Bethany "Beth" Bixler is the sister of Ellie and the aunt of Danny, Bridget, and Kassie. A guitar technician for a famous rock band, Beth's life took a drastic turn during a visit with her sister when Danny discovered an ancient text known as Naturom Demonto and unleashed a demonic spirit.
Beth first appeared in the 2023 film Evil Dead Rise, portrayed by Lily Sullivan.
Biography
There is very little information in regards to Beth's life prior to the incident at the apartment, except at some point she became a guitar technician for a famous world-touring rock band, and had aspirations of becoming the first female "chief tech" on the crew.
Incident At The Apartment
In 2023, Beth slept with an unidentified man (the exact relationship between them unknown) while on tour with the band, which resulted in a pregnancy. Shortly after taking a pregnancy test to confirm her suspicions, Beth arrived in Los Angeles, California to seek guidance from her older sister Ellie, who already had three children of her own. Though the family was happy to see Beth, Ellie was mildly upset by her sister's late arrival, revealing that she had called Beth months prior when she and the father of her children, Jay, had separated. Not only that, but the apartment building in which Ellie and her family resided was set to be demolished in a month, and they had not found a new location to move to.
After Ellie sent her children out into the city to get pizzas for dinner, Beth planned on revealing her pregnancy to her sister, but a sudden earthquake hitting the Los Angeles area interrupted the revelation before she could say it. Shortly thereafter, the children arrived back to the apartment safe and sound, having lost the pizzas during the quake. Unbeknownst to Beth and Ellie, Danny had just discovered a strange book and a set of vinyl recordings inside an abandoned vault hidden beneath the apartment's parking garage, and brought them upstairs to examine. Upon playing the second record, which contained the recitation of the book's bizarre passages, an ancient demon was awakened and attacked Ellie while she was on her way to the apartment's laundry room. Upstairs, Beth was helping her youngest niece Kassie take a bath when the building's power suddenly went out.
Upon Ellie's return to the apartment, both Beth and the children immediately noticed a frighting shift in the woman's demeanor. Shortly thereafter, Beth and the children attempted to exit the building, only to find the elevator malfunctioning and the stairs completely obliterated by the earthquake. With no other choice, the family simply laid Ellie's body in her bedroom until power could be restored in the morning. Beth watched in horror as Ellie arose from the bed and began attacking, stabbing her with a large shard of broken glass directly into her left hand. Eventually, Beth and the children managed to lock the possessed Ellie outside of the apartment, and watched through the front door peephole in horror as her sister mutilated and maimed the neighbors who came to investigate.
Soon, Danny revealed the mysterious book he had found in the vault under the parking garage to Beth, and flipped through the blood-inked pages. After rescuing Kassie from Ellie (who almost tricked the girl into unlocking the front door), Beth discovered that her niece Bridget had also become possessed, and attacked her aunt with a cheese grater. During Bridget's attack, Kassie protected herself with "Staffanie", a crude weapon made out of a broken wooden mop handle. Beth ran into the bedroom to find that the sharp end of the mop had gone directly through Bridget's head. As Danny tied up his possessed sister's body, Beth cleaned the gore and grime off of Kassie's face, and vowed to her niece that what happened to Ellie and Bridget happen to them. Kassie remarked that Beth would be a good mom someday, as she knows how to lie to kids.
With Bridget incapacitated and Ellie still outside, Beth took a chance on listing to the final vinyl recording Danny discovered in the vault in the hopes to learn how to stop these monsters. While Beth listened to Father Marcus Littleton tell of his own battle with the Deadites a century prior, Ellie silently climbed into the room through the building's ventilation system as Danny dealt with the revived Bridget in the dinning room (though at the cost of his own life). Beth finally noticed her sister's presence behind her in the window's reflection, and after stabbing her in the neck, was tossed out into the dinning room. Stabbing Ellie in the nostril with a pair of scissors, Beth and Kassie made their way out of the apartment and into the corridor, attempting to break into the neighboring room connected to the exterior fire escape. After retrieving Mr. Fonda's shotgun, Beth fired several rounds towards Ellie, who was now slowly giving chase. Soon, the possessed Bridget and Danny came staggering out to aid their mother, and the deceased neighbors awakened to begin shouting and laughing at Beth and Kassie as they made their way towards the elevator.
After a narrow escape from drowning in blood inside the elevator, Beth and Kassie were pursued by "The Marauder", a creature comprised of the merged bodies of Ellie, Bridget, and Danny, through the building's underground parking garage. The demon played a game of "cat and mouse" before finally leading Beth towards a nearby large mobile wood-chipper. With Kassie's help, Beth attacked the Marauder with a chainsaw, forcing it to stumble back into the re-activated wood-chipper. The machine made quick work of grinding the monster into a bloody pulp until only Ellie's head remained. As Ellie let out one last series of taunts, Beth kicked her sister's head into the chipper, causing it to explode instantly. With the monsters defeated, the blood-soaked Beth and Kassie walked out of the parking garage.
What happened to Beth and Kassie following this incident remains unknown.
Weapons & Equipment
- Chainsaw: Beth used a cream-yellow Homelite XL-12 chainsaw which Mr. Fonda used for his tree removal company. Upon defeating The Marauder, Beth was last seen carrying the chainsaw with her as she and Kassie left the parking garage, presumably for self-defense in case of another demon attack.
Skills & Abilities
- Electronic Technician: As a touring guitar technician, Beth seemed to above-average knowledge on various audio and electrical equipment. Before listening to the vinyl record Danny recovered from the underground vault, Beth used material from Ellie's tattoo gun repair kit to hook up a battery to Danny's DJ equipment to play the record, as the apartment building had lost power a few hours prior.
Appearances In Other Media
Live Events
- Beth appeared in the Evil Dead Rise haunted house attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights event in 2023. Her physical appearance in the attraction was based on the climax of the Evil Dead Rise film, where a chainsaw-wielding Beth is completely drenched in blood.
Gallery
Evil Dead Rise
Screenshots
Promotional Images
Trivia
- While Beth's full name is never spoken in Evil Dead Rise film itself, it was mentioned in the original script, as revealed in a Twitter post by Lee Cronin on May 9th, 2023.[1]
- Beth's first name is an homage to Embeth Davidtz, who portrayed Sheila in Army of Darkness, while her last name of Bixler is a reference to Denise Bixler, who portrayed Linda in Evil Dead II.