David Farnor | On 23, Sep 2023

Director: Lee Cronin
Cast: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, Nell Fisher, Anna-Maree Thomas
Certificate: 18

What do you want from an Evil Dead film? Humour? Frenetic, snaking camerawork? The mention of a certain bad book? Gore? Evil Dead Rise delivers on all the above – but especially the last part.

The latest entry in the long-running franchise comes 10 years after the last attempt to revive its feature film arm – the TV series Ash vs Evil Dead enjoyed a three-season run from 2015 to 2018. If the 2013 effort was too serious and the TV series was focused on entertainment, Lee Cronin’s resurrection of the series does a remarkable job of finding the balance between the two – and then simply being really, really scary.

The film playfull begins with a cabin-in-the-woods scenario, but then whisks us away to tell us a refreshingly different story – that of a family being torn apart by the discovery of you-know-what. Beth (Lily Sullivan) has become estranged from his sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), thanks to her life spent on the road in the music biz, but she makes a concerted effort to get closer and visits Ellie and her kids in their LA apartment. However, when an earthquake opens up a hole in the apartment block car park – and her kids, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher), find a sinister book in the rubble – it’s not long until mummy turns into something else entirely.

The Evil Dead series has always been at its best when dealing with closeknit groups in closed-off locations, so the switch up to an earthquake-struct apartment is an inspired one – while there’s darkly funny spectacle and some witty dialogue on the cards, the rundown apartment has a claustrophobic and grubby feel that helps the familiar formula to up the tension as the gruesome chaos escalates.

Lee Cronin, who impressed with his debut The Hole in the Ground, proves a dabhand at splashing blood around by the bucketload, and the cinematography is quietly stylish beneath the red-spattered surface – one inspired homage to The Shining helps to balance out the expected nods to the franchise’s past.

The often disturbing effects, which are taken to graphic extremes right from the prologue, are given some added weight by the script’s focus on motherhood as much as sisterhood. The cast, led by Sutherland’s eerily smiling Ellie and Sullivan’s endaringly stoic Beth, find real horror in the thought of a loved one no longer being recognisable, and hope in protective parental instincts. The result is deceptively moving – and never less than inventive in its nastiness. Bringing something back to life when it’s least expected? What more could you want from an Evil Dead film?

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