The bloodthirsty demons are back and this time they’re going after a family in a rundown high-rise in the 2023 entry of the campy Evil Dead horror film franchise, Evil Dead Rise.
Beth (Lily Sullivan), a roadie who’s just received some surprising news, heads home to visit her estranged sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), and Ellie’s children in Los Angeles. Upon arriving she discovers her sister packing up and getting ready to leave their apartment because the building’s been condemned.
Ellie sends her three kids – Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and young Kassie (Nell Fisher) – out to get pizza, and just as they make it back to the parking garage, the city experiences a massive earthquake. The ground cracks and a large hole opens up in their building.
Teenager Danny goes exploring down in the hole, much to the concern of Bridget and Kassie. He discovers an old, abandoned bank vault and as he rifles through some of the items, he comes across vinyl records and the Necronomicon – the Book of the Dead. Danny puts the items in his backpack, joins his sisters in the garage, and heads back to their apartment.
Danny’s anxious to check out his new possessions, and once he’s in his room, he opens the book. He also plays one of the records, which it turns out was made by a religious man reading from the Necronomicon. This sets free the flesh-possessing demons and one of them takes control of Ellie, turning her into an evil creature bent on killing everyone in the building…including her children.
It falls to Beth, the irresponsible sister, to try to protect Danny, Bridget, and Nell from the demon inside their mother and to try to find a way out of the decrepit building that has become a death trap, thanks to the earthquake.
Directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), Evil Dead Rise is a gruesome and disturbing horror film that’s full of gore but light on actual scares. It’s wall-to-wall blood, but that’s all it is.
Lily Sullivan as Beth is the best part of the film, playing the roadie (don’t call her a groupie!) who’s always let her sister down and made the wrong choices. However, when push comes to shove, she steps up and defends her nephew and nieces from a horrifying demon. Sullivan shows just how terrified and out of her league Beth is as she faces the demon inhabiting her sister’s body.
Another terrific, truly unnerving performance is delivered by Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie. Prior to being possessed, Sutherland’s performance as Ellie captures just how beaten down by life the single mom is and how, despite that, she still adores her children. Once she’s possessed, Sutherland steals every scene. Her movements and facial expressions as the demon are skin-crawlingly effective.
What’s missing in this entry of the Evil Dead franchise is the campy, fun vibe that made the earlier films so enjoyable. That, plus Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams and his fun, over-the-top reactions to the demons. Evil Dead Rise takes itself too seriously, forgets what made the franchise so much fun, and subs in buckets of blood instead of humor.
GRADE: C
MPAA Rating: R (Strong Bloody Horror Violence|Some Language|Gore)
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Running Time: 1 hour 37 minutes
Studio: Warner Bros Pictures
