Evil Dead never fails to conjure up unabashed, bloody fun in its films; its fervency for carnage, guts, disgusting kills, and cheesy one-liners make it the beloved franchise it is today. After Fede Álvarez’s 2013 hit reboot, fans have anxiously awaited the return of the deadites to the silver screen. 10 years later, almost to the day, they’ve finally gotten it. Evil Dead Rise, directed by newcomer Lee Cronin, is a bloodbath—a good-old-fashioned, jumping-out-of-your-seat horror flick. Offering creative kills, creepy vinyl, a physically cringe-inducing cheese grater scene, and some of the most inventive SFX in the series, Rise continues to prove that the Evil Dead franchise just can’t make a bad movie.

Rise drops us into an unfamiliar setting—no longer are we in a log cabin in a dense wood, but in a rainy, crumbling, art-deco apartment building in Los Angeles. Beth (a formidable Lily Sullivan) arrives at the doorstep of her semi-estranged sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), a tattoo artist who’s down on her luck. Her husband has left her and her three kids, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher). To make matters worse, the family is in the process of being kicked out of the condemned complex. Beth, a touring guitar technician (“Not a groupie,” she insists throughout Rise), is pregnant and has come to ask Ellie for help.

The kids go out to get pizza as a thunderstorm rages. When they return, a deadly earthquake hits, splitting the parking garage beneath the building and unearthing a vault containing a dusty double LP and a book bound in human skin, locked with spindly, yellowed fangs. Despite his sister’s warnings, Danny, an aspiring DJ, opens the book and listens to the eerie vinyl aloud, unleashing a long-buried, diabolic, and parasitic force.

Cronin hit the sweet spot with Rise—while he brings his own originality (and 1,700 gallons of fake blood), he doesn’t forget to sprinkle in the nostalgic absurdity of Raimi’s films. It’s cheesy, but it’s fun. Beth loves her one-liners with a revving chainsaw in hand, but it works for the rough-and-tough chick that’s been established at the beginning of the film.

The kills and gore in Rise are unprecedented—you’ll never look at a cheese grater the same. Though looking past the good ol’ grater, there are also some repugnant scenes involving crunching on a wine glass, ripping out an earring, cooking eggs, a tattoo needle, a scalping, a woodchipper, a drone, and a gnarly pair of sewing scissors. Oh, and a baby doll head (good job, Staffenie). There are a few instances of “Look behind you!” that typically would garner an eye-roll, but here, it works, seamlessly blending comedy and carnage. Cronin clearly had a blast making this flick, and he wants you to have fun, too. His innovative violence is highly commendable, almost tangible; I was jumping out of my seat, grabbing my leg, my hair, and my ears. I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun at a screening.

Sutherland kills it here (pun fully intended). Her grace and beauty melt away to become unrecognizable; the way she manipulates her physicality, especially in her arms and legs, is spidery, foreign, and terrifying. The bathroom and elevator scenes are standouts. Her wide, yellowed, snarling sneer is bound to be iconic. The way she peers through the peephole, eager to devour the souls of her cowering young children, is haunting.

Something notable about this entry to the Dead series is the backward way in which Rise is told—we begin at the end. The opening title sequence offers decapitation, gore, and the haunting blood-red title rising up from a lake in the foreground of a deadite. It had people in my theater cheering. It’s vicious, unforgiving, and, as much as I don’t like to use the word, epic. Also, I’m never going to put my hair in a braid again.

Evil Dead Rise is Cronin’s magnum opus; a bloodthirsty, gut-churning thrill ride packed with mayhem, cool kills, and plenty of slaughter. This feature is bound to be one of the best in decades, proving that the Evil Dead franchise isn’t quite dead yet.

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Evil Dead Rise
2023
dir. Lee Cronin
97 min.-

Evil Dead Rise opens this Friday, April 21 in cinemas everywhere.