I had the opportunity to watch Evil Dead Rise within a week of when it was released. In an actual movie theatre. With other actual human beings! Usually, I write these Horror Movie Reviews months and/or decades after a film is first released. Typically, I am watching these movies alone in my basement where I really thrive. Normally, I then try to start conversations with people by saying “Do you remember that one movie where…” or writing Reviews of movies no one has ever heard of. But now I am culturally relevant! Someone might actually read this Evil Dead Rise Movie Review before seeing the film and think to themselves “Wow, Things I Fear was right about this movie and they barely even ruined it entirely for me!”. It’s truly a proud moment for everyone on the planet, hyperbole, and the entire Internet as a whole. Let’s dive into it, shall we?
If you have not previously seen any of the Evil Dead movies, I know a great place to start your journey. I recently was a featured guest on the Arts Union Science Podcast and one of their hosts then wrote a Horror Movie Review of Army of Darkness for Things I Fear. If you have not heard that podcast episode or read that Review, I suggest you begin there. It might also be advisable to watch Evil Dead (1980s or even the 2010s version, I suppose) and then the corresponding sequels. If you are the type of person who enjoys eating dessert before dinner though, you can always watch this 2023 installment first. Kind of weird. But you do you. And don’t let anyone tell you how weird that is. Especially random online strangers. It’s not like the movies really require you to watch them in a specific order to understand why someone has become possessed or why another person just lost a limb. You can figure it out as you go.
Anyway, so back to this movie. Alright. So it starts off with a brief moment of foreshadowing something that happens at the end of the movie though it’s barely even necessary. More so a way to showcase a mix of the old with the modernization of the new. It involves a drone, a dock, and a nap. I’ll let you piece that one together to avoid spoilers. Fast-forward to the day before and the movie really starts off. We’ve got a family living in a nice apartment in a not-so-nice building. They are visited by a relative. There are 2 daughters, a son, a mother, and a sister of said mother. They are continued to be described in short sentences that offer little value. The kids go out for pizza, an earthquake occurs, a vault is discovered, and Hell is subsequently unleashed. This includes that awesome camera work implying something is closing in on the family. This is really the first time you really get the Evil Dead vibes.
I forgot to mention the whole Book of the Dead thing. You know in the first movies how one of the characters essentially has to use a blood offering & needs to say certain words to unleash Hell? Did you not watch the first ones to know that? It doesn’t matter. So this movie does a fun modern and yet unique twist on being able to accomplish both of these things. No, they do not ask Siri to conjure a demon from the bowels of Hell. A family member is abruptly possessed which is less than ideal news for the rest of the family as well as the neighbouring neighbours. This is a tough thing to describe without spoilers so bear with me. Chaos. Said family member is super creepy while in the apartment as well as outside of the apartment. The family inside is too high up and there is simply too much rain outside for the old lady pushing the shopping cart 50 feet below to be of much assistance.
One by one the family spreads the possession much like you would share rabies. But also not at all like that and I have no idea why that comparison will be used in the final edit of this post. Anyway, so it’s quite dramatic, intense, and over-the-top violent. It’s like watching a Saw movie but with kids. And a cheesegrater. Also a really weird comparison but we’re sticking with it! Just when you think all is okay, the damn demon becomes a super demon. I will not spoil it more than that but that thing is straight out of a Left 4 Dead fever dream. The escape scene towards the end does a great job as an homage to the original movies. It’s very bloody, very chainsaw-y, and even has that run around the car seen too! Again, you really need to see the first couple of movies to understand the references throughout. But also again, you really don’t have to at all. Choose your own adventure.
Evil Dead Rise: Final Thoughts
It’s really hard to type up an Evil Dead Rise Movie Review and not spoil the entire movie. That’s sort of my thing, right? I would say you should definitely see this one if you liked any of the other movies in the series and it’s also a pretty good place to start. You could even just watch this one and it still makes enough sense on its own. It’s violent, it’s creepy, it’s spooky, and it’s loud in theatres. The only thing I really didn’t like about this movie was the correlation between the beginning of the movie and the end. I hope it plans on setting up a sequel otherwise it just felt very unnecessary. Of course, I am also really bad at understanding things like hidden meanings and plots. So maybe that’s just me. Have you seen Evil Dead Rise? What did you think? Let me know on Instagram where I post once every 4 months or on Facebook where I actually have an app on my phone for it. And don’t tell me I don’t know how to Social Media because I already wrote about that.
