acid reflects

Is it old-school? Sort of. Evil Dead Rise resurrects the type of fright night ride that was a staple among thrill-seeking movie gangs. This will be a short review. SPOILERS BEWARE.

In the film, down-and-out Beth (Lily Sullivan) pays her older sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) a visit in her cramped apartment in Los Angeles for some much-needed support when one of Ellie’s children unearths a mysterious book that starts a chain reaction of hellish events that sends Beth to a bloody battle of survival against demons unleashed, out to devour flesh and soul before sunrise. To describe the bloodbath as tooth and nail would be literal.

This is the fifth in the Evil Dead series, so, like a rollercoaster taken several times, the empowering end is predictably inevitable.

Did I mention there are children in the story? They’re both a plus and a liability to the film’s overall effect. The movie attempts to frame the story in some statement on pro-life motherhood minus politics, but of course, the gore is front and center. Having vulnerable children in the story adds to the buildup of tension, but I’m not sure the children deserved whatever happened to them. I spoil too much if I explain further. The child actors do deserve some praise for doing what they’re meant to do, so good job Nell Fisher, Gabrielle Echols, and Morgan Davis.

The thin story is par for course among the Evil Dead movies – the fifth to date – but setting up the main story in the city is possibly new. If there’s anything The Exorcist taught everyone long ago, it’s that demons aren’t confined to cabins in the woods. The real draw is the clever sub-genre mashup of demonic possession, gore, body horror, and zombie that mark all of the Evil Dead movies thrown all over the place in rich, gooey detail, plus a return to campy horror that was abandoned by the serious 2013 remake directed by Fede Alvarez.

Produced by legendary horror director Sam Raimi and written and directed by upcoming Irish horror filmmaker Lee Cronin, Evil Dead Rise is reasonably well-assembled, with generous servings of references to past Evil Dead incarnations and even other horror classics such as Aliens, eyeballs and all. Horror nerds would love it even if the cheesy obvious references can be a bit grating. Yes, Aliens, we get it.

However, I must say that the mechanics of EDR’s supernatural horror can be quite Frankenstein-y, as it is not clear if incantations from the books are required, touching the book or if bodily harm from an infected/ possessed is enough – or all of the above. It’s probably somewhere under the pile of vomit and body parts.

Evil Dead Rise is shown exclusively in Ayala Malls Cinemas in the Philippines beginning May 10th. Have fun and have some zombie.

(Images courtesy of Ayala Malls Cinemas)