Evil Dead Rise

• Written and Directed by Lee Cronin
• March 15, 2023 (SXSW) / April 21, 2023 (US)
• Based on characters created by Sam Raimi

Two estranged sisters try to survive a night and save their family from deadites.

After the attempted Evil Dead reboot I went into this with hesitation. I know that reboot got praise but I was not a fan. I liked the horror comedy that the series had become. This film is much more in line with the Evil Dead reboot from a few years back (or even the original film) than it is from anything with Ash Williams. It’s not a horror comedy but rather a serious horror film.

I remember reading we would still feel Ash’s presence in Evil Dead Rise which felt like a red flag to me. And I guess that amounted in part to the final girl of Beth (Lily Sullivan) looking reminiscent of Ash Williams in his youth and using the line “Come and get some.” But truthfully though other than that Ashy Slashy really is not here. Unless you know Bruce Campbell’s voice is on a recording you will not get that he is actually in the film.

The main narrative is presented as a flashback of the opening scene. The film starts at a cabin along a lake where there are some kills and then it goes to a club with a blurb that says “One day earlier.” Because of that little bit the movie becomes the story of those three people at the lake that do not ever get developed and not the story of a family fighting for survival.

I don’t think that opening bit was necessary at all. It did nothing to inform the developed narrative or tell the audience anything it already did not know. If they wished to show the evil escaping then the closing moments of the film were more than enough.

The story is set in a building scheduled to be demolished that was once a bank with only a handful of tenants left. After a minor quake opens a massive hole into a vault still packed with stuff (why?), some kids leave with a pair of records and a copy of the Naturom Demonto. After a series of bad decisions that include playing the record with the incantation that summons the evil, Hell is quite literally unleashed on Earth.

So anywho, the book and record were in the vault to keep it safe and unused. I know the Naturom Demonto cannot be destroyed but does that extend to anything with the incantations on it? Clearly somebody with knowledge of events survived long enough to put all that stuff in a safe place so why leave the record with the recording to summon the dead intact? How bad that record is was known to the character in the recording.

Beth and her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) start out as rather unlikeable to the point you kinda want the evil dead to get them. Beth gets rehabbed by the end but nothing prior to Ellie getting possessed helps her character. They seem to barely like each other and you are left curious why they continue to associate into adulthood.

This looks to be much heavier on practical effects than on CGI. Not entirely but largely since some things done are impossible with anything practical. This limited use of CGI gives Evil Dead Rise a much more visceral thrill. Because of that it gives you the real feeling that nobody makes it out alive. It becomes much more disturbing than scary which is just fine. I do not need to be frightened with every horror film. Unsettled is very acceptable.

There is not gore for the sake of gore. Anything disgusting we get helps to set the stage or move the story forward. This is by no means a splatter fest. It has a solid and coherent story with a level of consistency on how the supernatural elements are portrayed.

With a very small setting and plenty of confined space, they get a good story out of all elements. Once the action starts moving, they manage to keep you hooked with an ever moving narrative that builds. I can’t say I was disappointed by this. While the attempted reboot from a few years ago did nothing for me this was good. It was down beat, but not soul crushing. Its major flaw is that it is ultimately the story of how those three people from the opening that get zero development die at the lake house.

While not on par with the first three Evil Dead films, Evil Dead Rise is an acceptable edition to this fictional horror world. This is much more serious than the majority of the films or even the TV show so do not go expecting something humorous but do go in.