by William Brooks
Irish director Lee Cronin puts his own twist on the iconic series with a touching tale of Family Splatters.
Not many horror franchises can keep the red stuff spurting without swallowing their souls in the process. However, Sam Raimi’s rollicking Evil Dead series has spent the last 42 years reanimating itself with persistent aplomb and successfully expanded over the years as a result of the success of 1981’s seminal The Evil Dead. What followed was 1987’s campier Evil Dead II; 1992’s annoyingly-titled Army of Darkness, and the grimly serious 2013 reboot to the deliriously unserious Ash vs. Evil Dead series. There was even a stage musical way back in 2003. In the age of content overload, this stands as an achievement in itself.
Even in its scalp-ripping scream of an opener, the new Evil Dead Rise makes several cheeky feints toward the hallmarks of its many predecessors. However, this time, the deadite mayhem is reserved for a dilapidated apartment complex in Los Angeles. Sure, it’s not quite rocketing Jason Voorhees in outer space. But for a franchise that leans so heavily on the isolation and vastness of the wilderness, moving the action to an urban centre rife with modern amenities is an admirable upending of the formula.
We’re introduced to the touring guitar tech and absentee cool aunt, Beth (Lily Sullivan), who pops in to visit her older sister, tattoo artist Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), and her three children on a stormy evening. Beth turns to Ellie for reassurance as she discovers she is pregnant. However, Ellie is struggling to keep everything together herself. Her husband has left her, the condemned apartment building she lives in is about to be demolished and she's frantically trying to find a new home for her and her kids. With Beth never being around to offer emotional support to Ellie, cracks have emerged in their relationship, which lends the visit about as much warmth as a brisk winter’s morning on Uranus.
Speaking of cracks, a literal one opens up in the building’s parking garage, triggered by an incidental earthquake. Undaunted by the shaky foundation or the notion that is venturing into unlit, subterranean chambers ( pretty much how one-fifth of all horror films begin), Ellie’s eldest child and amateur DJ, Danny (Morgan Davies), climbs down into an abandoned bank vault. Down here, he stumbles across religious artefacts, a collection of phonograph records from the 1920s, and one of three volumes of the Naturom Demonto last seen in Army of Darkness. One ill-advised record spin later- and the spirits of the damned are Raimi-camming their way into Ellie to kick the party off.
Chekhov works overtime in the first act of Evil Dead Rise, establishing an arsenal of sharp objects, kitchen appliances, fraught family dynamics — and, memorably, a cheese grater — so they can all be refashioned as makeshift weapons later on. Leg-uini anyone? Mileage may vary for what audiences crave, and can take, when it comes to the gruesome parade of stomach-churning gore, goo, blood, and viscera that ensues. Undoubtedly, the most honourable achievement here belongs to special effects supervisor, Brendan Durey, and prosthetic makeup designer, Luke Polti, for their top-notch wince-inducing work. Even better, a 6,500-litre fake-blood budget that stretched far enough to accommodate not one, not two, but three shades of puke. Groovy.
The technical aspects are incredible. Nick Bassett's production design, Nick Connor's art decoration, and Gareth Edwards’ set decoration (all veterans of Ash vs. Evil Dead) deliver. The apartment interiors and underground parking garage are ominously labyrinthine, growing in unsettling mystery as events progress. Editor Bryan Shaw, a returnee from the 2013’s Evil Dead, crafts precise cuts, while cinematographer Dave Garbett manufactures disquieting images of chaotically unhinged terror that are eye-popping in their gruesomely delectable visual majesty. In combination, these maximalist endeavours certainly form one hell of a spectacle, and if a procession of increasingly elaborate gore-tastic set pieces is all you seek, then, in the words of the world’s greatest chin himself, “Come Get Some”.
However, there are flaws in the writing department that require attention. One disappointment is Cronin’s refusal to make use of the new urban surroundings. The trailer suggests an intensely claustrophobic premise similar to Rec (2007), wherein the trapped residents are forced to form bonds to survive against an unimaginable and ever-expanding menace. Instead, the high-rise is really just an atmospheric backdrop for a bout of cabin fever, as the protagonists’ few neighbours are quickly cordoned off or dispatched with. Even the main characters barely scan on even rudimentary genre-film levels. Imagine the terror and heartbreak of your mother trying to kill you. Cronin certainly can’t.
These complaints aside, Evil Dead Rise is the kind of horizon-broadening horror sequel — a back-to-basics approach that retains the aesthetic development of its direct predecessor — that the genre needs as it slowly emerges from the era of ‘elevated horror’. It serves as a reminder that we can have our cake — namely depravity and terror — and enjoy eating it as well. Just save any actual eating for well after this specific, gorey screening.
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