Running time: 96 minutes
Starring: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, Nell Fisher
Directed by: Lee Cronin
The story: When a group of siblings discover a mysterious book, they have no idea of the hell that is about to be unleashed upon their unsuspecting family.
The verdict: For the majority of my life I have avoided horror films like the plague. The few I had the misfortune of watching growing up, did their job aptly by horrifying me. So if anyone had told me that one day I’d count horror as one of my favourite genres, I’d have laughed (albeit nervously).
I mention the above because when I first saw the trailer for Evil Dead Rise, I was transported back to my pre-horror self. The trailer was terrifying enough - this might be a step too far I thought. Who was I kidding though? Of course I found myself seated in a screening, ready to watch through my fingers if I had to.
Evil Dead Rise opens with one of my favourite title reveals of possibly all time. The film starts as it means to go on and those familiar with the franchise will know that this means blood, gore and violence.
With that in mind, if you are adverse to gore heavy horror then this might not be the one for you. There were definitely several times when I visibly winced and a few times when I averted my eyes. The practical effects and makeup are brilliant and the audience in my screening reacted audibly.
The cast is really great in this. There is a mix of more established actors along with a few newcomers and the dynamics between them all worked really well. I liked that the story focused on two sisters and a family rather than the typical group of mates at a cabin. The change of location from a cabin in the woods to an apartment building also worked really well. Overall, Evil Dead Rise gets it spot on both visually and tonally.
Whilst Evil Dead Rise is full on and bloody, and truthfully a bit gross - I had a great time watching it. I was engaged, enthralled and disgusted throughout. I think the film also works well in terms of having enough to appease long time fans but similarly being completely accessible for newcomers. I’m not really a fan of The Evil Dead but I really enjoyed this - if being slightly traumatised can be enjoyable!
Not one for the horror non-fans or indeed those weak of stomach, but for the hardcore then go and cringe and have fun! Best title card of the year so far and best gory horror of the year so far too!
The rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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