Movie Review: EVIL DEAD RISE

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: April 21st, 2023 / 02:19 AM

EVIL DEAD RISE poster | ©2023 Warner Bros./New Line Cinema

Rating: R
Stars: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, Nell Fisher
Writer: Lee Cronin
Director: Lee Cronin
Distributor: Warner Bros./New Line Cinema
Release Date: April 21, 2023

EVIL DEAD RISE checks most of of boxes that are necessary for it to be a real EVIL DEAD movie. It’s got those speeding, low to the ground traveling shots that speak to the movement of evil. It’s got people who wind up covered head to toe in blood. It’s even got a cabin in the woods, although this one is an A-frame, and we don’t spend long there.

In fact, only the prologue takes place at the cabin, where we know that the woman in bed on this lovely afternoon isn’t just suffering from a bad drug trip. What happens culminates in an opening title shot that can legitimately be called classic.

We then get an onscreen card telling us it’s one day earlier, and we meet a bunch of new people. Rock band techie Beth (Lily Sullivan) discovers she’s pregnant, and heads to the Southern California home of her sister Ellen (Alyssa Sutherland) to try to figure out what to do.

Ellen has her own problems. Her husband recently abandoned her and their three kids: teens Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Danny (Morgan Davies) and little Kassie (Nell Fisher). Worse, the apartment building where they live, formerly a bank, has been condemned and the electricity doesn’t work properly.

As if this isn’t enough, on the night Beth arrives, there’s a massive earthquake.

This clues us in as to how someone will get their hands on the Book of the Dead, which also must appear for this truly be part of the EVIL DEAD franchise. Purists will note that this book isn’t the Necronomicon, but one of several mentioned to exist. This works well to attach EVIL DEAD RISE to the larger mythos, while allowing it to bypass certain elements and set up its own exposition (which plays effectively within the story).

EVIL DEAD RISE isn’t as humorous as other entries in the franchise have been. The demons are so vicious that they don’t really have quips, although they talk a lot. When the still-human characters get one-liners, they don’t destroy the mood, but they don’t seem to land as intended.

Because almost all of the action takes place inside the apartment building, EVIL DEAD RISE feels a little more like a haunted house outing, showing circumstances where urban isolation can be just as hazardous as being alone off the grid.

Alyssa Sutherland in EVIL DEAD RISE | ©2023 Warner Bros./New Line Cinema

As in other EVIL DEAD films, the demonic possession doesn’t immediately affect the most obvious suspect. The demons are gross and cruel, though, not to mention crafty. They do something late in the day that reflects questionable demonic strategy, although it makes for cool creature effects.

Writer/director Lee Cronin generates an unusual amount of sympathy by emphasizing the sibling bond between the kids, whose reactions of terror are wholly understandable. Cronin also demonstrates a gift for ratcheting up both supernatural suspense and natural dramatic tension.

We also get homages to not only bits dear to the hearts of EVIL DEAD fans, but other horror films, including a wonderful riff on iconic shot from, well, that would be telling.

One question maintained throughout EVIL DEAD RISE is how does the action connect with what we see in the prologue/flashforward? This is answered fairly by the end.

The inclusion of the young characters automatically makes EVIL DEAD RISE darker than we might have expected. It is visually inventive, it has moments that are legitimately disturbing and it pretty much does what it sets out to do.

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Movie Review: EVIL DEAD RISE

Decently scary and very bloody

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Decently scary and very bloody

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