Evil Dead Rise (2023)

Here we go again, a decade after the last Evil Dead movie (one I have rated slightly higher after repeat viewings), a little while after the very enjoyable Ash Vs. Evil Dead TV show, and over forty years until this franchise was started with The Evil Dead. Writer-director Lee Cronin has now been entrusted with the property, and he delivers a barnstorming selection of blood-soaked thrills and escalating tension that allows this film to compare favourably to anything that preceded it, which is quite an achievement.

Alyssa Sutherland plays Ellie, mother to Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), Danny (Morgan Davies), and Kassie (the youngest of the three, played by Nell Fisher). This family unit aren't having the best time of things, and they will need to move to a new home soon, their apartment building having been scheduled for demolition in the near future. Ellie's sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan), finds out about this when she pays a surprise visit. When the kids are sent out to pick up a pizza, an earthquake strikes, which opens up a hole that Danny decides to explore, finding a book that probably shouldn't be opened, as well as some very special vinyl records. One thing leads to another, and before you can say "kanda, estrata, kandos", well . . . a voice starts saying "kanda, estrata, kandos", and things start to get very painful and bloody for those targeted by demonic forces. It all starts with Ellie, but nobody is safe, either from the threat of death or the threat of possession.

I’ve already seen a lot of love for Evil Dead Rise, but I have seen just as much criticism of it. Most of the criticism amounts to one or two main complaints; it doesn’t feel like an Evil Dead movie, and there’s no Ash. Not to invalidate the opinions of people who left their screening of this full of anger and disappointment, but it sure felt like an Evil Dead movie to me. You get great imagery throughout, a Necronomicon being the cause of all the troubles, and demonic entities that are as playful as they are deadly. The fact that there is no Ash is a) untrue (find him in a very well-hidden cameo), and b) neither here nor there. I love Bruce Campbell as much as most horror fans, but the franchise has figured out a way to ensure that it wasn’t just tied to one character, and especially one character that nobody would want to see recast. 

All you will find in this review is love for this film. I had a blast with it, from the opening sequence (including a fun gag, and some nastiness that we then cut away from after one of the best opening title cards in modern cinema) to the third act that covers every part of the screen with the most amount of fake blood scene since, well, Evil Dead. Cronin has brilliant instincts for his treatment of the material, and only stumbles when trying to shoehorn in some familiar soundbite from the previous movies, and he accompanies the wild and gory visuals with an audio mix that often becomes genuinely uncomfortable and distressing at times. There are moments here in which the sound builds and builds and builds in a way that you feel will either break your brain or make you vomit, and I mean this as a compliment (but also a warning to prepare yourself - this can feel like an assault on your senses, which is another aspect that helps it feel very much like an Evil Dead film).

And as for those being put through the necronomiwringer, I liked everyone onscreen. Sutherland generally had the most fun, being turned before anyone else and being the main threat in the movie, but Sullivan is easy to root for in the face of increasing danger. Echols and Davies are also very good, typical teens who become believably terrified as everything starts to spiral into insanity, but not only does Fisher get to be an amusingly quirky pre-teen, she also reminded me of Heather O’Rourke’s character in the Poltergeist movies. Whether deliberate or not, there’s one shot near the very end of the film that felt like an attempt to replicate a moment in that horror classic. A few others get dragged into the horror, providing extra potential souls to be swallowed, but the two who make the strongest impressions are played by Jayden Daniels and Mark Mitchinson, although nobody here drops the ball.

Despite the criticisms I have seen from others, I would highly recommend this to fans of the franchise. It has the camerawork you expect, an impressive array of special effects, some familiar weaponry, and moments to make most people genuinely wince and/or laugh at the onscreen insanity. If Cronin has plans for another one or two instalments then I will be keen to see what he gives us next. This film certainly shows that Sam Raimi’s faith in him was not misplaced, and moving the terror away from that cabin in the woods, but still keeping people trapped in one main location, ends up working even better than I hoped it would.

Go get some.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Blood Vessel (2019)

When Blood Vessel started, I am not going to pretend that I didn't make a couple of assumptions. The first one was a prediction of the ending, and I am happy to say that I was wrong. The second one was a thought about this being a remake of a fun '80s horror Death Ship. If you're a horror fan of a certain age then you remember Death Ship, even if you never saw the movie itself. It was yet another one of those titles that had a ubiquitous trailer during the early-ish days of VHS.

But that is neither here nor there, because Blood Vessel is a different beast. And it happens to feature a different beast. It starts with a group of people drifting along in a life raft. They're in the North Atlantic. It's 1945. Tired, thirsty, and hungry, their fortunes may change when they pass by a huge ship that they manage to board. It's a Nazi ship though, but also a seemingly abandoned one. As this is a horror movie, however, viewers can be pretty sure that the ship is not as abandoned as it seems. The corpses littered around show that something very bad happened. But what? That may be revealed in time for the second half. 

Directed by Justin Dix, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jordan Prosser, this is a film that ends up becoming a bit more disappointing after every main sequence. Not that anything is handled so badly that it is unforgivable, it's just that it starts off with a bunch of very familiar tropes and never does anything to subvert them. The stock group of characters feel as if they could be lifted from any other survival horror movies (the greedy one, the "fair maiden", the person of lower rank who is now an equal, the enemy they are forced to work with, the person driven by self-preservation, etc), and not enough of them stand out from the group to help you become invested in wanting them to stay safe. That's a shame, because Dix does a great job in the other departments, making the visual side of things a real treat. The production design throughout, the special effects, the camerawork, all of those things are great. The two main areas that let things down are the script and the main death scenes, with the latter even more disappointing than the former in some ways (us horror fans are used to some weak writing, but one or two spectacular deaths can often make up for that).

The cast don't do a bad job. Nathan Phillips is the rough potential leading man, and Alyssa Sutherland is the leading lady, both at times arguably better than the material they have to work with. The rest of the group allows for turns from Robert Taylor, Christopher Kirby, Alex Cooke, Mark Diaco, and John Lloyd Fillingham. It's a shame that they're all wasted, with nobody getting a big moment here and there to punctuate the proceedings (although you can tell that some scenes have that aim). Ruby Isobel Hall makes a stronger impression in her role, a young girl named Mya who is found on the boat, but even she is just a riff on the whole "Newt in Aliens" storyline.

Not a hard film to watch, Dix tries to at least pace everything well and it doesn't overstay its welcome, but Blood Vessel could have been much better than it is. It could have been a bloody and exciting adventure, whereas it ends up feeling like a flashback episode of The Strain instead.

5/10

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