[EVIL DEAD RISE’ Review:] A Grotesquely Grim Mother’s Day Movie

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

EVIL DEAD RISE

Rated R, 1 hour and 37 minutes

Directed by: Lee Cronin

Starring: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, Nell Fisher, Jayden Daniels

EVIL DEAD RISE does just enough to pay homage to its predecessors while innovating its own brutally bleak, twisted tale about an ancient demonic entity infecting a fracturing family unit. Filmmaker Lee Cronin (THE HOLE IN THE GROUND) constructs the frights with a gleeful grin, making the audience scream and squirm long enough to go in for the kill. With two nimble actresses anchoring the horrific hijinks, it proves to be a frightfully fun time.

Guitar engineer Beth (Lily Sullivan) has just found out she’s pregnant when she decides to travel to her sister Ellie’s (Alyssa Sutherland) home to seek sanctuary and counsel. However, once there, she learns her wise sibling is getting a divorce and her three children – Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) – are having a difficult time accepting it. Making matters worse, their apartment building has been condemned and will be demolished in a few days’ time.

An earthquake strikes, opening up a hole in the parking garage, revealing a long-buried chamber in which Danny goes snooping. He finds a box containing copious handwritten notes, a photo of priests and a set of dusty vinyl records. He also unwittingly uncovers and, much to Bridget’s chagrin, subsequently unlocks the Necronomicon, a.k.a. The Book of the Dead, with pages made of stretched human flesh and illustrated in blood. The records, filled with incantations, unleash a demonic entity that craves a human host to possess. It wreaks havoc on unsuspecting Ellie, transforming her into an inhumane, wicked monster, who kills without compunction. It’s then up to Beth to protect her nieces and nephew from the evil that’s arisen.

From the Raimi-inspired POV shots to narrative props and dialogue drops, Cronin does a lot with the franchise’s fan-favorite hallmarks. And they go a long way in his capable hands. These are deployed to level up sequences, from the opening credits in which the camera glides along a forest stream to the climax where our blood-soaked final girl defiantly stands. Levitation, contortion and crawling on ceilings and walls amp up the creepy mood. Shifting the setting from a remote cabin in the woods (though a cabin appears in the sequel-baiting wrap-around story) to a dilapidated high-rise apartment gives the film fresh problems for the protagonists to overcome – like how to reach safety when the elevator is busted, the staircase crumbles and the fire escape is inaccessible.

That said, Cronin could use a bit more finesse with his set-ups and pay-offs. Visual teases trained on Ellie’s tattoo gun, their apartment door’s peephole, and the scissors Kassie uses to make her demented defense weapon Staff-ne have the subtlety of an anvil being dropped. Their pay-offs in the scares aren’t quite as sharp as the props themselves, but do lead to some delicious discomfort. And though there are a few cackle-inducing crowd-pleasing moments, the occasional levity is blunted by the gross, gruesome overtones.

Sutherland and Sullivan turn in solid work as the yin and yang, connected but opposing. They get us to care about these characters in a short amount of time, so when the malevolent mayhem occurs, our rooting interest is firmly secured. Sutherland is delightfully deranged in demon mode, able to shift between a softer side and hard-edged terror. Sullivan’s performance is mix of confidence and vulnerability. Her outward wit and wisdom cloak her insecurity, and when she inevitably steps into her own strength, it’s a notable, nuanced shift filled with palpable power.

Like others in the franchise, EVIL DEAD RISE has been crafted with care, achieving a sufficiently successful mix of the Raimi classics and Fede Alvarez’s 2013 remake/ reboot/ reimagining. It gets under our skin, but blessedly doesn’t (cheese) grate on our nerves.

Grade: B

EVIL DEAD RISE opens in theaters on April 21.