Evil Dead Rise (Mini-Review)

Evil Dead Rise is the latest movie in the Evil Dead series. Beth decides to visit her sister Ellie after getting some news. A good night with her nieces and nephew turns sour when Ellie complains about Beth not being there when her husband left. Things take an even worse turn when a Deadite possesses Ellie. Now Beth is forced to find a way for her and Ellie's children to survive the hellish night. If surviving is even possible. Evil Dead Rise was released in 2023. It was directed by Lee Cronin. It stars Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, and Morgan Davies.

In the trailers I was confused about when the cabin in the woods scenes would happen. The movie was set in an urban environment so the woods setting didn't make any sense. It turns out the scenes related to the cabin in the woods book end the movie. The first scene shows a Deadite going on a killing spree. The final scene shows how the one woman got possessed.

During the first part of the credits there are pages of the evil book shown. So if that interests you, you should stay. At the very end of the credits there is a small but significant sound effect. If you are someone who only likes post-credits scenes that set things up, you won't like waiting through the credits to hear the sound effect.

There is so much blood in this movie. It was as if everyone was betting on how much blood could be used. That is the only reasonable explanation. It is used to great effect to heighten the mood. At the point everything is just drenched in blood, it's the final part of the movie. That is the time to not hold back. Every emotion is now at its highest point so of course everything must be covered in blood. The actors must have spent months washing all of that fake blood off.

One character I didn't like was Danny. If he could've stopped from going in a hole, the nightmare might have been avoided. So when things started to happen to him I was happy. Though, I guess, there is something to be said about the pull of evil. He was most likely being tempted by an ancient and malevolent force. Something must have compelled him to open the book and set everything in motion. There's also the fact that some other person could have been compelled to end up with the same outcome. But I still don't like Danny in spite of that.

This movie had a good combination of intense emotional and darkly comedic scenes. Sometimes both at the same time. At points I didn't know if it was wrong to laugh or not. I couldn't tell if my dark sense of humor went up a notch or the filmmakers intended for me to fell that way. Such as a possessed Ellie spits an eyeball down a man's throat. Something about that was funny to me.

I would highly suggest Evil Dead Rise to fans of the Evil Dead series. I would also highly suggest Evil Dead Rise to horrors fans that need something really gory.