourself sitting quietly at home when you suddenly realize your house is full of stuff that could easily kill you? Your average kitchen alone contains multiple items or devices that can accidentally butcher a person if used incorrectly: knives, blenders, garbage disposals, and so on. And let's not forget cheese graters! There's a good reason the Protagonist (John David Washington) immediately goes for one of the suckers while fighting a pack of Russian goons in "Tenet." Smack 'em, throat punch 'em, and slam their head against the wall! Truly it's the only kitchen utensil you'll ever need, and it's dishwasher safe.
Anyway, getting back on topic: your house can totally kill you. That's long been an unspoken implication in horror films and the "Evil Dead" movies are no exception. Most of them take place in a remote cabin in the forest or, in the case of "Army of Darkness," in medieval Britain. Yet, as often as not, it's only when the Deadites weaponize the common household objects around them that things get really gnarly, be they cellar doors, windows, or a regular pencil. At one point in "Evil Dead" (i.e. the 2013 reboot), a possessed character even slices their own tongue in half using a box cutter, just to terrorize those looking on.
Luckily, at least for all the gorehounds of the world, the latest addition to the "Evil Dead" film series has a scene that might just top that disgusting moment — one that came together as a result of the early COVID-19 quarantines, no less.
The trappings of everyday life
Hoping to avoid disappointing fans of a cult horror/comedy franchise renowned for its splattery, icky nastiness, writer/director Lee Cronin ("The Hole in the Ground") is giving it his all with his new installment, "Evil Dead Rise." The movie hasn't opened in theaters at the time of writing, yet its trailer has already provided us with one of the property's more distressful moments involving — what else — a cheese grater. According to Cronin, you can thank the pandemic for inspiring that particularly wince-inducing gross-out gag.
When interviewed by Far Out, Cronin recalled how the 2020 lockdowns provided inspiration for his "Evil Dead Rise" script, including the cheese grater scene. He explained:
"Okay, well, I think we've all grazed our knuckles on a cheese grater and gone, 'Oh, God, imagine if that was worse'. I wrote the film during the first wave of Covid-19 when the entire world was locked in their homes, with an evil force outside the door. We didn't know what this thing was, so I spent a lot of time just looking at the trappings of everyday life."
The more he dwelled on it, the more Cronin said he realized he "wanted to have this fight scene that takes place in the film in a kitchen." But what's a good humans versus Deadites battle without some unusual weapons thrown into the mix? As Lee recalled, he had come up with the idea of "someone smacking someone in the face with a big cooking pot" in the vein of an R-rated, live-action "Looney Tunes" cartoon, but he also felt like he needed "some sort of unique weapon," too. "[...] I guess I walked into my kitchen and saw the cheese grater and thought, 'Oh, I have not seen that enough before,'" he added.
Slapstick meets brutality
As Lee Cronin pointed out, it wasn't exactly difficult for him to get into the proper mindset to write an "Evil Dead" movie while isolating himself in 2020. No doubt, being stuck indoors made it all the easier for him to envision ways the Deadites might wreak bloody chaos down upon his film's characters within the "safety" of their home. Plus, "Evil Dead Rise" has the added twist of being the first chapter in the franchise to take place in a big-city apartment. That in and of itself presents a whole different set of in-house dangers absent from the cabins in the woods from movies past or even the medieval buildings in "Army of Darkness."
However, it's not enough to tap into people's insecurities about just how unsafe their homes really are – that's perhaps alarmingly easy to do. You've also got to have fun while meddling with those anxieties, as the best "Evil Dead" films always have. Cronin talked about this during his Far Out interview, explaining that he deliberately incorporated "some slightly slapstick-y stuff" to complement the "pretty brutal elements" in the cheese grater scene from "Evil Dead Rise." This very much aligns with /Film's review of the movie, which praises Cronin for delivering "the most 'Evil Dead' movie, from the mind-melting body horror to the outrageous creature design to the darkly comedic spring in its step."
"Evil Dead Rise" opens in theaters on April 21, 2023.