Directed By Lee Cronin

Starring – Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies

The Plot – In the fifth Evil Dead film, a road-weary Beth (Sullivan) pays an overdue visit to her older sister Ellie (Sutherland), who is raising three kids on her own in a cramped L.A apartment. The sisters’ reunion is cut short by the discovery of a mysterious book deep in the bowels of Ellie’s building, giving rise to flesh-possessing demons, and thrusting Beth into a primal battle for survival as she is faced with the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.

Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and some adult language

Evil Dead Rise – Official Trailer (Green Band) – YouTube

POSITIVES

Through forty years, five films and a TV series, the iconic franchise has consistently adapted with the times, and for this installment that change lends itself not only to Cronin at the helm, who seamlessly commands the chair with most of the impact that Sam Raimi once filled, but also the change in setting, which trades in the familiarity in scenery of a cabin by the lake, for an ominous century old high-rise that never sacrifices isolation and urgency for inner-city surroundings. Because of such, Cronin’s film is often disturbing and even occasionally terrifying, supplanting a family dynamic that the director vividly takes his time fleshing out in order to conjure a rich combination of meaningful stakes and psychological scares that sting all the more gratifying when you consider these children are literally and figuratively watching their family be torn apart at the seams by something that they don’t understand and certainly can’t overcome. Like previous Evil Dead films, I appreciated that literally everyone is up for grabs here, which might anger some audiences who hate seeing children in peril, but one that is responsible in fully conveying the extent of the ferocity that comes with unearthing something so unpredictable that transfers to the benefit of the many physical scenes of conflict that are executed with a fine combination of urgency and especially vulnerability. In terms of atmosphere, we’re met with the same balance of horror and comedic elements that the franchise has been made reputable for, even if the former far outweighs the latter, and if it’s gore that you seek out, you will find it in spades, in everything from chainsaw petrusions, to lumber choppers, to even elevators of blood, which are all realized with a responsible combination of practical and computer-generated effects that mostly reside on the side of effectiveness consistently throughout. The refined articulation of the movie’s sound design is also meaningful in benefitting the intergrity of the aforementioned frights, with crunching twists and elasticism in skin designs that are conveyed brilliantly in audibly illustrating the struggle of the impact from those possessed from within. Because it’s amplified and executed with such tenderness and frailty inside of the way the sound deposits are continuously pitched, it makes the contortion of the visuals all the more commanding, affording us an immersive insight to the devastation that we can not only see, but can now feel within the depths of intricate mixing and razor sharp editing. There’s also quite a few Easter Eggs of familiarity in the history of the franchise, which could be argued as nostalgic, but for my money are rendered with the kind of necessity that doesn’t quite make them a wink and nod to the audience watching from beyond. The film is also benefited by a sharp as daggers ensemble that each bring something meaningful to the dynamic of their respective characters, with the child actors embracing terror naturally and believably in the confines of their challenging perspectives, and Alyssa Sutherland manipulating us with motherly instincts when she’s not inflicting physical torture in the extents of bodily contortion. However, Lily Sullivan is definitely the true inescapable presence here, with a rich combination of naturalistic grit and take-charge authoritarian that not only make her the ideal protagonist in a franchise that spawned one of horror’s biggest badasses, but also a character with her own internal secrets, which build all the more gingerly when thrown into the mix of so many life-threatening circumstances.

NEGATIVES

Cronin has what I call a “Jurassic Park” problem, in which a film made in contemporary times doesn’t stand up to the visual successes of a film made forty-one years prior, serving as the only essence of the originals that this film failed to capitalize on. Considering Raimi had a shoe-string budget to flesh out the original 1981 film, I’m still amazed by what he was able to accomplish, still finding it difficult to even attempt to conquer how he was able to pull off such swiftly surreal movements of the lens for the integrity of the engagement. Here, Cronin isn’t able to render even half of the mystique or inspiration of his predecessor, nor even attempt such a feat, with even the rarest examples feeling more hindering than accommodating to scenes deserving of something cerebrally stimulating. His biggest creation mostly comes in the form of a key-hole depiction, which undercut too much of the suspense with an angle that unintentionally renders humor for how it’s executed, but also limits the clarity of depiction, which is essentially given a fish-eye lens to capture so much going on with so many characters outside of the apartment. Besides this, the film still falls suspect to horror, and frankly cinema’s, single biggest cliche going today, in which it begins a movie with the “One day earlier” trope that still brings too many problems in its structure. For starters, it ultimately gives away some vital details of the end of this movie, which even a light thinker should be able to surmise, and also takes time on characters who are really only there to add to the body count, all for the sake of getting things off on a daring note of brutality to capably set the pace. In my opinion, this could’ve easily been shaved off completely from the finished product, and it would lose nothing because the film’s majority isn’t based in these surroundings, nor does it ever focus on these characters, only taking us back to them at the very end, when the climax of the main characters would’ve been a more than fitting conclusion to the film. Lastly, some of the dumb decisions by the characters were just too distracting to the logic of their designs, relying on stupidity too often to drive the conflict, even after it’s been established that surreal entities have invaded the home of our family. I suppose I could forgive this element if it happened once, but even after decisions like these have previously bit them in the ass, they still continue to pursue them, taking a bit away from the designs of the characters, which were given ample time to properly flesh out, so the family dynamic kicks in each time they’re met with confronting their possessed mother.

OVERALL
Any way you slice it, “Evil Dead Rise” is a groovy blood-soaked banger that cuts the deepest towards franchise adoration, parental possession, and of course ruthlessly visceral gore that longtime enthusiasts have come to expect from the franchise. Lee Cronin delivers an Evil Dead film that is disgustingly and approvingly slathered in gory bits, while further extending the Necronomicon universe, both literally and figuratively from its lakeside surroundings. Though the ambition of the lens doesn’t always match the boldness of brutality, and the stupidity of characters constantly overstays its welcome, it’s easily the franchise’s most original installment in decades, leaving us salivating for what’s to come from this forty-year franchise.

My Grade: 7/10 or B