Evil Dead Rise
The latest entry in the Evil Dead series gets the gore right but misses the absurdity
Alyssa Sutherland cracks bones and jokes in the latest Evil Dead movie.
Guitar tech Beth (Lily Sullivan) flees to her sister Ellie’s apartment after discovering she’s pregnant. Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), however, isn’t excited to see her sister. Things have changed in the months that Beth has spent on the road, and if Beth had bothered to check her voicemails, she might have learned that Ellie’s husband had left, her three kids are in crisis, and the family is about to lose their home.
Beth is still trying to make amends when an earthquake interrupts the reunion. The earthquake opens up a pit, which is irresistible to Ellie’s son, Danny (Morgan Davies). He climbs into the hole and finds crosses hanging from the ceiling, creepy photos of priests, some records, and a book made of flesh. Having never seen a horror movie or read a scary story in his life, Danny decides it would be cool to take these items and investigate them further.
He plays the records, which summons a demon to the building.
Now Beth has bigger problems than reconciling with her sister and figuring out if she wants to be a mother. Ellie is possessed by a demon and her nieces and nephew are not going to live through the night if Beth doesn’t put a plan together.
Can they escape the demon?
For my money, the best Evil Dead movie of the last five years is still Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Evil Dead Rise still brings plenty of gore and some Sam Raimi sensibilities to the latest entry in the franchise. Director/writer Lee Cronin certainly gets what horror hounds are after in the series. There are buckets of gore — literally, they must have brought in fake blood by the bucket for certain scenes. And there’s even some humor, including Sutherland’s demon persona acting as a fantastic insult comic when she isn’t trying to kill people. But the Raimi level of absurdity, which was compounded by Bruce Campbell’s star turn as Ash, is missing.
Still, it’s clear Cronin is a fan of the films. He’s got Raimi’s eye fixation, the whip pans, and speedy dolly shots to keep the style consistent with Raimi’s original films. The opening of the movie, which I won’t spoil, could be directed by Raimi himself. There are also plenty of little shout-outs to the original franchise for fans to point out.
But there’s still something missing, and that might just be the nature of the storytelling. To put it mildly, the original films’ protagonist was an egomaniacal idiot. It makes sense that Ash would find himself in scrape after scrape because, well, he’s stupid. Cronin’s characters feel smart, or at least have achieved that level of disaffected cynicism that so many teens have. It feels weird that they’d find a book made of literal flesh with actual fangs holding the binding closed and immediately open it to browse the pages. Would Ash do that? Sure. But would a teen that’s probably at least scrolled by horror TikTok? I doubt it.
Though the teens seem a little smarter than the plot would have you believe, the acting overall is solid. Sutherland and Sullivan play well off each other as fractious sisters and then as foes. The rest of the tenants in the building are interesting characters with some silly bits of character work. There’s only one wide-eyed moppet to tolerate through the film, who’s written in a way that makes me think Cronin’s never encountered a human child before. Still, overall, the canon fodder for the film is amusing.
The movie also has some slapdash rules about how demonic possession can occur. In some cases, it’s a blood transfer, in others the demon just sort of wooshes into you. Either way, once you’re possessed, you’re a goner. Your soul leaves your body and you immediately become the funniest person in the room. Truly, I’d love a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie with the demons offering their commentary.
While not exactly recapturing the wild gory absurdity of the original series, Evil Dead Rise is certainly a bloody good time for most. Make sure you see this with a group, whether in a packed theater or streaming it with friends. This is a movie that benefits from commentary and crowd reactions. Hell, if you can, read from the Necronomicon before viewing, I’m sure the demon would have some hilarious observations to share.
Verdict: Blood and guts galore aren’t quite a substitute for Raimi’s sensibilities, but it’s close.
Evil Dead Rise is rated R and available in theaters April 21.
