Evil Dead Rise

I've been really looking forward to this one. I've been a lifelong fan of the “Evil Dead” franchise, nearly literally. I was born in 1988 and first introduced to the third film in the series - “Army of Darkness” - in 1993 or 1994 by my less than cautious uncle who supplied me and my two brothers with pretty much all the horror we could handle. He had an awesome VHS collection and I'm sad that he doesn't have them anymore because he for sure had some rare horror gems. But I digress, “Army of Darkness” is not very scary at all. It's very funny, super fun effects and an absolute rock star performance from Bruce Campbell. Luckily, it was probably the perfect intro to the series for me. A fun entry that didn't scare me away. If I had started with “Evil Dead” or to a lesser extent “Evil Dead 2”, maybe I'd be a different person entirely. But probably not, since I saw those films probably not many years later.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I love this franchise. It really is the perfect balance of films that are hilarious, films that are scary, and a coherent multiverse that seems to have endless potential.

Now that you know my history with “Evil Dead”, let me say that I did very much enjoy “Rise”. There two sides to the “Evil Dead” coin – the Bruce Campbell led franchise that is equal parts laughs and horror (and you should go watch the amazingly over-the-top series “Ash Vs Evil Dead” which was criminally under watched when it debuted on the Starz network), and the other side is the deathly serious, ultra-violent 2013 reboot/retelling/continuation and now “Rise”.

“Rise” does a lot of things to shake up the series, adding in kids (who are all thankfully very good child actors), a new fun setting, and a few twists on the Deadite mythology. And I liked them all. I think it was obvious they all had a lot of fun putting together all these bonkers sequences. There are a lot of fun nods to previous moments in the franchise too, but you can easily jump into literally any of the movies blind and you won't be lost. A magic facet of the series is that they can all work independently, or as part of a continuing story and it's really up to the viewer.

I didn't find the movie very scary at all, although the girl next to me in the theatre was basically having a meltdown. I find these movies to be more like being in a fun house than watching a true scary film. That's not a negative though, I love the fun house experience when it's done well. And it definitely is. The 2013 “Evil Dead” has much more scary tension and much more brutal violence and gore. But again, these aren't negatives, they're just differences.

Speaking of gore, I'm not a person who likes gory for the sake of gory. It has to be appropriate for the story or scene and not just gross. And I thought that the violent moments in “Rise” were a lot of fun (what a sentence that was). Nothing felt too brutal, and I think that actually makes it more accessible to regular viewers (despite still being extremely R rated).

Perhaps a drawback of the 2013 film is that it is extremely brutal with a ton of sequences that I think would be really hard for some people to get through, and in that sense limits it's audience much more. So “Rise” is skilled enough to hit that balance of “hardcore enough” to please longtime horror fans, but it's “soft hardcore” enough that a much larger audience could handle it. I hope that concept makes sense. The intense violence of 2013’s “Evil Dead” is something I wouldn't show most of my friends, whereas “Rise” is kind of violent in the way a “Predator” movie or standard zombie movie is.

While I really enjoyed “Rise”, I will say that things get wrapped up a little too easily for my liking. It was a cool finale, and it doesn't detract from the movie at all, especially with the implications the ending could mean for the future of the franchise. But it does kind of ramp down from 100 to 60 in the last few minutes of the film.

Longtime fans should be satisfied, while new fans should be enjoyably put on edge by the trademark ghouls of the series. If you enjoy “Rise” and have never seen any of the other films, I highly suggest going back and checking them out. And in the famous words of the “Evil Dead 2” Deadites you can “join us”.

8/10