Evil Dead Rise: How the Iconic Franchise Reinvented Itself
At the film's South by Southwest (SXSW) premiere, Fede Álvarez announced that his film Evil Dead (2013), a remake of The Evil Dead (1981), would be getting a sequel.[15][16] In addition, Sam Raimi confirmed plans to write Evil Dead 4 with his brother Ivan Raimi; it was later specified that the film would be a sequel to Army of Darkness (1992).[17] At a WonderCon panel in March 2013, Bruce Campbell and Álvarez stated that their ultimate plan was for Álvarez's Evil Dead 2 and Raimi's Army of Darkness 2 to be followed by a seventh film which would merge the narratives of Ash Williams and Mia Allen.[18] Campbell confirmed that he would reprise his role as Ash in Army of Darkness 2.[19] Álvarez later that month tweeted to his followers that Raimi would serve as director on Army of Darkness 2.[20] By November, Campbell expressed doubts in a fourth Evil Dead film,[21][22] with Raimi's Army of Darkness 2 ultimately being redeveloped as a sequel television series, Ash vs Evil Dead,[23][24][25] starring Campbell and airing on Starz from October 31, 2015 to April 29, 2018.[26]
After one of the best cold opens in recent memory (a nod to the 'cabin in the woods' trope the original Evil Dead movie made famous), Cronin takes us to Los Angeles where we're introduced to Ellie (a terrific Alyssa Sutherland). She lives in a low-income high-rise apartment with her three children, Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), Danny (Morgan Davies), and Kassie (Nell Fisher). Life is hard for Ellie who has been raising her kids by herself ever since her husband and their father left. Even worse, the old building they live in is set to be demolished and Ellie still hasn't found them a place to live.
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The opening teases a familiar scene: an isolated cabin, a young couple, and a joking quarrel. Yet, the first introduction to actual violence in the film really sets the tone, complete with jaw-dropping effectiveness and sheer visceral horror. The story then transports to a metropolitan area, where our actual main characters are introduced. Sullivan stars as Beth, an ambitious guitar tech who visits her estranged sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), and her three kids after her latest tour ends. Beth arrives bearing gifts and a surprise pregnancy which she hopes will bring her and Ellie closer, since her sister always has the answers in times of hardship.
Moving the action out of the woods and into the city, EVIL DEAD RISE (directed by Lee Cronin) tells the twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Sutherland and Sullivan, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
After a successful modeling career, Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland transitioned to an equally successful career in film and TV, beginning with a small role in The Devil Wears Prada. Sutherland's breakthrough role was that of Queen Aslaug on the History Channel series Vikings. Sutherland would next star in the TV adaptation of the Stephen King horror science fiction thriller The Mist, before returning to Australia to star in the vampire war movie Blood Vessel and the historical miniseries New Gold Mountain. Sutherland will next be seen in the crime drama The Mental State.
Morgan Davies stars as Danny, Ellie's oldest child whose "do first, think second" mentality often lands him in trouble. When an earthquake reveals a hidden room filled with crucifixes in his rundown Los Angeles apartment building, Danny finds in it a mysterious book made of human skin containing strange writings and illustrations inked in blood. Danny will soon find out that this book is a gateway to Hell which brings from it a macabre and insatiable evil that targets his family.
In EVIL DEAD RISE, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) is a newly single mom living in a dilapidated apartment building (soon to be condemned) with her three children: budding teen deejay Danny (Morgan Davies), activist Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), and young Kassie (Nell Fisher). After getting some alarming news, Ellie's errant sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan), shows up unexpectedly. Not long after, an earthquake rocks the building, and Danny discovers an opening that leads to the old bank that stood on the site before the apartment building went up. He uncovers an old book and a few vinyl records. The book is filled with horrific images, and the records contain some kind of incantation that unleashes a horrible evil force. Soon Ellie is possessed and trying to kill her own family. It's up to Beth to protect her nieces and nephew from the unpredictable and chaotic force.
This fifth entry in the classic horror franchise unfortunately relies on kids in peril, but it ramps up the terror with its great use of creepy settings, potent characters, and extreme gore effects. Written and directed by Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin (of the creepy 2019 horror movie The Hole in the Ground), Evil Dead Rise starts confidently, with an excellent joke involving camerawork and a teasing prologue. Then the main story, set on the 13th floor of a truly impressive high-rise apartment building, makes full use of its physical space. Inside, the family apartment is cozy, full of art projects, but the hallways, elevators, and underground garage are all ominous, with stark, flickering lights and a sense of decay. (One sequence, shot entirely through the peephole in the front door, is inspired.)
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The movie also takes time to set up its characters in a fully rounded way, upping viewers' emotional involvement. References to the earlier classics are handled slyly, both as a gift to fans and as a way of suggesting the eternal, ongoing quality of this brand of evil. The fact that the movie places children in danger -- especially Kassie, who, in real life, is only 11 -- creates a slight, unpleasant distraction from fully enjoying the wild ride, but overall Evil Dead Rise will make fans say "groovy."
The cyclical nature of evil brought on by the Naturom Demonto isn't merely metatextual, as Cronin bakes the theme into the movie's text and structure itself. "Evil Dead Rise" also complements that theme with the concept of motherhood: even if one chooses to bear children, the reality of raising kids is something few are adequately prepared for at the beginning. Whether dealing with little monsters or capital-M Monsters, life throws you curveballs, and it's either going to be you or the proverbial Deadites which rise to the occasion.
Heading out to the dock by the lake, a fully-possessed Jessica attacks Caleb and then appears to drown in the lake. Caleb dutifully attempts to rescue his girlfriend but finds his head separated from his body in the process. As a bleeding, disfigured, and disoriented Teresa watches helplessly, Jessica rises from the lake, hovering above it, the demon inside her unleashed. How this happened, however, is unclear, as there's no Book of the Dead or recordings of someone reciting the book's passages laying about.
One day earlier, Beth (Lily Sullivan), a nomadic guitar technician, arrives unannounced at the Los Angeles apartment of her sister, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland). Beth is there to discuss her latest predicament in finding herself pregnant, yet quickly becomes aware that Ellie is dealing with a heap of her own problems. In addition to trying to make a living as a tattoo artist, Ellie's raising her children Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), Danny (Morgan Davies), and Kassie (Nell Fisher) without the benefit of a partner, as her husband left several months ago. To make matters worse, the high-rise apartment building that the foursome lives in is due to be demolished in just a month's time, with the family yet to find a new place to live. Although Beth is hurt by Ellie's belief that she's a glorified groupie, her selfish ignorance of Ellie's attempts to reach out to her cuts both sisters in a deeper way.
Since their mother is often busy, the kids all have their own individual hobbies: Kassie constructs bizarre toys like the stick-with-a-doll's-head-on-it that she's dubbed "Staffanie," Bridget is an avid activist, and Danny is an aspiring DJ. Enamored with the mysterious book, Danny unwittingly drops some blood on it after cutting his finger on the teeth that act as a clasp, opening the book up and revealing some very disturbing illustrations. Despite Bridget's warnings, Danny decides to play the records he found, discovering that they belonged to a few rogue priests in the early 20th century who foolishly believed that studying the Naturom Demonto could lead to helping the fight against evil. As one priest begins to recite the demon resurrection passages from the book, the record player freezes into place, and Danny is helpless to stop the evil from being unleashed.
Ellie becomes the evil's first victim, attacked in the building's elevator in a manner reminiscent of Cheryl's attack by tree vines in the first film (as well as Bobbie Joe [Kassie Wesley] in "Evil Dead II" and Mia [Jane Levy] in "Evil Dead" suffering similar ordeals). Similar to Jessica at the beginning of the movie, Ellie returns to the apartment spewing white vomit and is only able to get out a plea to Beth to save her children before dying.
The Cosmic Horror of the "Evil Dead" series is most prominent, however, especially when Beth discovers via the last of the vinyl recordings that there is no way to destroy the book nor dispel the evil; all one can do is run.
Yet as the priest on the recording said, there's no dispelling the evil once it has been unleashed. That's the unfortunate discovery of Jessica, who it turns out is also a resident within Ellie's doomed apartment building. Somewhat lucky for the girl, she lives on the 5th floor, below where the stairway had been destroyed during the earthquake.