Evil Dead Rise: High-Rise, High Concept?
(This review contains SPOILERS)
The world is always hard on the living, but the level of difficulty varies depending on a myriad of internal and external factors. Beneath the crimson-stew bloodbath of Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, there is a keen understanding of classism, economic strife, and familial estrangement in a time where the cost of living keeps increasing, while wages remain stubbornly fixed.
In the first of many smart moves, Cronin transposes the all-too-familiar “cabin in the woods” setting for an urban highrise on the brink of condemnation. Tattoo artist and single mom Ellie (the amazingly elastic Alyssa Sutherland) is doing her best to raise three kids: socially conscious Bridget (Gabrielle Echols); aspiring DJ/musician Danny (Morgan Davies); and crafty, imaginative Kassie (Nell Fisher). When Ellie’s roadie sister, Beth (Lilly Sullivan) arrives with a bun in the oven and a plea of financial desperation, relationship dynamics become strained.
Who needs the added hassle of demonic possession when a fucked-up family often seems just as bad?
Necronomicon Unleashed
There is a certain giddy pleasure in watching Cronin’s vision unfold – a pleasure that was notably missing during my viewing of Fede Alvarez’s 2013 sequel-remake. While that film was not without its inventive moments, it also felt like the human story was nothing but a flimsy pretext to let loose with geysers of gore.
In Evil Dead Rise, the writer-director gives a creative, organic excuse for the excavation of the cursed Necronomicon: as Bridget, Danny, and Kassie are returning home with pizza, an earthquake hits, tearing a hole in the basement garage. As if to underline the specter of capitalism that hangs over the family’s existing problems, an old bank vault is revealed through the opening. Danny wanders down, extracting some old vinyl records and the accursed, flesh- and teeth-bound tome (which, rather cleverly, resembles a Venus flytrap).
To further emphasize the inescapable, all-seeing eye of God and capital, a statue of the crucified Christ springs out of the shadows to remind us. God may be watching, sure, but whether He cares is a different matter altogether.
Why So Serious?
In contrast to the previous film, Cronin takes an active interest in his heroes (and potential victims), even giving the few neighborly hangers-on a proper introduction before letting loose with the mayhem fans of the series have come to expect. The first act is spent getting acquainted and building atmosphere; the second ramps up the tension; and the third is a pull-out-all-stops gorefest.
In many ways, this is the most fully fleshed-out entry in the Evil Dead lore, and the most successful at maintaining a serious tone since Raimi’s 1981 original.
But is it necessary for these films to double down on seriousness, since the MPAA has lightened its stance on extreme gore (at least when the victims are demons)?
As we have three bloody and hilarious seasons of Ash vs. Evil Dead, I can accept a more serious, higher-emotional-stakes vision for the series’ theatrical entries. It helps that Cronin is not looking to be dour and dark for its own sake.
Vanquishing Evil
Something that occurred to me over the course of Evil Dead Rise was the grim nihilism of vanquishing the evil itself. Granted, the “rules” are pretty consistent throughout the series (Army of Darkness excepted): bodily dismemberment is the only way to bring a deadite down.
Before Bruce Campbell became Raimi’s go-to guy for comic relief, he was reluctant – cowardly, even – until he acquired the courage to use extreme violence against his possessed friends. Remember Ash cowering against the wall while Scotty yells, “hit her!” in the first film?
Cronin captures the same internal conflict. Perhaps there’s something more dreary and dire about what transpires in Evil Dead Rise, as the family is on the skids, facing the punishments of a cruel economy or personal irresponsibility (Beth’s pregnancy is a key plot point). The apartment becomes a stand-in for the classic cabin in the woods, but presents its own unique potential for isolation and hopelessness.
Overcoming the Demons
Evil Dead Rise is ostensibly Beth’s story, though it could be anybody’s: the filmmakers deftly play with viewer expectations, opening the potential of death or possession up to even the youngest characters. But it’s profound how Beth’s insecurities and doubts are amalgamated into a very literal, walking-tumor mosaic in the final minutes.
Needless to say, the climax sees everyone left alive soaked in gallons of blood. Cronin hammers, grinds, and saws his point home with maximal force: the only way to overcome the demons (literal or figurative) is to obliterate them with extreme prejudice.
Or, as Millard Rausch (Richard France) put it so eloquently in Dawn of the Dead: “We must not be lulled by the concept that these are our family members or friends. They are not. They will not respond to such emotions. They must be destroyed on sight!”
Not unlike Mia (Jane Levy) in the 2013 film, Beth’s journey renders her a Final Girl of three-dimensional distinction, and a nice final joke suggests there may be more chaos on the horizon (better safe than sorry, amirite?). Would someone bring these two considerable forces together in the next one, please?
3.5 out of 5 stars
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Jonny Numb
Jonny Numb (aka Jonathan Weidler) only disrobes before writing a review. He co-hosts The Last Knock horror podcast and occasionally pops up on Movies Films & Flix. His writing on non-horror cinema can be found periodically at The Screening Space.
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(Evil Dead Rise movie still from New Line Cinema.)