“Evil Dead Rise” (2023)
As a huge fan of the “Evil Dead” franchise, especially the original trilogy, I was curious to see what Lee Cronin was going to do with it.
The trailer didn’t really grab me, but Cronin’s previous movie “The Hole in the Ground” gave me hope. The restraint he showed in that movie, building tension and balancing it with creepy moments, was for me the perfect balance that Sam Raimi injected in the originals. I was even okay with removing the more silly and campy side of the originals.
However, what I didn’t expect was the overutilization of pretty much everything. For me, a horror movie is like a rollercoaster – you need to rise and then fall, so the tension is always playing with you. But this movie just gets stuck at the height of the rollercoaster and never comes down.
The excessive gore, jump scares, horror movie references, over-stylized shots, and constant noise that eventually just make you deaf didn’t work for me. However, I’m sure it will make many people absolutely love this movie. There is a very fine line between liking or disliking this movie because there are great things in it, but they just keep coming and coming. The movie gets lost in the style and forgets the substance, and I know many people won’t care but I do.
The movie starts off strong, with a great opening that plays with the language of the original movie and a more modern feel. The director shows he knows horror and how to shoot it. The setup for the characters and the family dynamic is interesting, with a moral dilemma that has loads of potential. Our five main actors really hit the ball out of the park. Alyssa Sutherland is creepy as hell and will make your skin crawl.
However, the movie fails to pace itself, with clever visual shots but constantly changing style. It feels like every idea everyone had was thrown into the movie, without any restraint to make the story the main selling point.
If you play a drinking game, pointing out famous horror movie references that are in this movie, you will finish it wasted. Everything from “The Shining,” “The Exorcist,” “Rec,” “The Thing,” “Society,” and obviously the original “Evil Dead” is there, in just 96 minutes.
After watching it, I felt disappointed because there is a very good movie here that got lost in the excitement of everyone involved to put all their cool ideas on the screen. I wish they didn’t have them all in one single movie, because it gives no space for any of them to breathe or shine.
Still, this movie will be a hit, and many will absolutely love it. It will have sequels, so maybe they will work better for me.
Have you seen this movie?
Are you a fan of the originals?
