‘Evil Dead Rise Review: Cute Kids Battle Bloodthirsty Demons
The old adage "blood is thicker than water" has never been truer than in The Evil Dead, a sequel in which a psychotic mother attempts to anarchically kill her sister and children.
Program Duration: 97 minutes. Rated R for strong violence, profanity and some profanity. The theater.
Directed by Lee Cronin, the fifth film in the Evil Dead franchise uses 1,720 liters of fake blood.
The film is as violent and funny as any of producer Sam Raimi's horror films from four decades ago. But keeping kids locked up in apartments, unlike their college-age peers, raises risks and raises legitimate concerns. And laugh heartily.
This "Dear Mother" went crazy.
However, in the opening scene, we return to the eerie, isolated cabin that made the 1981 film a classic. A girl found "dead" in the woods kills two of her friends before reading a message on the screen: "A day ago".
The action revolves around Ellie (Alice Sutherland), a mother of three who has recently separated from her soon-to-be-estranged husband.
The night his sister Beth (Lily Sullivan), a rebellious concert star, comes to visit, Earthquake rips a hole in their garage to hide some vinyl records of our old friend, Book of the Dead, and spooky chants.
Teenager Danny (Morgan Davis) decides to use them and, you know, accidentally destroys his family, including sisters Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Cassie (Neil Fisher).
The demons are released, one enters Ellie's body, and then Beth and the children are brutally chased by the Mother Beast.
For example, I prefer the Evil Dead series to the Neverending Scream series because, unlike Ghostface, you don't have to dig into the details of why ancient evil spirits are wreaking havoc on Earth. It is inviolable. The poor fool calls to them, and they do their dirty work until the owner is destroyed. What changes in the main victim?
Sutherland is an immersive horror, transforming from an abused, tormented mother into a vicious, relentless killing machine. A similar transformation occurs in twins. It's especially scary when you're breathing over a glass of wine, throwing bugs everywhere.
Meanwhile, Beth Sullivan has a keen insight and resourcefulness, determined to escape and survive.
Cronin's film strikes just the right balance of hokey cheese (biting off eyeballs and then spitting in gasping people's faces), confident shots and special effects that audiences have come to expect in 2023. The film is never cheap and runs just over 90 minutes.
It's been ten years since the last Evil Dead movie, but I suspect fans will have to wait another 10 years for the next one.
