“Who is the brainless meat puppet now?”
Opening with a quick callback to Sam Raimi’s visual style, Evil Dead Rise gets the goosebumps just right in the latest installment in this continuing franchise. And the thumps and bumps and downright chills are just beginning as a vacation for a few friends goes sideways fast thanks to Jessica’s EVIL DEAD possession.
Scalps are ripped off and so too are heads as Evil Dead Rise begins its macabre march on the screen.
And then we settle into the main story as Irish writer/director Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) lets his imagination run wild with solid visuals as almost every part of the body is somehow (albeit creatively) maligned, severed, and decapitated. There are bugs, a whole lot of vomit, and so much blood that it fits squarely into the previous films in the franchise . . . except this one focuses on a run-down apartment in Los Angeles. Of course, after that familiar cabin the woods cold opening for the title sequence to roll out upon.
You see, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is dealing with a husband who has abandoned her and her children: Kassie (Nell Fisher), the youngest, Danny (Morgan Davies) and Bridget (Gabrielle Echols). When her rocker-type sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan), arrives, so too does an earthquake, rocking all sorts of supernatural activity as the past of the building is revealed. Bank vaults, oh my! 
But it is what is uncovered which has the hair on the back of our necks standing on end. The book of the dead! And with this, the horror express that is Evil Dead Rise jumps into action as a non-stop thrill ride of jump scares and oh so much blood that it’s easy to overlook the weaker moments which feel a bit shoved in for the namesake alone.
With buckets of blood and a revved-up engine, Evil Dead Rise gets straight to another possession which opens up so much harm and violence to Ellie’s children that you might be a little surprised, but it works to create a unique tension as familiar ingredients in the Evil Dead lore are sprinkled about the screen. I mean, if you have seen the other films in the franchise, there will be no surprises here, but the violence and the scares are gruesome and definitely daring.
Things go dark quickly and that’s just how we like it.
Give us the groovy! The gory! And the grime! Evil Dead Rise does not disappoint. The movie is in theaters and playing on Max.
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 96 mins
Director: Lee Cronin
Writer: Lee Cronin
Cast: Mirabai Pease; Richard Crouchley; Anna-Maree Thomas
Genre: Horror
Tagline: Mommy Loves You to Death.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Mommy's with the maggots now."
Theatrical Distributor: Warner Bros.
Official Site: https://www.evildeadrisemovie.com/
Release Date: April 21, 2023
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: A twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
