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Evil Dead Rise review
Ten years after we last opened the book of the dead in movie form…Evil Dead is back. Evil Dead Rise brings the horror out of the cabin and into the home. It’s another great entry in the most consistent franchise in film history.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Evil Dead Rise
Directed by Lee Cronin
Written by Lee Cronin
Starring Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols and Neil Fisher
Evil Dead Rise Review
At its core…Evil Dead Rise is a pure Evil Dead movie. Given the series unparalleled consistency in delivering great movies…that should be all you need to know. Whereas the 2013 remake was modeled after the original film, this one forges a new path. Tonally it lies somewhere between The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. Taking the carnage out of the cabin and into your living room gives the formula new life. But it’s not the new setting that changes the dynamic of the franchise…it’s the group of victims.
Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) becomes possessed after her son unwittingly unleashes the Book of the Dead. Her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) is tasked with protecting Ellie’s three children from their mother’s Deadite form. With the power out and no escape from their apartment building…it’s going to be a long night.
Horror movies have conditioned us to accept that your life is disposable after you turn 17. Pretty much anything goes when you hit your senior year of high school. Punishment is what they deserve. At least according to throngs of middle-aged horror filmmakers. They’re drinkers, drug users and…get this…they like to fornicate! Horror movies are practically built on the sacrifice of 17 – 24-year-old characters. Characters to be hacked up by an unknown assailant for our viewing pleasure.
Evil Dead Rise doesn’t believe in any of that. Its antagonist is as close as possible to the characters who find themselves in peril. It’s their mother…their sister…the loving person who sits firmly in the center of their worlds. Rise takes that loving person and strips her of her soul. Then it unleashes her upon her family. Harsh words and harsher actions directed at the people who love her most.
Those people? Three-fourths of them are kids. Now…I couldn’t fully place the ages of the two older children. One can drive so he may be that disposable 17-year-old character we know and love. He tells his sister that she should get her driver’s license so she too may be in the acceptable range for on screen violence. The third child is very young. Regardless of their ages…Evil Dead Rise doesn’t position them like the partying stereotypes that horror villain feasts on. These are Ellie’s children. In their own home. Hunted by the person who has protected them from birth.
To say the stakes are different in Evil Dead Rise is an understatement. The violence, as visceral as always, is much more personal. Disposable characters acting out of fear are replaced by cherub faces trying to survive their worst nightmare…while sadness threatens to overwhelm them. Their mother is gone. The person that they would run to is now the person they must run from.
Their only hope for survival is their Aunt Beth. Beth doesn’t have any of the answers for situations that her sister Ellie made look so easy. She finds herself in a situation with no good answers. Someone who fails to take proper care of themselves is now responsible for others in a truly hellish scenario.
Sutherland is fantastic as the mother of all evil. She’s a very effective villain who preys on her family’s emotions as much as their flesh. Sullivan takes Beth from lost to leader in impressive fashion. The movie does task her with some fan service moments that don’t always land…but that’s more about how they did them than her ability to pull them off.
Evil Dead Rise has a few moments of fan service. They mostly work. There is one that rings hollow during the climax (see above) …but I genuinely enjoyed other callbacks to famous lines. The opening scene of the movie plays with a famous aspect of the franchise in a light and fun way. The only homage that Evil Dead Rise really needed was buckets of blood. And it nails that part perfectly.
If you like the Evil Dead franchise…I can’t see any reason that you wouldn’t like Evil Dead Rise. It goes for it. Even though it is a more terrifying and sadder set-up than the franchise has dealt with before. All the violence and mayhem you expect is here. It has some new tricks up its sleeve as well…especially when Mother takes her final form. Like I said at the start…it’s an Evil Dead movie. After five great ones…it’s about the highest compliment that you can give.
Scare Value
The most important thing that an Evil Dead movie can be…is an Evil Dead movie. Evil Dead Rise is pure Evil Dead. Someone finds the Necronomicon…they accidentally unleash hell on earth…a bloodbath follows. Everything you’re looking for is here. Taking the story out of the woods and into a family home raises the stakes and makes the destruction much more personal. Another win for the franchise.
4/5
See where Evil Dead Rise ranks in our full Evil Dead series ranking
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Evil Dead Rise Trailer
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