In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past 42 years, the “Evil Dead” movie franchise is big on practical special effects and that includes gallons of fake blood.
The franchise is known for how it melds supernatural horror with a handful of comedic moments to punctuate the grim landscape and hopelessness the characters experience.
Overall, the series isn’t for the squeamish or faint of heart, but I’ve seen all the other films and naturally had to check “Evil Dead Rise” before it left our local theater.
Rise is a supernatural horror film written and directed by Lee Cronin.
It is the fifth installment of the Evil Dead film series.
The film stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as two estranged sisters trying to survive and save their family from ‘Deadites’ – flesh-possessing demons.
Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, Mirabai Pease, Anna-Maree Thomas, Richard Crouchley, and Nell Fisher appear in supporting roles.
Rise is 97 minutes long and rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and some language.
Cousins Teresa (Pease) and Jessica (Thomas), and Jessica’s new boyfriend Caleb (Crouchley) are vacationing at a lakeside cabin when a seemingly ill Jessica scalps Teresa and tackles Caleb to drag him into the lake.
Underwater, she decapitates Caleb and rises from the bubbling depths of the lake to last be seen levitating above the bright red water.
One day earlier, upset at learning she is pregnant, guitar technician Beth (Sullivan) visits her sister Ellie (Sutherland) in Los Angeles.
Ellie is a tattoo artist and single mother to teenagers Danny (Davies) and Bridget (Echols), and child Kassie (Fisher), in their home at the condemned Monde Apartments after Ellie’s husband leaves her to raise their kids alone.
The building is shaken by an earthquake while the children are in its basement parking lot, uncovering a concealed chamber.
Danny investigates it, discovering religious artifacts, three phonograph records from 1923, and a strange book that he takes up to his room, believing he could possibly sell it and use the money to help Ellie.
The initial record details rejected efforts by a priest to research the book that is later to be revealed to be one of three volumes of the Naturom Demonto.
The subsequent record reveals the priest continued his research in secret and recites an incantation that summons demonic entities known as Deadites.
During a thunderstorm, the building’s power fails and an isolated Ellie is attacked and possessed by an unseen force in the elevator.
She returns to the apartment in a trance, menacingly threatens her family, and dies after pleading with Beth to protect her children.
Beth and Ellie’s neighbors help lay her to rest in her bedroom and search for a way out.
They find that the staircase has collapsed, the elevator is damaged, and they are unable to access the fire escape before Ellie revives and attacks the family, wounding Bridget.
Beth and the children lock Ellie outside the apartment while she pursues and massacres the neighbors.
Overall, the film is steeped in a creepy atmosphere with looming dread and visceral horror.
It has nothing to do with the previous films in the series outside of the premise of Deadites, possession, and a whole lot of death, chaos, and destruction – which is still a winning combination in my book.
