Evil Dead as a franchise has a clear trajectory though it is uncertain whether it has been a wholly positive one. Unlike Scream which started as blockbuster mainstream horror and has maintained that status with each instalment, Evil Dead began with a group of friends making a cheap horror film with as much invention as amateurism. Every subsequent instalment has been more polished and professionally made while attempting to maintain the roguish and gory charm of the original.
This tension has produced as mixed results as you’d expect but the growing fanbase has remained ever-passionate. There is no doubt that their existence has led to it becoming a franchise in the first place with television shows and video games released alongside the films. But it does raise the question of how many attempts to recapture the lightning in a bottle there can be since the key original creative team of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are no longer actively in control.
This new instalment borrows a similar approach to the 2013 remake in centring the story on a character’s emotional journey, this time on Beth coping with an unexpected pregnancy by abandoning a tour with a band (of which she works as a technician rather than a band member) and visiting her sister Ellie and her three children (Danny, Bridget and Kassie) in LA. Beth is shaken up by changes in the family that she has missed while away and soon there are literal shakes as an earthquake hits, uncovering a vault that contains a Book of the Dead that obviously should be left alone. Obviously.
So after Danny takes it back to the flat and plays the exposition vinyl, possessions, vomiting and bone-cracking, violence begins. Right from the beginning, Evil Dead fans are getting their fills worth of violence and psychological torment as the Deadites scream foul-mouthed put-downs and rip and tear through the building and its inhabitants. Alyssa Sutherland demonstrates incredible physicality as the possessed Ellie, from her piercing eyes to her numerous body contortions. The Deadites have never been so scary and so fun as they persistently mess with their prey in relentless pursuit. When they start coming, they don’t stop coming.
Evil Dead Rise gives you what you want and more, guaranteed to be a thrilling cinema experience that audiences have been increasingly craving from the genre in the last few years.
Rise doesn’t rest on its laurels though and provides plenty of heart as well as gore. Raimi had instigated the development of a new Evil Dead in 2018 but writer and director Lee Cronin (fresh from his breakout feature debut The Hole in the Ground) brings many fresh ideas to this instalment. Primarily, he “knew that children had to be in the story” and so raising the stakes, causing “even greater consequences.” Having literal kids being the victims makes it all feel a bit meaner as it is soon clear that they are not guaranteed to be safe. Even sweet innocent Kassie, the youngest child with actor Nell Fisher less than 11 years old and already destined to be a star, has her curious questioning become increasingly sinister; the trailer line she delivers to Aunt Beth, “You know how to lie to kids”, is quietly devastating in context.
As well as focusing the story on a family, the change of location from a sprawling house to a run-down apartment reflects how this is a home that a family could realistically afford. The “whole building is broken” and the family is a month away from eviction since the building is being knocked down and renovated. Already built upon an old bank, their home is just another abandoned project to be swiftly replaced with something similarly disposable. This context adds to their helplessness; they’re already being ignored when it comes to their social status, and surely they have no hope when supernatural forces come to play.
Indeed, playful sums the film up in a single word. It’s a big mainstream horror with plenty of technical polish but it is all used to serve a twisted sense of humour, whether it be the sound design as books are read to the accompaniment of screaming or the incredible pratfalls that are routinely on display. The geography of the apartment is clearly laid out so that maximum dread can be mined from knowing how close certain rooms are to each other. There may be polish, but there’s no glossy sheen to it all; it is genuinely unpleasant when it wants to be.
The major fly in the ointment is the opening and ending scenes which focus on the expected cabin in the woods scenario that is completely separate from the main events of the film. Beyond a good drone gag, they add very little to the plot and distract from what would otherwise be a streamlined story. In terms of quality, they are on par with the rest of the film, but if you arrive late or leave early, you won’t miss much.
That aside, Evil Dead Rise is a modern take on the series, focusing on two female leads and including a trans actor (Morgan Davies as Danny), while being first and foremost a gross, bloody, scary Evil Dead film. Unfortunately, the trailer does reveal some of the set pieces, but there are still plenty of surprises including a particularly good use of a peephole. While it brings new things to Evil Dead, it isn’t devastatingly original as a horror in its own right borrowing heavily from Toni Collette’s transformation in the second half of Hereditary and even throwing in a Shining reference. But these are churlish nitpicks, Evil Dead Rise gives you what you want and more, guaranteed to be a thrilling cinema experience that audiences have been increasingly craving from the genre in the last few years.
Evil Dead Rise is in Cinemas Nationwide from April 21st
