‘Mommy’s with the maggots now…’
Once you bottle lightning you can’t catch it again. The Evil Dead became a horror phenomenon because of its limitations rather than in spite of them. Necessity is the mother of invention and then up-and-coming filmmaker Sam Raimi invented a whole world of deadites, chainsaws and cursed books. Evil Dead II was Raimi and Campbell throwing absolutely everything at the screen to see what would stick. The result is a dizzying, chaotic ghost train flying thrillingly off the rails. The rest of the franchise has plenty of great moments, Ash’s bravado in Army of Darkness, the grisly conclusion to Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead, the second and best season of Ash vs Evil Dead, but nothing has ever recaptured the magic of the first two films. The great thing about Evil Dead Rise is that it doesn’t try to…
We begin with a chillingly effective cold open that presents us with everything we have come to expect from a film in this universe. A cabin in the woods. Annoying teenagers. The arrival of evil. However, these first moments, as great as they are, are a red herring. The real story occurs on the top floor of a crumbling tower block in the middle of an earthquake. Rather than the usual group of teenagers, we have a close-knit family instead. Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is the matriarch. Her son Danny (Morgan Davies) is an aspiring DJ, her eldest daughter Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) is a typically truculent teenager and her youngest daughter Kassie (Nell Fisher) is the baby of the group. The family is rounded off by Ellie’s guitar technician sister Beth (Lily Sullivan). One of the great strengths of Evil Dead Rise is how convincing this family unit is and how lived-in their dynamic feels. Writer-director Lee Cronin perfectly captures the messy turbulence of the family unit, particularly in the wake of Ellie’s partner walking out on her.
This franchise has always skirted the edges between horror and comedy yet this fifth entry is the darkest since the original. There are moments of jet-black comedy but these are few and far between. Instead, Cronin and his cast lean into the demented cruelty of the source material and the result is a film that is exhilarating in its nihilism. This really is a nasty film. The dialogue is grimy and cutting. The gore is nonstop and unflinching. There are moments here that are truly memorable and will surely become iconic as time goes by.
Evil Dead Rise manages to stay true to the spirit of the original whilst also forging its own path. It does this so successfully that it is easy to imagine this film being the start of a new franchise.
Groovy.