Few franchises can claim to have revolutionized cinema, but Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead is definitely one of them, having pushed forward practical effects and given horror comedies the prestige they deserve. The franchise was also smart enough to reinvent itself at each new installment, keeping things fresh while staying true to its core values, gathering a faithful fan base over the decades. Written and directed by Lee Cronin, Evil Dead Rise understands what makes Evil Dead so beloved and delivers a horror movie that’ll make any fan rejoice. What’s even better is that Cronin’s movie is also made for newcomers who have never followed the franchise, offering some bloody good fun that anyone can enjoy.
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Evil Dead movies are always about a desperate fight for survival in confined spaces. Even when Raimi took the franchise out of the cabin in the woods for 1992’s Army of Darkness, Ash Williams’ (Bruce Campbell) medieval adventure revolved around finding the right tools to defend a castle from a horde of undead. Cronin is well aware that Deadites thrive within set boundaries, so he spends the first arc of Evil Dead Rise carefully taking us through the different locations of the apartment building where the dead will wage war on the living. Each frame is also filled with small nods at the weapons that’ll be used in the upcoming battles, teasing the bloody ways the Deadites will torture their victims for the following hour. Keen-eyed fans eager to find what horrors Cronin has hidden in Evil Dead Rise will rejoice to look at sharp objects and know how they’ll be used. Even so, that doesn’t take away from the movie’s shock value as Cronin never shies away from showing flesh getting ripped in detail.

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While the Evil Dead franchise has always been about blood, goo, and dismembered limbs, there’s also a comedic levity to how Raimi approaches gore. For many decades, we thought Evil Dead movies could only work when leaning heavily on the funny side of the Deadite-killing business. That changed thanks to Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead, which reinvented the franchise in 2013 by using unrelenting violence capable of turning even the strongest of stomachs. Evil Dead Rise learns from this lesson and offers the best of both worlds. Like Álvarez, Cronin wants his Evil Dead experience to be as disturbing as possible. However, when organs are flying in the most unbelievable ways, he also knows how to laugh about the absurdity of the spectacle.

The main issue with this approach is that Evil Dead Rise only has a handful of funny scenes. As a result, they are too few to set the movie’s tone. In addition, they can interrupt the flow of the nerve-wracking extravaganza Cronin has crafted. Fortunately, this pacing issue happens sporadically, and for most of its runtime, Evil Dead Rise delivers on its promise of good scares and brutal action. Still, its presence can be noticed and chips away at what could have been a perfect cinematic experience. That’s even more evident since Evil Dead Rise’s practical effects are constantly being used to make the bloodiest moments of the movie look as real as possible. Some confrontations with Deadites are too heavily edited and feel like missed opportunities. However, most of the time, Evil Dead Rise focuses on open wounds and oozing perforations that are brought to life by a fabulous practical effects team. And it’s just beautiful to see the most unnerving moments of Evil Dead Rise in ultrarealistic detail while our body flinches and our eyes are tempted to hide from the horrors. That would be reason enough to crown Evil Dead Rise as a worthy successor for Raimi’s franchise, but Cronin is still fortunate with a terrific cast.

Image via Warner Bros.

The star of the show is Alyssa Sutherland’s Ellie, a single mother of three children who becomes a Deadite after a freaky accident. Once she’s turned into a demon-possed undead, Sutherland metamorphoses into a grotesque creature that instills fear into our hearts but is still human enough to be disturbingly recognizable. That’s another staple in the Evil Dead franchise as Deadites mix the memories of its victims with terrifying threats to break the minds of those closest to the demons’ victims. They are pricks who enjoy playing with their food and pushing people to attack those they love the most. Sutherland is a phenomenal actress that steals every scene once she gets unleashed in Evil Dead Rise, and it’s delicious to watch the star having the time of her life while saying profanities and torturing children.

On the other side of the conflict, Ellie’s sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) must rise to the occasion and protect her three nephews, Danny (Morgan Davies), Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and Kassie (Nell Fisher). The presence of children usually makes horror movies more predictable since most filmmakers are too scared of destroying innocence. However, no one is safe in Cronin’s story, a fact that deserves to be praised on its own. It’s also worth mentioning Evil Dead Rise’s young cast is being asked to engage in challenging scenes while drenched in fake blood, and they still deliver poignant performances that help to keep the movie grounded. Due to these high stakes, no other installment in the franchise packs the emotional punch of Evil Dead Rise.

Decapitated heads come and go, but what makes the Evil Dead franchise so enthralling are the human characters that are forced to become heroes. In a tight 97-minute runtime, Cronin makes us care for each member of Ellie’s family, cheering for their success or sharing the pain of their failure. That’s a huge achievement for a horror movie, which helps Evil Dead Rise to carve its mark in the franchise’s immaculate history. Sure, there are some hiccups along the way, as Cronin doesn’t always manage to balance the dark tone he wants to give his movie with the comical tradition of the Evil Dead franchise. Still, Evil Dead Rise’s scares and gore are so effective, and its cast so committed to the story, that it’s easy to be completely enthralled by Cronin’s movie.

Rating: A-

Evil Dead Rise is in theaters starting April 21.