Movie review: Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Yo, how goes it you digital degenerates? It's me, skeletonized goblin man who can't stay consistent on posting and being alive. I'm back here today to review a movie for you guys, one that I'm sure at least a handful of people on this site went and saw. I'm talking about Evil Dead Rise, the latest entry into the evil dead franchise and our second rebooted movie of the series. If you've never heard of any of the Evil Dead movies, then I would have to assume you're a cave dwelling lobotomite at this point. But, hey. No judgement if you're just drooling onto your phone/computer screen right now. Just as a TLDR, the Evil Dead series has a cult following and has spanned over several decades now, starting off from a micro budget horror movie made by director/writer Sam Raimi as his first project. The original movie is regarded as one of the greatest horror films ever made, and also as one of the best indie films to date.

This movie/reboot was written and directed by Lee Cronin, a relatively new filmmaker who hasn't done anything really big before this. A sign that usually either means the film will be an absolute banger, or a giant trash fire. It also features a cast of relatively lesser known actors, with the main leads being Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan. Before we dive into the review, I definitely have to say that I absolutely adore the Evil Dead franchise as a whole. This series has been a part of my life since my early teenage years, and I've consumed pretty much every form of media of it as I've grown up, including many odd comics, the fun TV series and even the absolute banger game they released for the OG Xbox. So, I was very excited when this project was announced a few years ago, and went into the movie with semi high expectations.

And, I can definitely say my evil dead itch got the scratch it so desperately needed like the filthy little Weiner dog it is.

So, I'll try not to talk about spoilers through this whole thing. But, I can't avoid talking about some things. So, fair warning not to continue on if you don't want to be spoiled. You pussy. The film opens up in a familiar setting if you've ever watched an Evil Dead movie, a cabin in the woods. It quickly devolves into some fun Deadite stuff, and overall is a very strong opening and a fun callback to the previous movies. However, the rest of the movie takes place in a very different and new setting, being in a large apartment block. I really think this was a great choice for the movie to do something different, while also still working it in a way to allow them to make it feel isolated and and somewhat claustrophobic. I feel like at this point they've done the cabin in the woods enough times where it would just feel kind of silly/stale to have a whole new movie set there yet again.

The film also takes a different approach with the main characters of the movie, as instead of having a group of friends or random people together being terrorized, it's a small, semi dysfunctional family of a single mother, her 3 children and her estranged sister. (None of the previous movies have ever utilized children as characters, I imagine due to have violent and graphic the Evil Dead movies can get. So, I know a lot of interest/hype build up for this movie was people wanting to see what the movie could possibly be like with a cast like this.) I think they went about setting up these characters in a modern/progressive setting to avoid falling into any old tropes that you'd typically see in a horror movie involving a family, and I was fine with that. The only people who seemed pissy about it were geriatric boomers who are afraid of change and want Bruce Campbell to roll up in a wheel chair with an IV line attached to his chainsaw to fight Deadites, I guess.

Anywho. The main character of the movie is the estranged sister named Beth. Beth is a guitar technician for several bands, but has just found out that she is pregnant and is panicking over it. This leads to her deciding to go visit her sister, Ellie, as she's someone she has always been able to depend on to help her figure out her life. Once she gets there you pretty quickly can tell something is up, and you find out that the building is getting shut down within a month and Ellie's husband has left her to go buy a sweet ass camaro, drink corona beers and party with highschool girls. I mean, I've just made all of that up, but dude sounds like a deadbeat so I'll continue to believe that in my head canon. (Though, technically, him peacing out actually probably kept him alive. So, GG's, I guess?) Beth's been too busy and ignoring her sibling in her time of need, so shit is kind of awkward between them. In the meantime, the kids have left to go get dinner and are coming back when an earthquake hits. This opens up a hole in the basement garage, which ends up with one of the kids discovering an old bank vault underneath the building. A totally normal bank vault, not at all riddled with crosses in a creepy way and a giant Jesus statue.

This is the set up to where our characters get their hands on the Necronomicon, and shit obviously starts to pop off. Instead of a cassette tape like the OG movies where the incantation is read off, this time around there are LP's that were recorded by a clergyman. Which is perfect since one of our main characters fancies themselves a DJ who will be railing coke and playing boner jams at a strip club in no time. Speaking of it, I should also probably mention this now, but there are A LOT of set ups and payoffs in this movie. There's heaps of stuff pointed out in the first part of the movie that are always utilized in someway later on in the film. It's not a negative or anything, just something I wanted to point out since it's glaringly pointing things out that will be brought back up later on.

But, yeah. After the book is found things the records are played and things ramp up with the mother ending up possessed by a Deadite. Her performance as a normal person is pretty good in the movie, but once she starts doing possessed shit it goes up to a whole other level. I would honestly say she has given the best Deadite performance by far from anyone in this entire series. She has perfect line delivery and does a fantastic job with the way she moves and the choreography. If there was a horror version of the Oscars, I would certainly feel she'd be a contender for one. I'll mention as well that most of the performances in the movie are done pretty well. The small child actor isn't the best but she's also not bad, she does a fine job. The teenage actors do a fairly decent job as well, though you do notice their New Zealand/Australian accents come through at times in their dialogue. I dunno if I mentioned that already, but the entire cast seemed to be from that region of the world, probably because they filmed the movie in New Zealand. On repeat viewings it's definitely more noticeable, but it doesn't take away from my love of the film.

Without spoiling too much of what happens in the rest of the movie, I do want to highlight a quick section that happens after the Deadite action pops off. There's this hallway sequence that takes place and it is absolutely fantastic and a highlight of the film. One of the kills involves a person getting their eyeball sucked out of their head, and then spit into the mouth of another person who then chokes to death on it. I was giggling like a god damn hyena while watching this part, and just fucking loved it. It's also a reference to a scene in Evil Dead II, albeit done in a better way in my opinion. There's a lot of little references and nods to other horror franchises in this movie as well. Even the eyeball sucking seems to be a nod to Stuart Gordon's film From Beyond. Earlier in the film there's a shot with a hand going into a tub and the way it's angled and filmed it seems to be a reference to Freddy Kruger's glove coming out of the water in Nightmare on Elm Street. There's also a reference to The Shining with a blood elevator which was fucking cool. So, yeah, just a lot of fun little nods to past horror movies that someone super into horror would like.

That hallway sequence continues on though and the viewing of it changes to that of looking through a peephole. I don't know if they intended it to be funny in a dark/morbid way or if it was supposed to just be fully frightening. But, holy shit did I just laugh during this entire part of the movie at how fucked up it was. It was basically like watching an adult horror version of that part in Scooby Doo episodes where people run through doors in a hallway constantly. Except instead of running into a costumed guy and yelling before going through a new door, it's a child getting their arms ripped off or a guy getting his throat ripped out like if Patrick Swayze from Road House was the demon. Just a super fun, well done sequence that is shown from a really cool perspective. Though, there are tons of great fights/sequences after this as well.

I'm going to skip to the end now as I really think you should just go watch the movie if you haven't seen it. But, I think the ending is definitely somewhat weaker than the rest of the movie. In the last 10-15 minutes of the movie the Deadites form into one giant creature to chase down the survivors. And, I do get that the reasoning for this was because the main Deadite had lost some limbs and couldn't really move around very well. But, it makes the Deadites feel less threatening because now they're much slower and can't really hide their presence. It still works well to show that our main character is done fucking around with this shit. But, I just think there was probably a better way to do the last big showdown/confrontation in the movie. Though, the Deadite design was still pretty cool. It reminded me of a weird creature you would have seen in, like, Resident Evil or Dead Space. But, anyways, the film comes to an end and ties into the start of the movie making a nice little circle and leaving plenty of room for sequels to happen in the future.

Which it absolutely will be getting, as this movie had a budget of less than 20 million dollars and made a crispy 145 million at the box office. I think the director really would like to make this into a few movies in the future as well based off little things in the movie, such as them mentioning that there are 3 volumes of the book of the dead (Which is a callback to Army of Darkness which shows there are 3 books.), and insinuating that all 3 volumes exist in this universe and are all on earth. He's talked about there possibly being a 4th book that is the inverse of the other 3 as well. So, there's definitely ideas in the works for future movies that might involve characters from the past films such as Ash or Mia. I also assume that because you can hear Ash speak in protest of the book on the record being played, so there might be some strange time travel stuff in play like in Army of Darkness. I'm definitely interested to see what happens there in the future regardless though.

But, yeah. Overall I absolutely loved this movie. It has great pacing, awesome effects, solid acting performances from the two main leads and super fun kills. The narrative adds to the lore of the series and helps a bit with world building for the rest of the series. I think this is a very fun, comedic take on the franchise while also maintaining lots of fucked up moments that may freak you out if you're not a stone cold killer when it comes to horror stuff. I know I skipped over a lot of stuff with the story, but just go watch the movie and enjoy it, you bitch. I would say all in all if I was asked to rate this movie, I would give Evil Dead Rise probably an 8 out of 10. I think a 7.5-8 is probably the most accurate rating I could give, it's definitely very above average and while it isn't perfect it's definitely a great horror flick.

Thanks for checking out the review you digital degenerates. I'll catch you next time, my doods.

Later!