I suppose IP matters more than anything in 2023. Evil Dead Rise needs the name for the movie to get made. But I’m pretty sure this one would be better helped not strapped down by the Evil Dead connotation. Apart from the Evil Dead name, Rise continues in the horror genre’s legacy to craft compelling scary stories with sneaky deep themes that stay with you after they are over. When it comes to Evil Dead grooviness, well…
Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is doing the brave single mom thing, raising 3 kids: Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridge (Gabrielle Echols), and youngest Kassie (Nell Fisher) from a decaying condemned apartment complex. Ellie’s sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) comes into town to visit from her touring band tech job. Perfect timing! An earthquake opened up an abandoned part of the building that may or may not contain necronomiconimous artifacts…
If Evil Dead Rise were simply called “Condemned” I think I might love this movie because of the scares themes its selling. There’s some really great stuff in there about family dynamics. We get sibling dynamics parallels between the older sisters and the younger kids, seeing what happens when siblings (especially male siblings) stop listening to each other, and how much alienation, loneliness and pain that causes from someone you trusted and loved. It’s clear early on too that the demons choose Ellie to succumb to the evil dead, a great movie idea. The setup traps our family in the presence of this demon that they hope is still their sister/mom. That premise leads to all sorts of dread of all types. The very gory grotesque horror happens in front of everyone, as all the family can see is Ellie and not the demon she’s become. Combine the horrific images with some very effective slow motion car crash scares and Evil Dead Rises you out of your seat for a hot sec scared as to what might happen next. Plus, as the story progresses, sneaky themes about poverty, sins of man, and parenthood get chainsawed into your head after the gnarly final half hour.
But as an Evil Dead movie, the film’s slickness and professionalism work against it and the Evil Dead legacy. The opening fast moving camera shot isn’t innovative; it’s simply playing on nostalgia of Sam Raimi’s innovative work on a shoestring budget in the 1980s. The effects and gore are sufficiently scary, but again, it’s mostly CGI, not practical. The biggest difference is the tonal shift. Evil Dead Rise tries to be funny a couple times, but the tone never plays silly: it’s always deadly serious and tragic, as this family is slowly losing their mom. As such, the whole endeavor feels especially hollow as its using IP to manipulate and weaponize nostalgia instead of trusting the really good story the creative team came up with.
I’m sure Sam Raimi is fine with his gagillion dollars. But watching the cool stuff he makes get chewed up by the corporate profit IP machine is a bit of a bummer. Just leave Ash out of this at least. I don’t want him showing up in Evil Dead 9 as grandpa Ash wielding chainsaws for a few extra bucks.