Evil Dead Rise review (revised) SPOILER

Evil Dead Rise is the fifth installment to the Evil Dead franchise. The film is a ”requel” with no ties to the previous four films. The film moves from a cabin in Tennessee to a high-rise apartment in Los Angeles. Instead of vacationing young adults, we get a recently made single mother, Ellie, and her three children, son, Danny; middle daughter, Bridget; and youngest daughter, Kassie. They are joined by recently pregnant, Beth, who is Ellie’s sister and the kid’s aunt.

This is a good film that had the potential to be great. Evil Dead Rise is a dark, witchy, gory, gross, and overall entertaining film. The film knows exactly what it is and plays into it very well, delivering a good fifth film that has earned a sixth. The film hinted at deep emotional conflict within the two leads, but these struggles were essentially glossed over with neither having an impact on the subsequent conflict. The film had a rare opportunity within horror to allow us to develop an emotional connection with the characters but instead of fleshing out their backstories, they wound up being ignored.

Ellie was recently left by her husband Jay which has put the family in a financial flux. Beth is pregnant and is so distraught that she needs to take an impromptu trip to see a sister who she hasn’t spoken to in months. Beth is a guitar technician for rock bands but Ellie instead sees her as a road groupie. There is clearly a disconnect between the sisters on Beth’s career choices yet this served as nothing more than dialogue filler and a later plot device.

Jay leaving the family had no impact on the plot. We don’t see how this impacts the children or Ellie outside of money being tight. The family is clearly in emotional distress but this isn’t fleshed out further. This would have allowed us to learn more about each of the children and possibly developed a more intimate connection with the three. I suspect that this was likely cut for the theatrical version which is a disappointment because seeing this would have made for a film with more emotional depth. We could have learned more on who these characters are, which would have made each death and transformation more impactful.

I thought Ellie, played by Alyssa Sutherland who has also been in Vikings, gave a really strong performance. I thought the kids did well, too. Morgan Davies in particular did a good job as an overly curious and adventurous teenage boy who’s getting into something that he has no business doing. Some of my friends thought he was dumb but to me that tracks for a teenage boy. I think it’s plausible for a teenage boy to toy around with the Book of the Dead. In fact, that’s the exact demographic that I think would and Davies gives a realistic portrayal of how I thought that would go down.

A big criticism of the first two films that I have is the inconsistent tone. The 80s films juggle between camp, tongue-in-cheek, and a dark tone mediocrely. I don’t like when films don’t know what they want to be and shift tones from scene-to-scene. This is why I’m not nearly as high on the 80s films as others and why I believe that the 2013 version is the best of the franchise. The 2013 version has a consistent dark tone from start to finish which I absolutely loved.

Evil Dead Rise rips a page out of this playbook and does the same. The film is dark, depraved, and highly unsettling. It has none of the camp or humor of the first two films. The film has a steady plot and doesn’t jump around with tone. The film got very bloody and gross. I do think that were opportunities to get even bloodier, a lá Terrifier 2, but it restrained itself, which isn’t a problem. More blood doesn’t equate to a better film.

As in many horror films, there were some highly questionable (dumb) decisions made by the main characters. This doesn’t sabotage the film but I do want to see horror writers move past needing bad decisions to push the plot forward. This, however, did make for some great terror sequences. The demons attempting to break in and them subsequently being chased throughout the house were all really enjoyable. Further on this - I absolutely loved the isolationism of this film. As stated above, it’s set in a high-rise apartment following an earthquake which destroyed the stairs. The film is set almost exclusively in a single apartment and throughout their floor. There’s a certain claustrophobic feel to the film that adds to the suspense that’s already happening onscreen.

The isolated setting gives added conflict. I also liked the “survive the night” trope used here too. There’s a video game type ambience as the characters are trying to innovatively escape while trying to beat the cinematic clock by surviving until dawn. This all made for a very fun film despite missed opportunities to explore the character’s inner-conflict and some shaky decision-making by our leads.

I overall enjoyed the film. This is a good, possibly very good film that had the potential to be great. It’s a letdown that our lead’s backstories were either not explored or cut from the theatrical version. Despite this, it’s still an entertaining horror movie. Some people may not like the semi-singular setting but I greatly enjoyed it and thought that it was spacious enough that I never got bored with the locale. This isn’t a Bruce Campbell Evil Dead. I personally prefer this style over the first three. This may not be your cup of tea if you prefer the style of the first three or if you are expecting that. This is nothing like that. Evil Dead Rise is a very dark, witchy, gross, and depraved film that is a violent movie that had the potential to be on par with its 2013 version but fell a bit short. This is still a fun ride nonetheless.

—–7.7/1

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