Evil dead rise

The cinematographic saga Evil Dead occupies an important place in the hearts of many moviegoers as it allowed the discovery of a gifted director Sam Raimi who succeeded in cobbling together with a very small budget (375,000 dollars) a hard-hitting horror film with graphic violence, an omnipresent form of humor and, above all, an innovative art of handling the camera. This first film launching the career of the future director of Darkman (1990), of the first Spider-man trilogy (2002-2007) but also of the equally excellent Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) was followed by two sequels (Evil Dead 2 (1987) and Evil Dead III Army of Darkness (1982), by an Evil Dead reboot (2013) and also by a rather successful Ash vs Evil Dead series with actor Bruce Campbell reprising his cult role of Ash Wiliams and comprising three seasons. We don't count either the numerous video games, comics and other derivative products allowing the fans of the series to find this horrific universe so much appreciated. 

Of course, Fede Alvarez's version released in 2013 was quite successful and was different because it was based on the same universe but with new characters, but despite its good will to respect the universe created by Sam Raimi by offering a palpable violence on screen, it lacked that little touch that made all the aura of the three previous films directed by Sam Raimi. Evil Dead Rise succeeds in the feat of having totally assimilated the DNA of Sam Raimi's universe, but above all, it offers a very effective extension in which the spectators will really shiver in their seats, but also discover a film capable of going It is also capable of paying tribute to John Carpenter (The Thing) and to everything that made the golden age of horror cinema in the 80's with a nod to Stanley Kubrick's Shining. It is certain that after seeing this film you will no longer see a bathtub and an elevator in the same way.

After a first film praised by the press, The hole in the ground (2019), the director and screenwriter Lee Cronin was given the perilous mission of proposing a reboot of the Evil Dead film saga by offering a more modern and especially less mainstream version. His film succeeds not only in finding the visual strength of the Evil Dead saga from the first scene of the film. The film sprinkles throughout the story several winks perfectly brought that it is memorable scenes of possession but also punchy dialogues and a chainsaw fetish instrument of Ash. This introductory scene shows immediately that Lee Cronin knows perfectly the Evil Dead saga but above all unleashes the demonic forces with an infectious pleasure. The extreme violence of the film perfectly serves the story in which the female lead Beth visits her older sister Ellie, who is raising her three children alone in a cramped apartment in Los Angeles that will soon be destroyed. The reunion between the two sisters is cut short, however, when a mysterious book is discovered in the bowels of Ellie's building, giving birth to flesh-possessing demons and plunging Beth into a primal battle for survival as she faces the most nightmarish version of motherhood imaginable.

Far from those repetitive horror films in which violent scenes are the only real asset, the director takes care of his script and especially the psychology of the characters, putting at the center of the story the reconstituted family, motherhood and especially self-sacrifice and the fact of fighting against one's inner demons. While we could again expect a film taking place in a house in the middle of the forest, the director and screenwriter Lee Cronin places the main action in a dilapidated building in which danger is omnipresent. In the same way the director has assimilated the importance of psychological horror, the main element of success to make the spectators jump and the importance of the sound to reinforce the climax.  Evil Dead Rise shows that the succession of the horror masters of the 80's is perfectly traced and after the excellent Scream VI, new directors see in horror thrillers not a sub-genre but a genre in its own right in which everything counts, whether it is the presence of an excellent script, invested actors, successful special effects but above all the desire to move away from the too politically correct to offer a real intense cinematographic experience.

Evil Dead Rise
Written and directed by Lee Cronin
Based on Characters by Sam Raimi
Produced by Robert G. Tapert
Starring Alyssa Sutherland, Lily Sullivan, Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, Nell Fisher, Mia Challis
Cinematography : Dave Garbett
Edited by Bryan Shaw
Music by Stephen McKeon
Production companies : New Line Cinema, Ghost House Pictures
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures (United States), Metropolitan FilmExport (France)
Release date : April 19, 2023 (France), April 21, 2023 (United States)
Running time : 120 minutes

Seen on April 14, 2023 at Gaumont Disney Village, Room 10 seat A18

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