Evil Dead Rise: Film Review
Holy crap! If you think horrors haven’t been scary enough so far this year, then you need to check out Lee Cronin‘s Evil Dead Rise.
Lily Sullivan stars as Beth, who goes to visit her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three children Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) in their high-rise apartment in Los Angeles. After an earthquake, a hole opens up in the parking garage and Danny decides to go and explore. Down there, he finds the Book of the Dead and vinyl records. If you’ve seen the Evil Dead movies, you know what’s coming next – he (stupidly) plays the recordings and the evil spirit is resurrected once more.
This film has a completely different setting and a fresh set of characters but it still bears all the hallmarks of an Evil Dead film and follows the rules Sam Raimi established. There are obvious callbacks to the original (which I won’t spoil) but it honours the spirit of the franchise in many other ways too; the film is blood-soaked, visceral, gory as hell and totally bonkers.
It also has the same propulsive momentum – once the spirit possesses Ellie, the film does not let up or give you much time to chill. It’s got a go, go, go mentality and the scares and gore get increasingly more insane as the film goes along and the finale is very hardcore. But, at the same time, it doesn’t forget that Evil Dead films also have the comedy factor (particularly Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness) and there are some (very dark and twisted) laughs in here. This comic relief is very much needed to lighten the load at times.
Sullivan is essentially our new Ash Williams and she is awesome. This is a much more grounded domestic story so she doesn’t do his cheesy quips but she really gets put through the wringer. I felt exhausted watching her fighting the deadites and trying to protect the children at the same time. Sutherland is absolutely terrifying, with such a horrifying smile, and I thought Echols was excellent.
Evil Dead Rise honours what came before while giving us something new. You don’t need to have seen the originals to understand this but you’ll enjoy it so much more if you’re in the know because spotting the references really adds to the entertainment factor. I would encourage you to watch this with a crowd. It is so much fun hearing people audibly gasp or wince at the gore and collectively laughing at something quite twisted.
Evil Dead Rise may be the scariest and goriest film I’ve seen in a while, but it also a very good time at the movies.
In cinemas from Friday 21st April