Does The Cat Die In Evil Dead Rise?

Almost every human in the apartment building that acts as the setting forEvil Dead Rise are killed by Deadites, but many viewers are wondering if someone else died: the cat. Although the Evil Dead franchise constantly tears through humans in an attempt to maximize gore, animals are rarely a target of the Deadites’ rampages. However, a cat in Evil Dead Rise may have become one of the franchise’s few animal victims, with the ending of Evil Dead Rise leaving the animal’s fate ambiguous.

Evil Dead Rise is the most recent entry in Sam Raimi’s beloved horror franchise, bringing the series’ Deadites and iconic excessive gore back to the big screens for the first time since the 2013 Evil Dead remake. This time the film focuses on a family living in an apartment building, and once three siblings are faced with taking down their Deadite mom, the only one who can save them is their Aunt Beth. Although Beth gets the youngest child Kassie out of Evil Dead Rise alive, it isn’t known if she was able to save the neighbor’s pet cat.

The Cat Shockingly Survives Evil Dead Rise’s Ending

Mr. Fonda’s Cat Is Never Shown Being Killed

Early in Evil Dead Rise, Mr. Fonda’s cat attempts to escape the haunted apartment building by climbing through the vents. Although the cat is never seen again, the Deadite version of Ellie learns from the cat, deciding to crawl into the vents to enter the apartment of her children. It was presumed that Ellie simply killed Mr. Fonda’s cat while in the vent, but as it turns out, the cat actually made it out with its life.

In an interview with GamesRadar+, Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin confirmed that the cat made it out of the apartment building alive. However, he also noted that an earlier draft of the script had a much more gruesome outcome for the cat. Per Cronin:

It was written. Oh, it was written where you actually see [Ellie] crawling through the [vent] and she’s finishing off the cat, just swallowing the tail.

Lee Cronin also points out that he has learned audiences tend to get upset when animals are hurt in movies, which is why he confirmed that the cat escaped unharmed. As it turns out, Cronin had an alternative plan for the cat, and it would have broken new ground in the franchise.

Lee Cronin’s Original Plan For Evil Dead Rise’s Cat (& Why He Changed It)

Cronin Initially Intended To Introduce A Deadite Cat

While the cat making it out alive is good news, the fate of Mr. Fonda’s pet was almost completely different. In the same interview, Lee Cronin explains that Evil Dead Rise would have originally included a scene in which viewers see Ellie as she finishes swallowing the cat’s tail. Another more interesting option that Cronin explained was to have Beth and Kassie crawl through a hatch only to be faced with a Deadite version of the cat.

Sadly, these scenes were cut due to budget restrictions. Evil Dead Rise had a budget of around only $20 million, and since a Deadite cat would probably have required extensive use of CGI, it was cut. This was probably a good thing, as Evil Dead Rise mostly sticks to practical effects, a hallmark of the Evil Dead franchise.

Why A Deadite Cat Would’ve Been A Fun Twist For Evil Dead Rise

It Would Have Broken New Ground For The Franchise

If Cronin’s original plan for a Deadite cat came to fruition, it would have been a fun development for the Evil Dead franchise as a whole. Knowing that Deadites can infect animals makes them that much more dangerous, as there are suddenly many more targets for them. While audiences have seen humans distorted by Deadites like Evil Dead‘s Taker of Souls or Evil Dead Rise‘s Marauder, the concept of a Deadite Rottweiler or Deadite grizzly bear introduces a new level of fear to the franchise. Evil Dead Rise flirted with the concept, and future installments might actually pull it off.