Evil Dead Rise review

EVIL DEAD RISE: 

FIFTH EVIL DEAD FILM DELIVERS THE GORY GOODS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Lily Sullivan in Evil Dead Rise

 

            The Evil Dead franchise has been reborn in Evil Dead Rise, the latest installment of the long-running horror series dating back to 1981 with Sam Raimi’s original cult classic, The Evil Dead. This marks the second film in the series not to be directed by Sam Raimi nor feature Bruce Campbell as the Ash character after the Evil Dead remake from 2013, but like that movie, both serve as executive producers. 

            While I’m much more familiar with Raimi’s work on the original Spider-Man films, I really enjoyed the Evil Dead movies especially Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness which blended horror with dark and often cartoonish humor. The first film is a solid horror movie that has impressive practical effects and genuinely frightening scenes, but you can tell they were still trying to find their footing until striking gold with the sequel and Army of Darkness. 

            The 2013 Evil Dead from Fede Álvarez who would go on to direct the Raimi-produced, Don’t Breathe a few years later took the series back to its horror roots in one of the rare modern horror remakes (or soft reboots) that’s actually good. Sure, it doesn’t have the camp factor of its predecessors and is more serious in tone by comparison, but I still consider it a well-crafted horror remake that honors the original film while adding a new spin on the formula…and a lot more blood. 

            Which brings us to Evil Dead Rise with writer-director Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) in the chair and serves as another soft reboot of the series after sequel plans for the 2013 film and a fourth season of the Ash VS Evil Dead TV series were scrapped. Unlike most Evil Dead films, this one does not take place in a creepy old cabin in the woods, but rather an apartment building and revolves around a family that stumbles across the infamous Book of the Dead. 

            While it is more of a traditional horror film like the 2013 movie, Evil Dead Rise is a bloody good time all the way through. I don’t think it’s on par with Evil Dead II or Army of Darkness, but I still had a lot of fun with it. 

            The film follows Beth (Lily Sullivan-Mental, Picnic At Hanging Rock, Monolith), a worker in the music industry paying a long overdue visit to her older sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland-Day on Fire, Vikings, Blood Vessel) who is raising three children. But after a massive earthquake creates a hole under their apartment building, Ellie’s son, Danny (Morgan Davies-The Tree, The Hunter, Storm Boy) decides to go into it and what does he come across? The Book of the Dead. 

            When Danny opens the book and starts reading it, Ellie suddenly gets possessed by a demon thus causing Beth to fight for survival and protect Ellie’s children from the book’s horrors. 

             Overall, Evil Dead Rise gives exactly what it advertises, another relentless and unapologetically bloody chapter of the Evil Dead storyline that fans of the series (and horror in general) will have a great time with. On top of the gore, the story is also very engaging, and the characters are quite likable. 

            As previously mentioned, this is the first Evil Dead movie (Not counting Army of Darkness) not to take place at a cabin nor revolve around a group of friends and lovers, this one is set in an apartment building and is about family (Just like a certain other franchise with a new installment coming out soon). This makes the conflict a lot more personal compared to the other Evil Dead films because it’s a sister and three kids defending themselves against a loved one (In this film’s case, their possessed mother) and being forced to do things to said individual that they probably wished they never had to do. 

            The family element helps make the characters feel more realistic and compelling, it might even be the most I’ve ever cared about characters in an Evil Dead film outside of Ash and maybe Mia from the 2013 movie. I was genuinely worried for these characters when things went wrong over the course of the film and felt sorry whenever someone got killed, even the minor supporting characters who don’t have much screen time but manage to make an impression with the time given to them. 

            Despite mostly consisting of unknown actors, the acting is excellent especially from Lily Sullivan as Beth who is a very endearing protagonist who inadvertently becomes a mother figure to these kids she’s trying to protect, I thought she was extremely compelling and enjoyed the connection she has with her sister’s kids. Alyssa Sutherland as the possessed mother is having a ball unleashing this terrifying beast onto cinema and manages to be both frightening and at times, funny at the same time. 

            While the film isn’t quite as gruesome as the 2013 film and more tension-based compared to other Evil Deadmovies, it still delivers the gory goods. Whether it’s characters getting dismembered by demons, possessed people disfiguring themselves in horrifically bloody ways, and a blood-flooded elevator sequence that makes the one from The Shining look like a kiddie-pool. 

            Gore aside, this movie has some very thrilling and tension-filled scenes such as a sequence that mirrors the demonic plant from the original film except with electrical cords from an elevator instead of vines and a phenomenal scene from the perspective of a door peephole where the possessed mother goes berserk and brutally murders people in the apartment building. Despite Raimi not being as involved in this one compared to its predecessors, the way scenes are edited and filmed feel very reminiscent of his signature camera tricks, the film even starts off with a haunting sweeping shot ripped straight out of the other movies and ends in a similar way to the original film. 

            You can definitely see the appreciation Cronin has for Raimi’s films in terms of the camera work, editing, and production design. But like the 2013 film, it also stands on its own quite nicely and works as a standalone horror movie. 

            Evil Dead Rise doesn’t quite hold a candle to Sam Raimi’s original three films, but it’s still a gory good time with plenty of inventive scares, endearing characters, and yes, blood-drenched carnage throughout. More than enough reasons for me to call it “Groovy!”.