I went into this Evil Dead film with low expectations especially after being disappointed by other recent horror movie sequels like Halloween Ends, Scream VI and Hellraiser (2022). My expectations were apparently not low enough though as I was thoroughly disappointed by this movie.
This new addition to the Evil Dead universe is easily the most tame and least frightening of the franchise. The original Evil Dead trilogy starring (Bruce Campbell) was the perfect mix of horror, dark humour, excessive levels of gore and a likeable lead character who tied it all together with the help of his chainsaw and boomstick. Even the (2013) Evil Dead reboot movie had some fun and interesting ideas which while not anything particularly ground breaking still gave fans a ton of gory kills and passable enough characters that don't leave you with a headache between their deaths.
Evil Dead Rise fails to bring anything original or even of any value to the Evil Dead franchise. The main cast of characters are mostly teenagers who are written as mere plot devices to move the story forward. A good example of this is one particular character wants to become a DJ so he has a record mixing turntable set up in his room. This is the characters defining characteristic which exists so he has an excuse to play a record of a priest reading a passage from the book of the dead raising the deadites. That's all the character development there is for this character until he dies. The other main characters have very little back story or defining characteristics other than they are all related to each other.
The deadites in this Evil Dead movie are tame in comparison to the previous Evil Dead movies and the TV series. The lead deadite shown in all the trailers for the movie is the mother of the child characters in the movie and we watch as she becomes possessed and hunts her family down to turn them into deadites aswell. Unfortunately however the lead deadite spends most of it's time on screen screaming incoherently, falling over or saying cheesy one liners. When the killing does begin there are some moments that are fun and gory such as a deadite eating a guys eyeball out of his eyesocket only for it to be followed by something as stupid as her spitting the eyeball out and it just so happens to land in another characters mouth choking him to death in a shot that looks less Evil Dead and more Tales from the Crypt. This was clearly an attempt to copy a similar scene from Evil Dead 2 only without the dark comedy that made the scene work in the first place.
The special effects range from practical effects mixed with CGI that look surprisingly well done if not entirely original in design to a CGI mess that looks so unrealistic and fake it takes you right out of a scene that's supposed to hook you in with its suspense.
The absolute worst thing about this movie however is that it takes place in a run down appartment building filled with other tenants but only the people on the top floor of the appartment building are attacked by the deadites or are even aware of the chaos that goes on in the building over just one night. In the span of a few hours the building is affected by a significant earthquake that literally cracks a hole in the buildings foundations, the elevator gets filled with blood and destroyed flooding the elevator shaft and the ground floor with mass amounts of blood, the stairs in the building are completely destroyed, there are screams and even gunshots in the building at least ten people die and through all of that the other people in the building just simply don't let it interrupt their fine evening at home. This might seem like an odd thing to point out but the movie even shows a character who lives in the building the morning after the massacre saying they had trouble sleeping due to a thunder storm that night nothing else just the thunder not the mass murder or anything.
I really don't recommend paying to watch this movie in cinemas it really isn't worth the price of a ticket to watch a movie that is only worthy of being on a streaming service like Hulu or Shudder at best. The movie insults Evil Dead fans by simply doing just the bare minimum necessary for it to qualify as an Evil Dead movie.
The reviews for Evil Dead Rise say things like "Overwhelmingly scary" and "The best Evil Dead since the original" whoever wrote these reviews have either been paid to praise this movie or they have never seen a horror movie in their entire life and are the kind of people who would get scared watching a Paranormal Activity movie.
This new addition to the Evil Dead universe is easily the most tame and least frightening of the franchise. The original Evil Dead trilogy starring (Bruce Campbell) was the perfect mix of horror, dark humour, excessive levels of gore and a likeable lead character who tied it all together with the help of his chainsaw and boomstick. Even the (2013) Evil Dead reboot movie had some fun and interesting ideas which while not anything particularly ground breaking still gave fans a ton of gory kills and passable enough characters that don't leave you with a headache between their deaths.
Evil Dead Rise fails to bring anything original or even of any value to the Evil Dead franchise. The main cast of characters are mostly teenagers who are written as mere plot devices to move the story forward. A good example of this is one particular character wants to become a DJ so he has a record mixing turntable set up in his room. This is the characters defining characteristic which exists so he has an excuse to play a record of a priest reading a passage from the book of the dead raising the deadites. That's all the character development there is for this character until he dies. The other main characters have very little back story or defining characteristics other than they are all related to each other.
The deadites in this Evil Dead movie are tame in comparison to the previous Evil Dead movies and the TV series. The lead deadite shown in all the trailers for the movie is the mother of the child characters in the movie and we watch as she becomes possessed and hunts her family down to turn them into deadites aswell. Unfortunately however the lead deadite spends most of it's time on screen screaming incoherently, falling over or saying cheesy one liners. When the killing does begin there are some moments that are fun and gory such as a deadite eating a guys eyeball out of his eyesocket only for it to be followed by something as stupid as her spitting the eyeball out and it just so happens to land in another characters mouth choking him to death in a shot that looks less Evil Dead and more Tales from the Crypt. This was clearly an attempt to copy a similar scene from Evil Dead 2 only without the dark comedy that made the scene work in the first place.
The special effects range from practical effects mixed with CGI that look surprisingly well done if not entirely original in design to a CGI mess that looks so unrealistic and fake it takes you right out of a scene that's supposed to hook you in with its suspense.
The absolute worst thing about this movie however is that it takes place in a run down appartment building filled with other tenants but only the people on the top floor of the appartment building are attacked by the deadites or are even aware of the chaos that goes on in the building over just one night. In the span of a few hours the building is affected by a significant earthquake that literally cracks a hole in the buildings foundations, the elevator gets filled with blood and destroyed flooding the elevator shaft and the ground floor with mass amounts of blood, the stairs in the building are completely destroyed, there are screams and even gunshots in the building at least ten people die and through all of that the other people in the building just simply don't let it interrupt their fine evening at home. This might seem like an odd thing to point out but the movie even shows a character who lives in the building the morning after the massacre saying they had trouble sleeping due to a thunder storm that night nothing else just the thunder not the mass murder or anything.
I really don't recommend paying to watch this movie in cinemas it really isn't worth the price of a ticket to watch a movie that is only worthy of being on a streaming service like Hulu or Shudder at best. The movie insults Evil Dead fans by simply doing just the bare minimum necessary for it to qualify as an Evil Dead movie.
The reviews for Evil Dead Rise say things like "Overwhelmingly scary" and "The best Evil Dead since the original" whoever wrote these reviews have either been paid to praise this movie or they have never seen a horror movie in their entire life and are the kind of people who would get scared watching a Paranormal Activity movie.