It is not as easy as it seems for Lee Cronin to write and direct a sequel to a much-loved horror franchise, but he does it with apparent ease in Evil Dead Rise. This brutally violent continuation of the famous series about Deadites and boomsticks reminds one of Fede Alvarez’s spectacularly evil 2013 reboot/sequel, lets future installments delve into the mythos in exciting ways, and stands alone within the series as an awesome standalone horror bombshell. The film is like no other because it appears to be a personal take on Cronin’s favorite Evil Dead elements (like Raimi’s signature whooshing “Demon Vision” camera zooms) that makes Rise its own three-headed beast. It is aggressive scary, dizzyingly funny and stone cold kill.
Rise sits somewhere between 2013’s Evil Dead which can tear out your heart and Sam Raimi’s trilogy of sequels that were more humorous. For instance, Cronin’s special effects crew attempts to outdo any other gross mutilation scenes across the entire franchise through ghastly practical affects such as protruding glass shards from victims’ bodies or blood gushes out of elevators. While keeping up with Fede Alvaerez’s reported 70 000 gallons of blood poured during his remake/sort-of-sequel in 2013 by making this film heartfelt yet still traumatic battle against deadites that recovers some of Raimi comedic chops while using this dark humor for sheer contrast.
Alyssa Sutherland sardonically provokes her victimized co-stars as single mom Ellie, our new patient zero deadline. Once she has transformed herself into this wretched screeching embodiment of evil she fakes her maternal voice just so she can insult the tiny remaining shreds representing something humane in her soul as though it was a sick trick played upon someone else. Sutherland tosses off a few lines that are equal parts funny and creepy like “Mommy’s with the maggots now,” which become even more terrifying after they chased by a rotting smile from a nightmare. She offers up what could be referred to as a Deadite master class, enduring gruesome body horror while laughing maniacally over bodies.
Rise is not as comedy-forward as Evil Dead II, and the set-up is genuinely disturbing. Invariably, Cronin’s newly introduced Necronomicon is attached to Ellie’s three kids and her sister Beth with teeth like a Venus flytrap, releasing merciless deadline obscenities on them. The murders are numerous due to neighbors stuck on the same floor as Ellie’s apartment block who offer themselves as sacrificial pawns but it is her family that has to deal with most physically damaging, psychologically disorienting, and bizarre assaults involving everything from cheese graters turned into sharpened staffs topped with baby doll heads made by little daughters (this will be everyone’s favorite prop). Lily Sullivan plays Beth in this film as an opposing hero for Ellie who is depicted as a deadite, working alongside Morgan Davies who takes up the role of DJ-in-training Danny, Gabrielle Echols embodying free-spirited protestor Bridget and Nell Fisher performing teeny-tiny Kassie; all of them go through tests in acting bravely through any of their respective moments: sheer terror, loss of family or whatever direction of story we take.
By moving out of isolated woodland settings into a cluttered Los Angeles apartment complex, Cronin hasn’t lost any of the ruthless Necronomicon action. For instance, Scream VI used New York City as a fresh metropolitan backdrop to the familiar Ghostface onslaughts; in turn, Rise translates signature Deadite brutality to a cramped boxy rental with barely five rooms. Instead, however, it is the damaged building rather than roads or bridges that make traveling impossible because of collapsed stairwells and elevators with their wires hanging from above like tree vines – that’s clearly referring to the famous possession from Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Evil Dead (2013). Cronin captures this perfectly by being clever and precise in his own way about referencing past movies’ images without literally repeating them as well as handling how the Necronomicon demonic curse will cause more havoc in a populated area.
As far as horror films go on its own terms, Rise packs quite a wallop with an array of depraved Deadite extremes that never allow us even a momentary rest between scenes. When Ellie’s in her apartment she comes crawling out of air vents alluding to Hereditary wall scare technique or bounding through her apartment happily trying to murder people she loves. Such things happen when she gets locked outside and we are looking through the peephole on front door glasses while possessed mamma runs down floor mates like they’re Monday morning casualties. Cronin doesn’t let up at this point but instead keeps his foot pinned down so that bodies are ejecting every imaginable color of fluids and gallons upon gallons of blood flow from freshly opened wounds while Ellie gleefully obeys instructions from the Necronomicon humming along joyfully. In fact Rise hardly lets up once unspeakable violence reaches gorier depths yet – before Cronin goes full throttle during third act introducing his new canon “final boss” who exemplifies just how twisted this franchise has become.
Rise slips a bit when it comes to minor story choices, like Beth being an expectant mother (Cronin borrowed some moody motherhood tension from his first movie The Hole in the Ground) and religious symbolism that sets up this new Necronomicon. Neither of these things is exactly wrong, but they both feel underserved once Evil Deadiness gets going and the heads start rolling.
Except for those few playful jabs aside, Rise gives fans of Evil Dead exactly what they want and then some. Cronin throws in quite a lot of Ash Williams worshippers’ references such as pizza boxes or tree-cutter vans parked in garages, but does his best to make Rise into something “beyond just another Evil Dead,” and it works more often than not. This is what you would expect from an Evil Dead movie; ground-up corpses, flesh bits spat out as well as demonic extravagance which serves as a foundation for the rest of the franchise by implying that there will always be different future decades of innovative Evil Dead domination.
No matter how you cut it, this goopy gory mess is just what the next chapter of Evil Dead needs. It’s a thrilling combination of franchise loyalty, innovative storytelling, and full-blown horror. A gore-slathered Lee Cronin delivers an Evil Dead movie that is both disgusting to watch and still manages to feel good. Some hiccups with newer Necronomicon lore or motherhood elements do not really affect its momentum since the cast remains strong in times of heavy bloodshed or quiet storytelling (which happens rarely). The rise hits all the right notes, gambles on the darkness that pays off, and departs with us wanting more—everything that an Evil Dead sequel should be.
Also, Read On Fmovies