Movie Review: Evil Dead Rise

Mommy's with the maggots now

After sitting through a 96-minute bloodbath, I was left with only one question. Why did I wait so damn long to watch this one?

To be fair, I was not the biggest fan of the Evil Dead remake a few years back, as I thought it was totally unnecessary. With ED Rise, it felt like a return to the Deadites universe, while also standing up well on its own. Rather than going into a detailed breakdown, let me instead focus on the scenes that I absolutely loved, while trying to avoid spoilers.

The opening scene was short, sweet, and made to let us know that we are indeed in an Evil Dead movie. My concern was that the rest of the movie was not going to live up to that, but I those worries were quickly quelled.

The way in which the Deadites were introduced was fabulous, with the mixture of the Necronomicon and the records, which were totally unsettling, proving to be a masterful way to bring the nasties to life.

The elevator possession scene was absolutely brilliant, as was the scenes viewed through the peephole of the apartment door. The fisheye lens view added a surreal aspect to it all that we legitimately creepy.

In these types of movies, you often get the feeling that the main characters, while being put through Hell, are never in any real danger. That was not the case here, and the moment the first of those characters went down, I was fully hooked.

The end creature, which I am referring to as The Beast of Many Bodies, was total nightmare fuel. The way it looked and moved was super unsettling, and I would have loved to have seen more of it.

While I initially thought that the opening scene was just a throwaway thing to set up the Evil Dead branding, it actually served as the first of a pair of brilliant bookends, with the ending making up the other part to create a perfect full circle moment.

Finally, I loved that the building it all took place in felt like a character in its own right, working with the Deadites to ensure that the potential victims had no way out. I love having buildings as characters of sorts when I write, so this really appealed to me.

Evil Dead Rise proved to be an easy 5-star watch for me, and I now cannot wait until I am able to see Burn. It has a lot to love up to, so I hope it can attain the high bar set by this entry into the franchise.