Evil Dead Rise (2023, Lee Cronin)
(NOTE: As with the reviews of films I've written while they're currently in theaters, there is a non-spoiler review followed by a version less worried about spoiling aspects of the film for those who aren't worried about it or have seen it and are looking for other perspectives on it.)
Because of how dominant franchises and serial storytelling are in the current landscape of movies, it's worth starting off by saying that due to the nature of the Evil Dead franchise, there is no "right" order to see the films. Someone who hasn't seen any other Evil Dead film isn't going to be missing any particularly necessary background, lore or mythology by making Evil Dead Rise their introduction. It is part of what sets the Evil Dead franchise apart from the rest of the big horror franchises. Even among the most hardcore fans, the order in which they've seen the films has no set sequence, and they ended up being fans anyway.
As a long time fan, I had a good time with Evil Dead Rise, and there is no reason for anyone to try and hurry to cram in the previous four films before heading to the theater to catch it. I also do recommend that for anyone who intends to see it, the theater is the place to do it. If for no other reason, the theater is going to add to the experience of the film because of the sound design.
Anyone who is inclined to appreciate horror is going to have a good time in the theater with this one. This is a blast of horror entertainment, meant just to be a good time at the movies, and it succeeds. It does touch on some character and story themes as part of pulling us into the film enough to make the events have some weight, but overall, it's more interested in the experience of going through the ordeal with the characters than it is with those themes. Evil Dead Rise is more concerned with the ride than it is the destination or "saying something." In that, it succeeds. My single caveat would be that if you have a particularly hard time seeing children in peril, you might want to skip this one. No one is safe is this film.
It unfolds as a series of sequences involving different characters in peril in different ways, and each of these sequences is technically well done and well constructed. For those of us who are fans of the previous films, there is some of the creative camera work which was so central to those, and which will no doubt add to the experience for those new to the franchise. It looks great, in the way a grimy, bloody mess can. The cinematography, set design and costume work are very good throughout. This is a kind of visual enticement more related to Francis Bacon than Claude Monet. What it's depicting might be ugly and horrifying, but on a technical level, it's still gorgeous in its mastery of the techniques.
One of the things I found most interesting is that the family at the center of the film feels real. A single mother, with three kids, ranging in age from probably nine to sixteen, and her sister are our central characters. We're not doing the suburban fantasy family here. This mother and her children live in an older high rise apartment building, which isn't in the best condition. It does a good job of establishing early on that these characters all have their unique tensions in their relationships to each other, but that there is a core of love that does make them feel connected and like a family unit, not characters who are forcibly connected through their familial relationships. They have their foibles and the way they rub each other wrong because of their proximity, but none of these characters is particularly a jerk. It helps make the film work. There aren't any characters that we feel righteous or triumphant seeing put through the proverbial ringer. There's no point where we as an audience are meant to feel, "Yeah, please dispense with that asshole, with prejudice." It's all meant to elicit squirms and for the audience to want to see these characters overcome what they're facing. Related to this, the one reason I might suggest someone skip Evil Dead Rise is that they have a particular sensitivity to seeing children in the kinds of scenes that are part of the horror genre. Innocence is no shield where this film is concerned. The children are not safe.
The cast are good to excellent. The four central cast have varying levels of dramatic work to do, and they all meet the task ably. Alyssa Sutherland, Lily Sullivan and Nell Fisher deserve specific shout outs though. They are each carrying particular pieces of the story and different emotional burdens related to it, and they all do great work. Alyssa Sutherland delivers some great pieces of performance, and it will be a shame if this doesn't lead to more higher profile work for her.
There is a subtlety to the sound design that made me happy I went to see this in a theater too. Sound design has been a big part of the Evil Dead experience since the beginning, and it's because this is a bit more subtle that it's absolutely worth seeing in theaters. Even a very good home system isn't going to deliver it as well as it was in the theater. It's in that sweet spot where it's going to be too subtle to really add to the experience on a home system, but does add a good bit to the theater experience. There are points in the film where it helps enhance the sense of suspense and dread significantly.
All in all, Evil Dead Rise worked for me. It delivers on being a creative horror film, in a number of ways, and I cared enough about the characters for it to be connected to what they were experiencing and for it to have some weight. For casual horror fans, this is a good time at the movies.
Because of the nature of the franchise, having been so wildly different in tone and intent in its different films, it's hard to say whether or not this is going to be a fan favorite. It depends on which of the other films in the franchise are the anchors for specific fans. To my mind, it leans more toward the 2013 Fede Alvarez directed Evil Dead and mixes in some bits Raimi's Evil Dead 2, with Cronin's interest in family and family dynamics. It's not just Evil Dead, in a high rise, and yet it is very much Evil Dead in a high rise. I enjoyed it, and I'll be looking forward to it coming to streaming so I can catch it again. It's a solid film, and Deadites are always a fun, if somewhat disturbing evil to see protagonists try to overcome.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The Evil Dead series is one of the most beloved series in modern horror. In 1981, an unknown director named Sam Raimi rocketed to horror stardom with the first film, then solidified his status as a master of the genre, as well as being one of the most inventive, energetic and talented filmmakers in the world with the two films that followed, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. Taking the Evil Dead trilogy and later, his run directing the original Spider-Man trilogy, it's unfortunate Raimi doesn't often get credit for the way he's helped shape the cinematic landscape of today. He's made foundational trilogies in the two genres keeping movie theaters open right now.
With only five films in forty-two years (and a short lived television series starring Bruce Campbell from the original trilogy), The Evil Dead also hasn't quite worn out its welcome in the way most of the other major horror franchises have. The original trilogy was released over a span of ten years, culminating with Army of Darkness in 1992. It would be twenty years before anyone would bring the Evil Dead universe back to theaters, when Fede Alvarez wrote and directed 2013's Evil Dead. Because of how loosely Raimi originally played with everything from tone, to genre, to mythology and lore in that original trilogy, Alvarez's 2013 film could be a remake, a sequel, a reboot or just another story in the same universe.
Now, Raimi and his co-owners of the Evil Dead franchise (fellow producers Rob Tappert and Bruce Campbell) have handed the reins to Lee Cronin, giving him a chance to put his own spin on this iconic universe and concept. This is the second time they've decided to give a relatively young filmmaker without a long list of feature films a chance. The The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 have such a DIY feel to them, it's great to see the creative minds behind those films become veterans of the film industry use the franchise as a way to give new talent a chance to get a big swing. A well done and well received Evil Dead film can be the career boost many filmmakers never get, regardless of their level of ability or talent. Cronin's only other feature film, The Hole In The Ground, was critically well received, but little seen. As evidence for why he might be a good choice to write and direct an Evil Dead film though, it left more questions than it answered. Cronin apparently secured the job because Raimi and company were impressed with The Hole In The Ground, and were interested in working with him through their production company. In meeting with him, his love for the franchise and ideas about what another Evil Dead film could be were interesting to them and got him the job.
It would be hard to make an Evil Dead film that would be "out of left field" for this franchise. There have been so many different tones and varying story focuses, it leaves the possibilities wide open. Unlike other franchises, there isn't much in the way of lore or mythology either. There's a book. When anyone reads the book, it releases demons who possess people. Chaos and carnage are visited on an unwitting cast of characters. It really is that simple. Unlike most other franchises, one could basically pick up any of the Evil Dead films and watch them without having seen any of the others. In the crowd of horror journalists, filmmakers and fans, the sequence in which they've seen the films has no rhyme or reason. Each of the films can stand alone, and they can still hold together as obviously being from the same concept. Watched sequentially in order of release, and it more gives a sense of the time period each was made than it does any specific details of lore or mythology that enhance the films that follow.
In his 2013 film, Fede Alvarez took the series back to its origin, eschewing the comedy aspects of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. It is loudly, proudly and angrily, a horror film. It has some good suspense, a whole lot of gore, and a few instances that can cause even seasoned horror fans to feel the cringe to their bones (and not in the embarrassing "cringe comedy" sense, but in the visceral nature of the gore and violence). It's a mean, brutal affair, like the first film. Like Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, it shares a quality of relentlessness. Once the terror of The Evil Dead is released, the characters and the audience are denied a moment of peace.
Evil Dead Rise is clearly taking cues from that film, and mixing in a few more of the bits of Evil Dead 2. What Cronin does that's wholly new to the franchise is to take it out of the woods. Army of Darkness is technically in the franchise, but it's also not an Evil Dead movie, as evidenced by the title. It's one of those odd, but wonderful, quirks of the franchise. This isn't a "cabin in the woods" movie, where three of the previous films have been set. Rise is set in a high rise apartment building, centering on a small family. This time it's a mother, her three children and her sister who are up against an eternal evil that wants to consume their souls, after it puts them through all manner of terror and brutality.
Alyssa Sutherland may be the best Deadite we've seen in the franchise. Not only does she get the most to do, but her performance is outstanding. In the previous films, the possession of different characters is progressing so quickly, we don't get to focus much on one in particular. They have always seem to be almost a hive, less than specifically individual. Henrietta in Evil Dead 2 is iconic, but we don't get quite as much focus on her throughout that film as we do Ellie in Rise. Alyssa Sutherland conveys such a depth of malevolence and non-human rationale through her performance, there are points where her presence and movement alone are creating all of the tension. It's a great performance, and if the energy she's projecting is any indication, she was having some real fun with it. All of the cast are doing good work, but Sutherland deserves to be singled out because her performance is so important to making the rest of the film work, and she more than carries it off.
If there's a complaint to be made about Evil Dead Rise, it's that the Raimi original, The Evil Dead, has been so influential, it inspired thousands of films after. It's a case of something which was original and different now becoming much more the norm. Fede Alvarez's 2013 film succeeded on the visceral nature of the gore and violence, and differentiated itself from the slew of torture porn films which had been dominating the horror landscape in the decade prior by giving us reasons to care about the characters being terrorized, instead of trying to find a celebratory tone when terrible people were being brutally tortured. In tone, Alvarez's film was as grim as the original (possibly even more so, depending on your perspective), while being as relentless as Evil Dead 2.
Rise does feel closer to a more standard horror film than any of the other films in the series have, but in a way, that's because The Evil Dead franchise was part of the foundation of those standards. Raimi was immediately catapulted to horror celebrity when the original film was released. Evil Dead 2 set a new standard for what horror comedies could be. In the generations of horror filmmakers working now, Evil Dead 2 is cited a shocking number of times as the film which convinced them they wanted to be filmmakers. Army of Darkness proved that a film in a franchise could go in a wildly different direction than those which preceded it and not only be embraced by fans, but create a whole new swath of fans that might not have given the other films a chance. 2013's Evil Dead proved a legacy sequel or reboot or whatever you want to call it, could deliver something that would both please fans and bring a new generation into the fold. In reading and hearing interviews with people who've decided to make horror a central part of their lives, whether it's creating it, reporting on it or being part of the fandom, the influence of the Evil Dead franchise can't be calculated.
I did enjoy the return of the Joker-esque variety of taunting and mind games by the Deadites. It was one of the few things I found lacking in the 2013 film. These Sumerian/Kandarian demons don't just want to kill you and swallow your soul, they take a evil joy in making people suffer, and that definitely comes through more in Rise. The hive like aspect is also more present, which adds to how to the sense of them being truly otherworldly. It's never been completely clear if this is a multitude of hellish entities or if there is only one, with the ability to puppet multiple people at the same time. There's some level of connection that makes them able to know what the others are doing without seeing or hearing them.
I also appreciate the fact that Rise gives us a fun take on the concept of the ghost as someone under a sheet, making it feel genuinely threatening in the moment. It was both humorous and I still felt the sense of threat, without the humor completely undercutting it.
It seems there was a fair bit of marketing and talk out of the festival screenings related to a cheese grater. Fortunately, I avoided most everything other than the occasional tweet about whether someone enjoyed Rise or didn't. I wasn't aware of the cheese grater comments and marketing, so I wasn't expecting anything related to it. From what I've seen and heard over the last day or so since seeing Rise, it seems there was an expectation set up that the sequence didn't meet, and I can definitely understand being disappointed if I'd have gone in expecting there to be some inventively gnarly use of that kitchen tool. It's one of the unfortunate realities of the relationship between social media and film now.
Like the Scream franchise, even the Evil Dead film I like the least is thoroughly entertaining (Army of Darkness). Evil Dead Rise doesn't reinvent the wheel or do much of anything new with the mythos, but if you're looking to have a good time with a horror movie that isn't afraid to go hard on the gore and some disturbing imagery, it stands up. I had a good time with it. I'll be looking forward to it hitting one of the streaming services so I can see it again.