Evil Dead is Wickedly Good

The Evil Dead franchise rises again with its fifth movie

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Ellie and her family as they start to become worried about her. Photo credits: Warner Bros.

Cameran Martinez, Staff Writer

Evil Dead Rise was released on April 21st and is the latest addition to the Evil Dead franchise. This Evil Dead movie is directed by Lee Cronin and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. This movie is the 5th movie in the original Evil Dead series, and it takes place in a different setting, with a new cast of characters. Starring Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie, Morgan Davies as Danny, Lily Sullivan as Beth, Gabrielle Echols as Bridget, and Nell Fisher as Kassie. These actors give us amazing performances, specifically, Alyssa Sutherland gives an amazing performance as her character, Ellie, who transformed into a demon. Evil Dead Rise is a thriller/horror movie filled with gore. For a horror movie, Evil Dead Rise does not focus so much on the jump scares, although there are some, it focuses on the gruesome and disgusting scenes that make it scary. This film is unintentionally a little funny because of the way it conducts some of its horror aspects but overall I would recommend it because it is a fun watch.

The Evil Dead franchise is a classic horror movie series that began with the original Evil Dead in 1981, directed by Sam Raimi. The series follows the adventures of Ash Williams, played by Bruce Campbell, as he battles supernatural forces and the undead. The franchise is known for its gruesome violence and humor. The series has had several sequels and spin-offs over the years, including Evil Dead II (1987), Army of Darkness (1992), a remake in 2013, and a television series called Ash vs. Evil Dead, which ran from 2015 to 2018. 

Evil Dead Rise is about a mother, Ellie who is a recently separated parent, having to care for her three kids, Kassie, Danny, and Bridget all by herself. One day her estranged sister, Beth, comes to visit Ellie’s apartment in Los Angeles. The family has a little reunion that is cut short when Danny discovers a weird book after an earthquake. This awakens some sort of demon that possesses the mom, Ellie. The family must fight to survive against their own possessed mother.

One of the strengths of Evil Dead Rise is that even though the demon-like nature of Ellie and the people that get possessed are unrealistic, Evil Dead Rise makes it feel real. The editing is nice and the pacing felt just right, but for a horror movie, I only felt a lot of tension towards the end of the show. Another one of the movie’s strengths was its cinematography. The abstract and interesting camera shots were amazing. I specifically loved when we could only see what Ellie was doing through the peephole of the door. It made the viewers nervous because we could only see so little of what she was doing and it made the viewing experience more nerve-racking.

A still from “Evil Dead Rise.” Photo Credit: Warner Bros

Another big element of this film was the amount of blood used. Director, Cronin even said that the blood was a character itself. The film used around 6,500 liters/1,717 gallons of fake blood in the movie! Evil Dead Rise has grossed over $131 million worldwide and had a budget of $15-$19 Million. Evil Dead Rise is the highest-grossing film in the series.

Evil Dead Rise has gotten a lot of positive feedback. It has scored an 83% on the Tomatometer and ⅗ on Google reviews. The scenes are satisfying to watch but there are not many jump scares, it doesn’t keep you on edge for too long, and some of the scenes are silly but I still think for anyone that enjoys horror, that Evil Dead Rise is something interesting to watch.