Connect with us
Another Take: 'Evil Dead Rise' is amped up, creepy, and full of missed opportunities

Movie Reviews

Another Take: ‘Evil Dead Rise’ is amped up, creepy, and full of missed opportunities

A fantastic Deadite performance.

The new Evil Dead movie: Evil Dead Rise has amped up, creepy, and demonic frights as well as some interesting and gratuitous gore. However, like Evil Dead 2013, this one is also lacking the genuine slapstick and imagination from the original trilogy (Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness). I don’t want to sound like a Star Wars nerd, but the original Evil Dead trilogy had a certain charisma of lead actor as well as hilarious imagination that hasn’t been matched since.

In Evil Dead Rise the truly charismatic character is one of the “Deadites” (partially because she’s the only one written that way). While it’s a fantastic Deadite performance (from Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie) I would have enjoyed much more confidence and ham from Lily Sullivan who played our hero Beth. This is no knock on Sullivan. To me she seemed hampered by the depressing script and dialog.

Despite its flaws, Evil Dead Rise might be enough for Evil Dead fans. Until the next movie, I assume anyway. And I do want to see the next movie. Hopefully it’s actually a sequel this time. I love the characters and the actors who portrayed them in Evil Dead Rise. Read on for spoilers and why I think a sequel is a realistic possibility.

[Warning: spiolers for the remainder of the post]

Evil Dead Rise begins in the woods at a cabin. We are in the classic Evil Dead evil spirit point-of-view and hear the iconic howl so we know what’s up. Fairly quickly we see a women and a guy get attacked by the sinister spirit which possessed their friend and turned her into a Deadite.

evil dead rise

It’s a pretty strong opening overall, although the use of the drone as a way to get the Deadite into the lake seemed out-of-place, as though they were trying a little too hard. This kind of out-of-placeness happens a few more times later in the movie and is a secondary cause of the movie overstaying its welcome in some scenes.

Jump to Japan where we find our main character Beth, a guitar technician, in a bathroom taking a pregnancy test. Jump again to Los Angeles: an old, decaying apartment building. It may as well be a haunted apartment building the way it’s shot and lingered upon. Beth is there having just arrived out of the blue to talk to her sister, Ellie, who is a recently separated single mother of three.

The children are typical Hollywood portrayals of kids such as they are these days. They are extra super cool and hip kids. Sure, whatever, it doesn’t actually matter to the plot, so why not, I guess. Except that this is precisely the main area where we spend extra time dawdling on things of inconsequence at the expense of actual horror fun. Considering that three of the five characters here (Ellie and her oldest boy and girl) end up dead, it feels especially unnecessary.

Long story short, while Ellie and Beth have a heart-to-heart while the kids go get pizza. When the kids get back to the apartment building’s parking garage an earthquake happens and, tragically, the pizza is lost. Well, that’s how I felt during that sequence anyway. Maybe I was just hungry, but an inordinate amount of time is spent watching the earthquake happen.

Anyway, the ground cracks open in the parking garage and the older son finds a hole that leads to an old bank vault. Yes, it contains the Necronomicon and also the old records that translate it. Importantly, the boy is a DJ, because only the creative genius of a young musician could conceive of playing the mysterious records they just found. He plays them and inadvertently calls forth the evil spirit which possesses his mom, Ellie, while she’s holding a laundry basket in an elevator. Modern families, am I right?

Actually, Evil Dead Rise could have played that up a lot more: Ellie as a bedraggled single mom of three who gets possessed in the middle of doing laundry… Maybe that’s what they were going for, but the drama and atmosphere was so thick by that point that I never had the funny moment of realizing Ellie just can’t catch a break.

Yeah, they're dead. They're all messed up." — Evil Dead Rise (2023) dir. Lee Cronin “Mommy's...

I won’t go into all of the other plot details. Suffice it to say, what ensues is not boring, but neither is it worth explicating in much detail. There’s some interesting gore and a few funny moments where Ellie, the charmer of this film, really hams it up as the main Deadite. Beth and the kids are trapped on their floor of the building with some other folks who live on that floor and try to battle their way out. The older son and daughter get turned into Deadites.

Beth and Ellie’s youngest, Kassie, make it to the parking garage thanks to a pretty cool The Shining film reference. During the ensuing end battle in the parking garage Beth has some moments of serious confidence where she channels Bruce Campbell (too little done in this movie; Sullivan really should have been given more to work with because she clearly can bring it). We end with Beth and Kassie getting away. This is a pretty fun teaser for a sequel starring Beth and Kassie. But also, just kidding, that’s not the end.

At the actual end, the loose ends are tied up when it turns out one of the cabin guests we saw at the beginning of the movie was a resident of the same apartment building Ellie and family lived in and, in fact, succumbs to the evil spirit in the parking garage right before she is to drive to the cabin to meet her friends.

evil dead rise

To be honest, the ending was kind of great in its silliness, even though the silliness is implied instead of shown. I mean, we get the great sequence of the pushy and annoying person realizing to her horror and shock that she’s surrounded by a bloodbath in the parking garage of her building (where mere minutes earlier the epic final battle occurred and Beth and Kassie got away). Not sure how she missed the screams and gunshots during the night!

Then the evil spirit invades her. The end. The audience is left to ponder this possessed person driving from downtown LA out to the cabin to be with her friends. Like she’s so dead set, pun intended, on this cabin vacation that even while possessed she’s just gotta get out there. Presumably to spend some quality time brow beating her friends. It’s hilarious! Or it would have been had they shown it…

Join the AIPT Patreon

Want to take our relationship to the next level? Become a patron today to gain access to exclusive perks, such as:

  • ❌ Remove all ads on the website
  • 💬 Join our Discord community, where we chat about the latest news and releases from everything we cover on AIPT
  • 📗 Access to our monthly book club
  • 📦 Get a physical trade paperback shipped to you every month
  • 💥 And more!
Sign up today
Comments

In Case You Missed It

WWE SmackDown preview, full card: March 1, 2024 WWE SmackDown preview, full card: March 1, 2024

WWE SmackDown preview, full card: March 1, 2024

Pro Wrestling

AEW Dynamite preview, full card: February 28, 2024 AEW Dynamite preview, full card: February 28, 2024

AEW Dynamite preview, full card: February 28, 2024

Pro Wrestling

AEW Rampage preview, full card: March 1, 2024 AEW Rampage preview, full card: March 1, 2024

AEW Rampage preview, full card: March 1, 2024

Pro Wrestling

Marvel unveils the new villains Bloodcoven appearing in 'Blood Hunt' Marvel unveils the new villains Bloodcoven appearing in 'Blood Hunt'

Marvel unveils the new villains Bloodcoven appearing in ‘Blood Hunt’

Comic Books

Connect
Newsletter Signup