Director: Lee Cronin
Writer: Lee Cronin
Stars: Mirabai Pease, Richard Crouchley, Anna-Maree Thomas
Synopsis: A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
Meatheads and gore-hounds rejoice! Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise is a bloodstained and adrenaline-fueled funhouse of crazed horror delights that references the franchise’s past, while introducing new maneuvers that make it stand out on its own. Whether or not you are a fan of The Evil Dead, there’s plenty to relish in the latest installment. In the words of Ash J. Williams, this film is “groovy”.
Almost forty-two years have passed since the horror-comedy staple The Evil Dead was released, created by the mad genius Sam Raimi. This franchise has revolutionized the horror and comedy (and everything in between) genres to the point that filmmakers need to tip their hats in honor of the American director. It’s genuinely awe-inspiring how Raimi managed to create something so frightening and howl-inducing at the same time, while still being innovative in terms of story and directorial vision. Sure, it borrows from the narrative aesthetics of the “cabin in the woods” movies. But what lies within such a cabin, and the classic hero in the middle, Ash J. Williams (Bruce Campbell), are very innovative and clever; the lore behind the evils conjured in those woods (the Necronomicon, Deadites, The Kandarian Dagger) makes us eager to learn more about them. And when you add Raimi’s distinctive style of slapstick-like crashing maneuvers into the mix, the result is something ever-lasting.
In 2013, Fede Álvarez helmed a remake of the original Evil Dead films, and, in my honest opinion, it was pretty disappointing. While it contained a high degree of grueling visuals and tried to implement a new story surrounding drug addiction (and going cold turkey), the film ended up feeling incomplete because it missed the mark on the comedic factors of the franchise. After that film, I thought there wouldn’t be another installment due to the mixed reception and the cancellation of the Ash vs. The Evil Dead series. It made plenty of money at the box office, yet, I felt that we were beginning to the end of this franchise I’m a big fan of. However, ten years after Álvarez’s feature, Lee Cronin arrives with Evil Dead Rise – a brutal reinvention of the decades-spanning franchise while still giving nods to the past and other 80s genre classics (The Shining, Society, Pieces). Initially, this film was going to be a straight-to-streaming release, but thank heavens that the people in charge got their heads straight.
A curtain raiser sets up a similar premise to what we expect from an Evil Dead film, the classic cabin in the woods setting where evil lurks in every corner (even in the depths of the ocean). It encapsulates a familiar tension and horror setup that basically defined the franchise. But after some gnarly action involving a drone and head scalping, Lee Cronin switches the scene; from the woods, we go into a deteriorated high-rise Los Angeles apartment. In such an apartment, a mother, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), lives with her three children – Danny, Bridget, and Kassie (Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher) – and she’s trying to piece together her life after a series of events that turned her family’s life upside down. Her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan), who has recently discovered that she’s pregnant, has arrived for a surprise visit after taking a break from touring with a rock band as a guitar technician (not as a groupie).
As a means to heal the wounds of the past, Beth being estranged from her sister for a long while now, Ellie asks the kids to go out and grab a pizza from the nearby local. Once they arrive, a high-magnitude earthquake hits, cracking open the ground with several crevices around, one of them revealing an abandoned bank vault from the old times. Danny curiously jumps into the hole to see what he can find. And wouldn’t you know it, he finds some old vinyl records alongside one of the volumes of the Necronomicon (aka. the Book of the Dead). The aspiring DJ plays the tunes of malevolence, in which a group of priests reads a passage from the book. And immediately, things take a turn for the worse. The evil presence possesses dear Ellie and turns her into a manic soul-hungry Deadite who wants to rip her kids apart into little pieces. Welcome to Lee Cronin’s carnival of horror delights, where the laughs are delivered in equal measure as blood and guts are spilled into the screen.
Unlike the first film in the franchise, which talked about the fixation with darkness and death, Evil Dead Rise is a story about motherhood – how to roll with the punches of maternity when your life is crashing down. You can even say that the evils chasing Beth are a personification of her worries about being a mother, each one getting worse to recap the stages of life, from the shining bright light of birth to eventual death. You get glimpses of Beth feeling the baby inside her, more so when malevolence is eating the world around her, right until the last act, when her acute maternal instincts click to save the day. Most of this is up to interpretation because the film isn’t totally interested in exploring all of this. This may be a fault in another film, but since the Irish filmmaker’s vision of an Evil Dead movie is so pulsating and bloody good fun, it isn’t bothersome. One just rolls with it from beginning to end.
In Evil Dead Rise, Lee Cronin uses every single inch of its location to its highest potential. From using everyday objects as murderous weapons – the first one that comes to mind is a cheese grater – to implementing a claustrophobic environment, the viewer gets a sensation that there’s no sense of escape. This heightens its sinister atmosphere to a delightful degree. The change of scenery from the cabin in the woods to a high-rise apartment creates a more profound sense of chaos that arises as the minutes pass. “Everyone here dies by dawn”, says Deadite Ellie at one point in the film, and it certainly feels like this is so. The characters, both kids and adults, go through traumatizing events that make your stomach churn if you are not too accustomed to seeing significant amounts of gore on the big screen. If you are a gore-hound or meathead (such as I), you will have an evil grin throughout the entire ninety-seven minutes of the film’s runtime.
It’s almost a sadistic experience; while gruesome acts are happening on-screen, the Deadites enjoy being the vilest and most cruel people in the world. And it’s so entertaining to watch because of the performances by the excellent cast. Nevertheless, Alyssa Sutherland, with her malicious grin and crimson red hair, is the one who stands out from the bunch as the leading Deadite in the marching band of death. Sutherland quickly switches from a disturbing demonic persona to soothing motherly care with ease. She isn’t afraid to go all out and embrace the rampaging comedic excessiveness of these possessive demons, adding more terrifying layers to the film. You just wish you could see her for a couple more hours due to her being so energetic and exhilarating. On the other hand, her counterpart Lily Sullivan is a badass final girl whose presence is more than a stand-in for Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams. Sure, she wields a shotgun and chainsaw just as the classic hero, but she makes the character her own, and the audience cares about her. Seeing them go head to head throughout the film was just a horror genre blessing.
The practical effects and makeup teams deserve multiple rounds of applause because they made everything feel so tactile. Cronin makes sure that the audience feels every single stabbing, piercing, and shot to the possessed meat-sacks in Evil Dead Rise, whether by closeups of the damage being done or just letting the camera linger to show the beauty behind tangible monstrosities – something that CGI or high-budgeted visual effects cannot capture. And that also includes the gallons upon gallons of blood raining down on the cast and crew. Blood is spilled in so much quantity that the audience leaves the theater seemingly drenched in it as well. There’s something so fascinating about creating something that you can sense its presence and feel that it is real rather than just a conjuring from a computer screen. That was one of my problems with another recent horror release, Renfield, which falsely promoted itself as a gore-fest with some comedic chops. But instead, it was filled with poor CGI decapitations and arm rippings; even the blood was a visual effect.
From the get-go, you notice that Lee Cronin has a close attachment to the Evil Dead franchise, referencing the original two pictures with Raimi-like shots captured by cinematographer Dave Garbett, classic quippy lines, iconic weapons, and even some slapstick comedy bits. Unlike Álvarez, Cronin embraces the past while moving forward with a new story. It is a bold swing to switch things up. Yet, taking the pandemic under consideration, the restrictive and claustrophobic setting paves the way for something more wicked to arrive as the clock keeps ticking. I was ecstatic to see this film, and I’m so glad it didn’t end up disappointing me like other horror releases in the 2020s (cough, cough… Last Night in Soho and The Black Phone). Having watched Evil Dead Rise twice already (and I’m planning to see it a third time), I can say that the fun doesn’t diminish; you continue to be entranced by the gore and splatter in the same amount you laugh at the jokes and quips. Does this film beat Evil Dead 2? Of course not. But is it the third best? Absolutely!
