Evil Dead: Dead By Dawn

Presented by @PerGron

When seeking out IP to include, Universal’s team decided to work alongside long-time partner in licensing Warner Bros. to use some of their most iconic properties in the land, such as Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and more. Yet, when coming up with the main attractions for the land, the devs simply couldn’t choose between all of the best horror franchises either studio had to offer.

In order to help solidify a pick, chairman Tom Williams and a group of not imagineers (because that’s copyrighted) took a vacation to a cabin in the woods to mull over their concepts. It was a nice little trip filled with fishing and campfires and watching horror movies, or so they thought. Suddenly, in the silence of the night, a low hum crept in through the walls and summoned the men into another room. They tried to fight the urge but each got up almost against their will, and upon entering they found a horrific sight.

No, not a book bound in human skin, that’s too clichè. No, they found famed director Sam Raimi who must have hidden in their trunk to make it onto the boy’s trip. He had a bunch of stuff laid out on a desk and was humming ominously and when the execs entered the room, he beckoned them in and showed them his idea for Universal’s newest attraction: Evil Dead: The Ride. The guys whose job doesn’t really matter as part of the story, just some guys, were blown away by how ridiculously simple an idea this was. So simple absolutely zero complications would get in the way of building it.

Then, after almost six years of figuring out who actually owned the rights to each movie in the franchise, realizing they owned one (but not the scary one, just the medieval fantasy one), making deals with all the studios to use pieces of their movie, and then moving forward with it, Evil Dead: Dead By Dawn was shelved indefinitely.

But some say, if you enter the dilapidated cabin once used by Ashley Joanna Williams and open the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis; the Book of the Dead; you may discover a madhouse of insanity and fear unlike any other busbar dark ride you’ve ever experienced…

Queue

Evil Dead: Curse of the Deadites shares a building with the permanent scare maze, the Dark Ride taking up most of the ground floor of the structure while the walkthrough scare maze mainly takes up the second floor. The entry points are in different spots, however, with Evil Dead being closer to the entrance to Beetlejuice at the end of Maim Street.

The entry point is a short path through some trees and plants near the end of the horror icons house street, serving as Maim Street's "park" space. The queue is short through the woods before approaching an oversized shed that serves as the entrypoint to the attraction. This shed is the same one that Ash Williams, hero of the Evil Dead Trilogy, famously attached his chainsaw hand and sawed off his shotgun "boomstick." A few references can be found in the queue, such as an old severed head held tight by a clamp that will occasionally wake up and scream at guests, startling unsuspecting passersby.

Through the shed, guests exit out the back and into the woods where their busbar chariots await.

Ride-Through

The ride begins as quick and madcap as one would expect from The Evil Dead as the ride vehicles pass through a tunnel of trees towards a cabin in the distance. Utilizing effects such as fog and simple projection mapping effects, the forest seems to rush by and the vehicle seems to be going far faster than it actually is. These special effects lead to the sequence emulating the famous Deadite POV sequence from Evil Dead II, seemingly putting the riders in the perspective of that specific deadite.

Once close enough to the cabin, the door swings open as a simple figure of a frightened Ash Williams, screaming as the vehicles turn very quickly, seemingly breaking through another portion of the cabin because the doors swings open and guests are now inside the cabin's kitchen. Within the sequence, the madcap insanity continues as a now one-handed Ash chases his disembodied hand behind a wall (using a PotC style turntable) before running back out now being chased by the hand which is holding a meat cleaver as it pursues its former host.

The ride vehicles turn into another room, the scenery changing from the kitchen to the living room as guests are surrounded by various items, including lamps, a grandfather clock, a taxidermy deer, and more household items and all are maniacally laughing. Throughout the scene, shotgun blasts are heard as holes appear in the room, smouldering where occasionally Ash's hand will pop up from the holes and give a cheeky gesture before popping back down.

The vehicles exit the laughing room, entering a spinning tunnel where the confusion only continues. The low hum of a book summoning guests deeper down the tunnel echoes throughout the room as static figures of Deadites pop out from hidden compartments in the walls, offering a fright to riders focused on the book at the end of the hall. This book is the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis or Book of the Dead and its pages continuously flip and an ancient chant begins echoing, bringing the deadites to the mortal plane.

The vehicles take a turn into the next room, passing through a green fog and despite having left the room previously, are seemingly back in the living room somehow. On the floor is a hatch into the wine cellar that is being slammed open as a grotesque deadite calls for help trapped beneath. Another deadite busts its head through a window and another pops up from behind a couch. All the while, the chanting continues amidst screaming and the faint laughter of the deer head. Rounding the corner, guests pass by Ash Williams, boomstick in hand and chainsaw on the other (literally) hiding ala Sigourney Weaver in the Great Movie Ride.

The ride vehicles make a sharp turn into the next scene, zooming through using the same effects in the first sequence, emulating the sequence of the flying deadite. As the riders go down the hall, speeding through, they pass by various static figures of both frightened people and deadites jumping out before coming face to face with Ash and his chainsaw hand. The figure stands atop his Oldsmobile as the vehicles turn, the chainsaw revving as his voice can be heard saying "Groovy."

The vehicles pass by and the sound of chainsaw making contact with something can be heard behind and perhaps even a spray of water hits the back of guests neck, causing a bit of a shock and surprise. The vehicles enter the penultimate scene, passing through the doors emulating crashing through yet another wall of the cabin where tree limbs have burst through the windows and Ash is seen facing off with the face of a giant deadite attempting to consume him. A voice can be heard chanting the words to send the Deadites back but it is drowned out by other deadites in the room chanting "Dead by Dawn" as the sun seems to be rising through what little bit of the window can be seen. Further in the room, a portal is opening and when passing by, the Oldsmobile and a chainsaw can be seen floating down into it.

The ride vehicle manages to avoid being sucked into the portal by making another sudden turn and passing through a doorway out into the woods where the sunlight can be seen rising over the treetops. The chanting of "Dead by Dawn" fades as the vehicle passes through the forest, having managed to survive the evening, yet as the vehicles pass by a bush, a figure of Ash suddenly pops up, frightening guests with his face covered in red, let's say, "mud" and laughing maniacally as he revs his chainsaw. The vehicles continue before passing by a final vignette, Ash's hand, hanging out in a rock crevice, and in Universal's edgiest bit ever, quickly gives riders the finger before they exit the attraction.

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