R is for Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Last night I watched Evil Dead Rise. I will mention one spoiler which isn't to the overall story that I loved. I'll edit the post so that you have to highlight to see it. Otherwise, this review will be spoiler free.

Plot

While visiting her older sister Ellie and her three children, Beth finds herself fighting for her life (and the lives of her family) as something evil possessed Beth and starts wreaking havoc in her apartment complex.

Review

Let me just start by saying I loved this one. Evil Dead Rise is a worthy addition to the franchise. Lee Cronin had a vision making this and you can see that in the final product. The pacing was great. The effects and gore were top notch. There were 6,500 liters of movie blood used in the movie. From what I saw online the average human body has 5 liters. That means there are probably at least 1300 people's worth of blood in the flick.

The cast are absolute phenomenal. Lily Sullivan is a fantastic lead protagonist. She's flawed, but the best protagonists are. Alyssa Sutherland was horrifying and heartbreaking as Ellie. She's such a sympathetic character, being a quirky single mom of three equally quirky children. Once she becomes possessed, she's a truly disturbing villain. Speaking of the children, Nell Fisher, Morgan Davies, and Gabrielle Echols all put in fantastic performances. 

This movie had all the trappings of an Evil Dead movie. Evil Book? Check! Shotgun and chainsaw? Check! Recording of passages from evil book? Check! Weird POV shots of mysterious demonic forces? Check! There are several homages too. While there's no SA involved, there is a nice take on the tree scene. A few of Ash's lines are said by characters. Also, unlike 2013's Evil Dead, there are some darkly comedic moments in this film. While it's not presented in the slapstick manner of Evil Dead 2, you can tell it was definitely inspired by it. There is also a line that mentions three different versions of the Naturom Demonto in existence, which implies the films of Raimi, Alvarez, and Cronin might exist in the same universe.

I won't say anything about the climax of the movie other than it was unexpected and gave us something new. Also, shout out to Staffney.

In Your Game

Unlike previous Deadites, the ones in this movie don't seem to be affected by the sun. Don't worry, this isn't a spoiler as far as the main plot goes, and was shown in the marketing and trailer. There are a few reasons for this. The first is that the possessed folks aren't traditional deadites. The second (which is my headcannon because it's more fun) is that the Faceless Man has been resurrected and is active during the time of the movie.