They came, they chainsawed, they splattered.
Beth (Lily Sullivan) is a guitar tech visiting her sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) in her rundown apartment that she shares with her three children (Morgan Davies, Nell Fisher, and Gabrielle Echols). The family faces an uncertain future with the building scheduled to be demolished. However, when an earthquake opens up a hidden passage beneath the building that holds dark and terrible secrets, things go from bad to much, much worse...
As a franchise, 'Evil Dead' has benefitted from the knowledge that its audiences are prepared for extremes. After all, the first two movies were widely considered 'video nasties' back in their heyday and subsequent additions have tried to harken back to that punk rock spirit with varying results. In 'Evil Dead Rise', however, writer-director Lee Cronin and his assembled cast and crew have managed to sharpen the edges and smooth the cracks to create something familiar. It's not a facsimile of the original, because Fede Álvarez's efforts ten years hence did that with marginal results. Instead, 'Evil Dead Rise' feels more like a tasteful refinement of it than anything else.
There's no straightforward, obvious cameo here because it doesn't need it and would only serve to weaken its stance. Likewise, the inclusion a of certain skin-covered book is done with an affection, but it doesn't linger over it like it's obsequious fan service or veneration. 'Evil Dead Rise' is much too good to need to resort to that. What it takes, rather, is the formal structure - a family unit trapped inside a place as the horrors break in from every angle and, in some cases, are already in there with them. It's tried-and-tested stuff, sure, but here in 'Evil Dead Rise', Lee Cronin correctly understands that it needs to have an emotional foundation to begin with, but then it needs to go higher and further than anything before.
For the first thirty-odd minutes of the movie, you're treated to a well-written introduction to each of the characters and their situation. Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan play off each with the kind of yearning affection that comes from siblings who are separated by much more than distance. Likewise, the on-screen children and relatives are all fully realised and written well. The development doesn't feel like a chore; you could quite happily watch another sixty minutes of them hanging out and trying to figure out what they're going to do next like it's a grungy, Independent Spirit Award-style family drama. Of course, this being 'Evil Dead Rise', the horror kicks off and doesn't stop until the credits roll.
For the next hour, 'Evil Dead Rise' turns into a splatter spectacular with blood - not that CGI garbage you see far too often these days - spraying and flying everywhere. Practical effects and makeup, in-camera methods, and a roaring score from Stephen McKeon help to create an atmosphere of violent chaos, with the camera spinning its head trying to keep it all in focus. While Cronin's last effort, 'The Hole In The Ground', had an atmosphere of restrained dread, 'Evil Dead Rise' gives itself over entirely to gibbering, screaming terror. You are on the barrel end of an unholy nightmare, with Alyssa Sutherland's maternal monster throwing herself at the camera to terrorise you.
The setting - a high-rise shambles of an apartment block - offers the possibility that the action might take it all in, and you might get the sense that 'Evil Dead Rise' doesn't differentiate itself too much from the original. It's true - you do see the apartment block and you think it's going to be utilised one way when it's used in a more conventional way for 'Evil Dead'. However, this just keeps the action and the horror tightly wound and concentrated on a single floor, all of it funnelled into one small apartment that is crumbling and disintegrating even further.
'Evil Dead Rise' is a short, sharp blast of horror - never allowing itself an indulgent moment, roaring on until the chainsaw runs out of petrol. Come get some.