For some reason, Hollywood keeps making the same damned movies over and over expecting the same outcome. A movie like Evil Dead Rise has no purpose whatsoever. If you want to watch a good Evil Dead movie, I recommend the first three that Sam Raimi made. Not only did the Raimi who was in her early 20s manage to made a damn good horror movie, but he also gave a young Joel Coen a start working on the crew.
The first movie was vicious in its assault as a take on the “Cabin in the Woods” premise that used camera tricks and even stop-motion animation in a way that hadn’t been used before. The sequel Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn mixed comedy and gruesome horror together in a way that films hadn’t. There was even something outrageously over the top about the first one but Raimi and his crew never made it too extreme.
But all three movies concluding with Army of Darkness told a coherent story as Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) battles the Deadites brought about by readings of the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead. I managed to watch half of the pointless 2013 remake before I felt that the goal wasn’t to make a movie but to push the already tired gorno craze to the maximum limit allowed by an R rating. Forget it. I had seen better movies like Peter Jackson’s Braindead, aka Dead-Alive.
The 2013 remake and whatever the hell Evil Dead Rise is supposed to be are too serious in their execution. There’s no surprise the movie has divided audiences with the same amount of people praising it as panning it. There’s no plot here. I mean, what do you need to know? Someone finds the Necronomicon and it’s read allowed. A bunch of one-dimensional characters are turned into Deadites and blood, violence and gore ensues.
The movie is set in a poorly lit apartment building in Los Angeles that you really can’t tell nor do you care what’s happening. Following an earthquake, teenage Danny (Morgan Davies) discovers the book and a phonograph record in the basement parking lot. He takes it back up to their apartment and plays the phonograph and here come the Deadites. They possess Danny’s mother, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), who does the same thing we’ve seen before in previous movie. Next is her daughter, Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and then she goes after Danny.
At the same time, Ellie’s sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan) is visiting. There’s something about Beth supposedly being pregnant that is almost immediately dropped. So for about an hour and a half there’s a lot of blood and gore and people covered in blood as people all over the apartment are killed by the possessed Deadites. This movie never does feel like it tried to do something different with the format. Just followed the standard slasher format. Something something supernatural happens yadda yadda yadda, everyone but the final girl remains. Add a jump scare ending. Roll credits.
I’ll admit Sutherland has a distinct look that adds a certain creepiness to her role. But she’s so wooden up until she’s possessed, there’s really no reason to care. I guess writer/director Lee Cronin thought he was being edgy by portraying the younger characters getting possessed and killing other, but I really didn’t care. He doesn’t do anything different with the characters that we haven’t seen before. I’m not the least bit terrified of the people possesed with their bodies contorting spastically while they’re hovering three or four feet above the ground speaking in a demonic voice. Been there. Done that.
There’s also a pointless beginning involved three different characters at a lake house that doesn’t really have any connection with the L.A. story. Unfortunately, since the movie made a lot of money at the box office, I anticpate David Zaslav, of Warner Bros. Discovery, is already planning a sequel. Here’s my advice, bring back Raimi and Campbell. This is mediocre fan fiction.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 