For many, Freddy is dead, Jason ain’t it, son, Michael is merely meh, Jigsaw should see himself out, and The Purge should be purged. For many horror fans, there is only one true form of evil: the dead kind. The “Evil Dead” series has had quite the tumultuous existence ever sense it first shambled onto screens way back in 1981. After sequels, a reboot, a television series, and even a few video games, the series is back and has risen to heights not seen in a very long time.
“Evil Dead Rise” follows Beth, played by Lily Sullivan (“Jungle,” “Picnic at Hanging Rock”), who travels to Los Angeles to visit her estranged sister Ellie, played by Alyssa Sutherland (“Vikings,” “Blood Vessel”), and her three kids, Danny, played by Morgan Davies (“Storm Boy,” “The End”), Bridget, played by Gabrielle Echols (“Remembrance”), and Kassie, played by Nell Fisher in her film debut. Shortly after the reunion though, the Book of the Dead comes into play, cutting their apartment building off from the outside world and unleashing hell onto this family.
What is there to even say about an “Evil Dead” film besides is it bloody and is it absurd? Well, “Rise” is gleefully both. Writer/Director Lee Cronin (“The Hole in the Ground”) douses his set and actors with copious amounts of blood and twisted machinations of terror at virtually every turn. But there’s also a great deal of restraint on display as well. The film’s first act might be a slow burn, but its not without purpose. Cronin is setting up emotional and physical dominos so that when hell is unleashed, it hits that much harder and is that much more satisfying. It’s a lot more fun to see someone use a pair of scissors on a deadite when you saw that pair of scissors left in just the right place before everything went crazy.
But the familial dynamic also results in a more emotionally rich film. Is that necessarily what an “Evil Dead” movie needs? Not really, but Cronin milks this dynamic wonderfully. By the very nature of it being a mother versus her children and sister, things are tinged with sadness in a way, and it lends itself to a meatier, more emotional hellscape as a result. We aren’t talking rich family drama the likes of “Marriage Story”, but even just a dash of it here makes things a hell of a lot more gruesome.
Those who disliked the self-serious tone of the 2013 reboot will be glad to hear that, while this is by no means “Army of Darkness” levels of jokey, the sly absurdity that helped to define the series is back in spades. “Rise” conjures up two kinds of chuckles: there’s the chuckling at an actually humorous moment or joke, and then there’s the chuckling through the absurdity. The smiling in the face of the “oh-my-god-what-the-hell-are-they-doing-this-is-messed-up” feeling that is regularly felt through the 107 minutes of this absolutely relentless blood fest.
Sullivan is an absolute powerhouse, easily earning her spot alongside Ash Williams himself and the myriad of other final girls from the history of horror. She’s incredibly charming and easy to root for, but also not a genius. She stumbles along the adventure, but not without merit, grit, or determination. Davies, Echols, and Fisher are all fantastic and have great sibling chemistry, a bright spot in an otherwise grim as hell experience which ends up inadvertently making the experience grimmer by the end. Meanwhile, Sutherland is an absolute force. She’s beaten up, doused in fire and blood, and turned into an absolute monster and is clearly having a blast throughout the entire thing. It’s hard to find an actor committing so much to a character, physically and emotionally, and having so much fun doing it.
So, let’s go over the checklist. Absurdist tone? Check. Horror laced with black comedy humor? Check. Buckets of blood? Check. A cast committed to the horrors on display? Check. A chainsaw? Absolutely check. “Evil Dead Rise” is absolutely everything an “Evil Dead” fan could ever want, returning to the roots of the series in the best ways possible and having an absolute blast doing it. For those who aren’t indoctrinated into the cult of the Deadite, this is also a great place to start. Oh, and for those who don’t like even the tamer horror movies out there, stay far far away. This is a nasty movie, gleefully so, and fans wouldn’t want it any other way. 4.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment