Evil Dead Rise Review: The Franchise Is Back With Room To Grow

Ken Jones, OnScreen Blog Chief Film Critic

Following on the heels of the Scream franchise migrating to New York City for its 6th installment, the Evil Dead series is also a horror franchise seeking to ply its wares in the big city, moving out of the backwoods and into Los Angeles, with Evil Dead Rise. This latest Evil Dead entry is a standalone film with only some loose, direct ties to the original Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell films or the 2013 remake.

Beth (Lily Sullivan) is a guitar tech for a band. She stops in to see her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three kids, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher), needing a respite from the tour life as well as life advice from her older sister.

Events conspire against them, and this extended family of five unwittingly comes into possession of a Book of the Dead and recordings of it being read, unleashing the evil spirits known as the Deadites upon the floor of their soon-to-be-condemned apartment complex, possessing Ellie while aiming to claim the souls of the rest of the family before the night is over.

The previous Evil Dead movies all took place in a remote cabin in the woods (or hundreds of years ago, in the case of Army of Darkness), and, except for the remake, before the invention of cellphones and the internet. Moving to the city and set in the present day, this horror flick has to go through the ritualistic contrivances of eliminating the power and cell service while stranding them in the building and making escape nearly impossible. 

Evil Dead Rise leans more toward the spirit of the 2013 Evil Dead remake, mainly eschewing the laughs and camp blended in with the horror of Sam Raimi’s films, and goes for more of a straight-up horror experience. While it is a standalone film and no prior knowledge of the franchise is required to enjoy and appreciate this one, there are visual nods to its predecessors, particularly the camera movement as the demonic force is summoned by the reading of the Book of the Dead and eventually takes possession of Ellie.

Sutherland gives an outstanding performance as the possessed mother. She is menacing and unnerving in her mannerisms and movements. The manipulation of her “possessed” voice is also highly effective. It’s a violent character that also employs psychological torment on her children and their aunt. 

The film makes good use of the Necronomicon, aka the Book of the Dead. The pages turn wildly back and forth before settling on a disturbing illustration that manifests in Ellie’s actions or other torments as the Deadite spirits start to pick off the family one by one, culminating in a final act that evokes both The Shining and The Thing before calling back to a critical prop from Evil Dead 2 before attempting to go over the top of it with an outrageously bloody end.

Before that, plenty of violence, gore, and thrills made the film a satisfying horror film for fans of the genre and the franchise. More than a few intense moments occur in the apartment’s kitchen, including a gnarly moment with a cheese grater. 

The film throws in a few familial details that try to evoke more sympathy for this family. But emotional investment in the characters has never been necessary to enjoy the Evil Dead movies. At certain times it is effective, and at other times it is almost cast aside.

Kassie, the youngest of Ellie’s kids, is the one put most in peril throughout the film. She experiences what would be the most traumatizing moments of the film, seeing what she sees and doing what she must do in some instances. For a movie wanting us to invest so heavily in the family dynamic, these could be moments of trauma that the film could explore but ultimately chooses not to.

Overall, Evil Dead Rise is a film that lives up to its title. Evil Dead is back, it has risen, and there is room to explore and continue the story if handled correctly. This franchise has a tried-and-true formula that created a cult following and an expanded universe for telling quality horror stories.

Evil Dead Rise shows that there are still chapters left to be written in its Book of the Dead.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars