Interview: ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Sound Editor Peter Albrechtsen on His Horror Influences

Peter Albrechtsen was already a massive fan of the Evil Dead franchise when director Lee Cronin invited Albrechtsen to join Evil Dead Rise as the film’s Supervising Sound Editor.

“We were very aware of the heritage,” Albrechtsen explains, identifying 10 sounds that actor-producer Bruce Campbell brought to him and Cronin in hopes of incorporating them into the new film. Using these proprietary demon shrieks and gusts of wind, Albrechtsen managed to create an evocative soundscape which captured the unique tone of the Evil Dead franchise, achieving what Albrechtsen describes as a “sonic intensity”.

Of course, part of Rise‘s charm is its ability to transcend the delightful shlock of its predecessors, and take advantage of more contemporary developments in horror filmmaking.

“At the same time, we also really wanted to make this very modern powerful film that enveloped you in a way that you can only do now, with the technology that’s available now,” Albrechtsen says.

This merger between the old and the new renders Rise a kind of “sonic juggernaut”, almost overwhelmingly immersive in all its loud, crunchy, and squishy goriness. A longtime horror film aficionado, Albrechtsen sought out influences beyond the Evil Dead franchise, turning to one of his favorite films of all time: Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

“The voice of the mother in Psycho…Hitchcock got this idea of taking three or four different actors’ voices and putting them together and then creating the voice of the mother. That’s a very organic approach to creating a very demonic-sounding voice, and it’s actually some of the same tricks we did in Evil Dead Rise.”

Albrechtsen’s career has afforded him the opportunity to work across several different genres, including both fiction and documentary films. And through it all, he has been grateful to collaborate with directors who understand the integral role that sound plays in making a film. Collaborating with Cronin on Evil Dead Rise, however, remains a particular highlight for the Copenhagen native.

“There are all these horror films that have very inspiring sound, and we were really trying to do the same thing with this, really trying to push the sonic storytelling with the film.”

Evil Dead Rise is streaming now on Max. You can listen to my full interview with Peter Albrechtsen below.