The Mosley Review: Evil Dead Rise
It's a very rare occurrence these days for a well known franchise to continue after so many breaks inbetween films. Its especially rare for each sequential entry in said franchise to stay true to the style and format of the original film that started it all. The Evil Dead franchise has one of the strongest horror fanbases and like all of you Deadheads, I've enjoyed revisiting each film including the remake and the criminally underrated tv series. When a new film comes out, they tend to focus on the intense supernatural and grotesque horror that original started with versus the campy nature of sequels and the tv series Ash vs The Evil Dead. The wonderment and beauty of the first 2 films is that they stayed small scaled, sadistically violent and featured an obscene amount of gore. This film carries that same tradition and took a more personal approach to its story instead of going the traditional "scary night in a cabin" story. It was so refreshing and powerful in so many demented ways and it didn't pull any punches or waste anytime getting to the nightmare. What I truly loved this time is the family dynamic and their simple yet strong story that gives you enough to care about each character. The nightmare scenario that descends upon this cast was brilliant and each one of them had moments of blood soaked shimmer.
Lilly Sullivan takes the lead as the troubled roadie and aunt Beth. I liked that she has a life altering decision to make throughout the film and how it affects her decisions. She may be the career bound and black sheep of the family, but she is strong willed and dedicated to her extended family. Gabrielle Echols was great as the second youngest sister Bridget. I loved her chemistry with her siblings and how she helped keep the fun in the home going on before the tragedy. Morgan Davies was good and insanely obsessive as Danny. There's always one person in these films that kicks off all the supernatural mayhem and Danny was the one this time. Nell Fisher was excellent as the youngest sister Kassie and she was the last shred of innocence in the film. I loved that at anytime all the family members were in danger and Kassie was not spared at all. She was loveable and you really felt the danger once the horror targets her. Now the best performance in the film hands down goes to the mother of the kids and Beth's sister, Ellie, played wonderfully by Alyssa Sutherland. I loved that we got to know her character first and how much of a loving mother she truly was. It made it all the more heartbreaking to see her go through the intense transformation into one of the most demented Deadites I've ever seen. Her physicality, voice work and manipulation of emotions as a possessed mother that fought to keep her consciousness in the beginning was awesome. It’s when she is truly dead she becomes that unstoppable force of evil. She was absolutely terrifying and fun to watch in every scene and the way she uses her environment was inventive.
The score by Stephen McKeon was perfectly unsettling, boistress and haunting in the best ways. It didn't over take the film as the action delivered the scares, but the score delivered the chills. The sound design in horror films is one of the most essential parts and it was bone-crunchingly superb. The slicing and tearying of flesh, the splintering of wood and even the audio of the priest on the vinyl was creepy and unnerving. The makeup in this film was top notch for a fairly low budget horror film in this day and age. The demonic progression and decay on Ellie was outstanding and hard to look at. She unsettled me every time she was on screen and that is hard to do. The Evil Dead franchise has never been more alive than this and I can't stress enough how great this film was. It lives up to the legacy and builds onto an already strong foundation. Writer and Director Lee Cronin has made a new fantastic chapter in the franchise that satisfies and he should be applauded for his achaievement. This is definitely one of the best horror films of the year. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!
