Evil Dead Rise

I liked the opening and the brilliantly built-up finale, but between that, the new Evil Dead was nothing to write home about. What surprised me was that, compared to the film that started everything in 1981 (for a couple of bucks), this one is rather mild. What pleased me, on the other hand, was how they didn't mess around with it (thank you for the reasonable running time), and that there was no lack of black humour either. (07/09/2023)

Sam Raimi produced and Lee Cronin directed Evil Dead Rise to make fans of the original as happy as possible. An audiovisually aggressive gore flick with great sound design and a lot of imaginative violence, it's a wild ride that goes by pretty damn fast even with its short running time. It also has fine heroes and even the derelict building setting works well enough to not mind that it doesn't bring much new to the table. I'm just not sure if a similarly off-the-rails horror film can capture audiences. (04/19/2023)

I expected a film that would completely break free from the conventional bounds of bloody and explicit horror! Evil Dead Rise didn’t quite deliver on that front. Don’t get me wrong... Technically, it’s a flawless film, set this time in the intriguing environment of a dilapidated apartment building somewhere in LA. I even managed to warm up to the main protagonist during the enjoyable hour and a half. And when it comes to gore, it’s absolutely top-notch (though by my standards, it’s disappointingly sparse... the trailers promised a bigger dose). However, the story ultimately let me down. Adding in a few illogical situations (especially the bizarre way the blood-borne infection behaves) and some stupid character actions, it just can’t reach the genre's peak. On the plus side, Alyssa Sutherland played the demonic mother brilliantly... And the final chainsaw sequence? I genuinely squealed with delight :D It ends up with a weaker 7/10. (05/23/2023)

So here everything is absolutely fine. Anyone who has seen Evil Dead in its original versions (and it certainly left an impression on them, just like me) knows what they're getting into and applauds. Those who have never seen this film before not only miss out on that applauding heart and butterflies in the stomach right at the beginning when the 'demon' is making its way through the woods and over the water, but in the end, they're probably just disgusted by the visual appearance of all the scenes :D I have to say that I was completely satisfied. 90% of the film is in the spirit of Evil Dead (literally lol), it's cool, it's scary, disgusting, gloomy, muddy, bloody, crazy, relentless - the only thing that was slightly exaggerated was the ending, but then again, it was exactly the kind of ending you'd expect from Evil Dead, so why not :D I liked it! (05/15/2023)

"You don't look so good, mom..." The technically-satisfying Evil Dead in a high-rise building can’t rely much on the child actors (especially during the possession phases), but that’s balanced out by Madam Sutherland, who would make Russell Crowe in an XXXL robe look small right now! Tailor's scissors under the bed, a broken mop handle, a wood chipper parked in the underground garage (if the entrance were bigger, there’d be a combine harvester too)—all of these are predictably put to use while testing if they can surpass the maximum weight capacity of the Overlook Hotel's elevator. The only remaining question is: after the intro at the lake house, will Ripley, Newt, and the trio avoid the evil from the vents and fly off the planet Monde? (05/11/2023)