Like many horror franchises, the Evil Dead series is a beloved one, but also fairly unique. The initial trilogy that ran through the eighties and nineties were defined by their blend of gory horror and Three Stooges-styled humor, done through Sam Raimi’s kinetic directorial style. But what happens when an Evil Dead movie is without that style? You get something like Fede Álvarez’s 2013 remake, which played its fantastical horror very straight in an attempt to reinvigorate the visceral nature of Raimi’s 1981 original.
A decade later, another cinematic revival of the franchise has arrived with Irish director Lee Cronin – previously made his feature debut, The Hole in the Ground – writes his own passage in the Book of the Dead. The story centers on Beth (Beth Sullivan), who visits her sister, single mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), in her Los Angeles apartment complex, along with Ellie’s three children. During a night-in with pizza, the children uncover a strange book, which unleashes a supernatural evil that terrorizes the people in the building, beginning with Ellie.
With five Evil Dead movies now released – as well as the three-season-long Ash vs Evil Dead – there are tropes now you come to expect with this series; the Book of the Dead being discovered and then read, characters being possessed and killed one by one in a gory fashion, and a chainsaw will be used at some point. Cronin is aware of these tropes and plays with those expectations. However, whereas most of the previous instalments relied on the cabin setting, the director sets the terror in an apartment building, and instead of a group of dumb teenagers who should know better, introducing young children to the series adds a new level of suspense.
Given its 97-minute running time, Evil Dead Rise isn’t in a rush to get to the horror as the first act delves into characters going through a number of dilemmas, individually and universally, whether it is Beth having to come to terms with motherhood, or how she and her family trying to escape the threat of themselves becoming Deadites. You sense the estrangement between the two sisters, which ultimately does lead to them being at each other’s throats, something that Beth Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland absolutely nailed. Sutherland, in particular, delivers one of the best horror movie performances in recent years, playing a Deadite who is just gleeful in displaying her murderous side.
Lee Cronin is no Sam Raimi, though few directors can master that meshing of horror and comedy. Like Álvarez’s remake, Evil Dead Rise is aiming for a tone that leans towards the original Evil Dead, where the horror is played straight, with moments of levity. For the most part, it succeeds where the nasty violence is certainly heightened, no matter how graphic the violent use of a cheese grater can look. Cronin also brings in other horror influences, such as Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining in one notable scene, while the climax really pushes surrealism when it comes to body horror.
The only criticism can be towards the prologue and epilogue, with the former somewhat ruining the surprise and the latter is a way of possibly setting up future sequels which would be acceptable if Cronin helms them, but both sequences felt unnecessary.
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