You thought you knew terror. You thought the dimly lit cabin in the woods was the ultimate playground for the Dead. Think again. Director Lee Cronin has taken the splatter-horror formula forged by Sam Raimi and dragged it out of the remote wilderness and into the suffocating confines of urban decay. Forget cozy; this is Evil Dead gone vertical, venomous, and vicious.
A Taste Of The Terror
The story begins with Beth, a road-weary, guitar-tech drifter, paying an overdue visit to her estranged older sister, Ellie, who is struggling to raise three children in a cramped, soon-to-be-condemned Los Angeles apartment building.
Their reunion is instantly fraught, heavy with unspoken histories and the harsh realities of their present. But their domestic drama is violently interrupted when a seismic event shakes the foundation, revealing a secret chamber in the building’s basement. Within it lie relics that should have remained undisturbed; ancient, unsettling, and brimming with malevolent power.
One object, in particular, a familiar-looking book bound in human skin and inked in blood, is discovered by Ellie’s eldest son. What follows is not a slow burn but an immediate, ferocious combustion of demonic possession. The entity unleashed is unlike anything seen before.
This is a story about the ultimate sacrifice and the sickening corruption of maternal love. The terrifying question remains: When the monster looks exactly like your mother or your sister, how do you fight back?
What Works ✅
The Relentless Pace and Escalation: There is almost no downtime once the evil is unleashed. The film operates on a principle of continuous escalation, piling one gruesome set piece upon another until the final, breathtakingly messy climax.
Alyssa Sutherland’s Performance: As Ellie, the primary victim and vector of the possession, Sutherland delivers an utterly unforgettable, terrifying performance. Her shift from struggling single mother to demonic entity is grotesque, often hilarious in its cruelty, and genuinely chilling.
The Sound Design: The audio alone is a weapon. The sickening cracks, squelches, and the Deadites’ unnerving, singsong voices are masterfully crafted to burrow under your skin and stay there long after the credits roll.
Where It Falls Short ❌
Character Development Outside the Core Two: While the central performances are stellar, the younger characters often feel like necessary pawns in the plot’s violent chess game rather than fully realized individuals, making some of their fates less impactful than intended.
The Urban Setting’s Underutilization: The move from the cabin to the city is a bold idea, but the film doesn’t fully exploit the terror of a densely populated building until the very end. For a large portion of the runtime, it feels confined to a single apartment, losing some of the promised, claustrophobic high-rise panic.
Formulaic beats: Despite the innovative gore, a few key narrative transitions feel overly familiar to long-time fans of the franchise, slightly dulling the edge of some scares.
Final Verdict 🎯 4/5
Evil Dead Rise is a juggernaut of brutality that manages to be both a respectful sequel and a terrifying, standalone nightmare. This isn’t just a movie; it’s a sensory assault, a two-hour anxiety attack played out in blood and guts. It’s loud, it’s nasty, and it’s arguably the most aggressive film in the franchise’s history. Grab your friends, lock your doors, and prepare for a horrifying masterpiece of splatter cinema.
