Evil Dead Rise Film Review

The Evil Dead franchise is perhaps the most cult like horror franchise out there as there are only five films and a TV show in it and for a good while it did seem like they would make one new Evil Dead film every ten years or so. Well this is now no longer the cast as in a few short days time the latest Evil Dead film will be coming out and well I thought that i'd talk about a certain new fan favorite film in the entry as a way to do a tie in review for the new film and so then join me as I review the film that is all about family with the film in question being called simply just "Evil Dead Rise" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when a young boy plays a recording from the Necronomicon he and his whole family have to survive when the book turns there mother into a deadite and locks them inside of there apartment building. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. As while the plot of the film is admittedly pretty thin as there isn't all that much to this films plot but this is something that could also be true for the rest of the of the films in this franchise and it isn't an issue that's exclusive to this film. Rather what makes this films plot be as good as it is is the fact that the idea of having the deadites now attacking people in a small confined urban setting is a really good idea with the films plot merely allowing that idea to be as good as it could have possibly been and whilst yes it would have helped out quite alot if the film did have a more stronger plot as this is the first film in the franchise that allows the franchise to be more of an anthology franchise moving forward it would have made sense if the makers of this film did give this film a more stronger plot and yet at the same time the plots of any of the Evil Dead films have never been there strongest suits with them all being carried by there central idea and the same thing is true for this film and when the idea for this film is so good it doesn't really matter how good the the films plot is as the audience is already going to be hooked by the main idea in the first place and while yes it would have helped if the plot was alot more stronger it wasn't needed to make the film work with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Lily Sullivan as Beth , Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie , Morgan Davies as Danny and Gabrielle Echols as Bridget. Also starring in this film is Nell Fisher as Kassie , Noah Paul as Bruce , Richard Crouchley as Caleb , Mirabai Pease as Teresa , Anna-Maree Thomas as Jessica , Jayden Daniels as Gabriel , Billy Reynolds-McCarthy as Jake Tai Wano as Scott and Mark Mitchinson as Mr. Fonda and the voice of Father Marcus Littleton.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The fact that the acting in this film is as good as it is is to be frank quite surprising as while we know now that Nell Fisher is a good actor this film was her debut and therefor we have no idea if she was good or not and the same thing is true for alot of this films actors as well as alot of them are either very little known actors or complete unknowns and therefor it would have been foolish of us to expect there to be good acting in this film and yet that's exactly what all of this films actors give us as they all do hit it out of the park in this film. With the best actor in this film being Alyssa Sutherland as Ellie as while she is passable when Ellie is alive and well it's when she gets turned into a deadite thar Alyssa Sutherland really does take it up a notch with her being down right creepy as the deadite version of Ellie with her having a unique look to her that does make her character even when she's alive almost feel unnatural, this is something that is helped by the fact that this films writer and director Lee Cronin does have a skill in being able to talk to his actors and get the performances that he wants out of them with Alyssa even having some great chemistry with Lily Sullivan which does help buy into the fact that the two of them are sisters with Alyssa being able to keep the audience in a state of fear just by giving us a look which is something that she does make great use of in this film and it is something that does come through in her performance. With the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film. 

Doing the CGI for this film is SSVFX , EGG VFX , the legends and the greats that are currently over at Cause and FX and Film Effects. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. To be frank this is where the film does somewhat dip in terms of quality as while yes the film does have some really impressive looking CGI shots which do look good given the fact that the film only had a budget of anywhere between $15 to $19 million dollars and while that does mean that the films effects teams would have had a good chunk of change to work with they still wouldn't have had alot of money to create some really good looking CGI effects. As is the case with the elevator scene as alot of the exposed wires in that scene are CGI and you really can tell as they do look fake and while the film did have over one thousand seven gallons of fake blood there are still some uses of CGI blood in this film which does look really bad. However in saying this there are times where the characters do go fully CGI and they do look good with this being something that was quite surprising as nine times out of ten digital doubles never really look that good as you can always tell when they are fake and yet here in this film they do pull them off quite well, this is something that might be because of the fact that the film is mostly set in the dark and therefor the makers of this film can hide more of there bad effects and even make there OK looking effects seem all the more better and to the films credit they do mostly use practical effects with the film only sometimes dipping into the realm of CGI.

Unlike the previous Evil Dead films which never really dealt with the theme of family this film does fully embrace it. With all of the main characters being a family and heck we even find out over the course of the film that Beth is even expecting a little one of her with this being something that does play a major part in her character later on in the film and yet it doesn't feel forced rather it does feel like the next natural step for this film to tackle as we have seen the films tackle addiction and just plain stupidity in there own ways before but we've never seen one of these films tackle the theme of family and what it's like to have a family in a world a world where deadites do exist ad can kill you at any moment granted Ash Vs Evil Dead did tackle the found family idea but not a family that your born into. This is was something that did make the film be alot more then just a gorefest of a film as it did feel like that there were real stakes for these characters and that these characters were genuinely going through something quite terrifying as we not only see the kids loose there mother but we also see Kassie then loose her brother and sister all in the same night which is something that would be to much for even a grown up to handle and yet here we are seeing a young kid go threw it and come out stronger the other side, the only thing that would made the idea of having the victims being a family was if the film spent alot of time on focusing on there relationships with each other prior to the deadite attack as that would make everything else that happens to them be all the more tragic however to be fair tho the film still does handle the idea of having a family be at the centre of all of the chaos really well with part of the thing that makes the events in this film still tragic being the fact that the film does give us time to get to know these characters as people when it would have been really easy for the film just to gloss over them and move on to the gory stuff.

With this film the Evil Dead films are essentially becoming anthology films with the only things that's going to be connecting them being the fact that they each involve the Necronomicon and Deadites. This is a really unique way to go with the franchise as we've seen what these films look like when they are a cabin in the woods or in ancient times but now with the anthology format we get to see what they might look like in more unique locations like for example in this film we get to see what they look like in an apartment building and that is something that we never got to see in either of the previous films or even Ash Vs Evil Dead with this being something that does help to set this film apart from all of the other films in this franchise. However tho there is something to be said for keeping the films the way that they were as they did work when it was just a cabin in the woods with the one time that the makers of these films ventured away from that idea also proving that these films can work in other settings and while having a film set in one building is nothing it is something new for these films and to be fair to this film it does take as full advantage of it's new setting as it possibly could have done as we do see the characters go into other apartments and we do see them interacting with other people in the building much like how we we see the deadite Ellie use the ventilation as a way to get herself back into the apartment but at the same time tho it would have been nice to see the action from the point of view of the other people in the building as they would have had lives and problems of there own which would have made this central idea of the Deadites attacking us in this one building feel a bit more well thought out, as while the idea itself is still a well thought out idea it would have worked all the more if we got see the deadite killing the other people instead of having it happen off screen and while the film does give an in story reasoning for there not being that many people inside of the building in this film the fact that we don't get to see that much of the other people in the building does make the setting feel like its just that a setting as it should have felt like a character in its own right.   

One thing that didn't quite work was the explanation of how the Necronomicon came into the hands of Danny in the first place. As everything that we had seen with the character up until that point hadn't made him out to be someone who is into this scary stuff rather they made him out to be someone who is into his music with the person who is into the more creepy stuff being Kassie as we do see cut of her own dolls head at the start of the film there it makes no sense for him to be the one to find the book in the first place let alone steal it and take it back up to his room with him whereas if they did it with Kassie they could say that she's a kid and therefor doesn't much better with her taking the book because it would be something that she would be into. Heck even having Bridget be the one to take the book would make some kind of sense as she is a rebellious teenager who doesn't get that much to do in the film in the first place but as they needed Beth to use the headphones and the book to be come out of these speakers it had to be Danny to take the book which OK fair enough does give him a bit more relevance in the plot as you could quite literally cut both him and Bridget out of the plot all together and nothing would get lost but at the same time tho if the makers of this film really wanted to willingly take this creepy looking book then why not show us that he's also into these really creepy things as this is something that would make him feel more like a well thought character and it would then also make sense for him to take the book in the first place as then you could argue that this is something that he is into and yet due to the fact that they don't do any of that in the first place it doesn't make sense for him to be the one to take the book when they have a sibling right there who is into that kind of stuff and yet she doesn't do anything until the films third act.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty six minuets and twenty five seconds. This a pretty solid running time for the film as while it does have alot of things to set up compared to the first three films it also doesn't have that much plot to set up in the first place and therefor the film is more free to pretty much get the plot started as soon as the titles have been shown and this is something that the film does take full advantage of as every single scene really from after the company logos is all about the films plot and while yes the films plot is a thin plot at best he one thing that cannot be said about this film is that it's a slow burner as it really isn't with the film even having more then enough there interms plot to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Heck the film does even use it's running time very wisely with the film taking the time to fully develop its plot by adding in things like how the Necronomicon has its passages read in this film which is a small thing but it is something that does come back into play later on in the film as well and the fact that the film does show us how the main victim at the start of the film got infected in the first place all are things that the makers of this film didn't really need to include in the first place but the fact that they went that extra mile to have them included in the first place does show us the audience that the makers of this film really did know to give us a well thought and developed plot. This is something that does also effect the films character development as while the kids don't get any character development in the film with them all remaining the same characters at the end of the film then they were at the start of the film the same thing cannot be said for the character of Beth who over the course of the film does learn to not be scared at the thought of being a parent as she is forced to becoming the kids parental figure when there mother dies something which she does find herself to be quite good at and while Danny and Bridget do end up dieing in the film the fact that she tried to keep all three alive when at the start of the film her character wouldn't be able to anything like that does say that the makers of this film knew full well that they were creating a truly strong female character as they don't make her out to be this perfect character they give her deep character flaws that she has to overcome and because of that she does end up being this stronger character because of it but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a horror film that really does mean that I have t actually talk about the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual kills that are actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of the films kills being filled to the brim with the over top gore that we have come to expect from these films and while there might be some who are put off by the amount of gore that they use in this film it is something that des make sense as the deadites are meant to cause chaos and part of that really does include putting of there potential victims with alot of blood and gore with the films kills even being as over the top and as fun to watch as the gore in the film is itself. With the best kill in the whole entire film being the death of The Marauder as while the deaths of Danny , Bridget and Ellie are all really good kills in there way and heck it could be argued that Ellie's death is similar to the tree scene in the first film but The Marauder's death is this over the top and really gory death that does work as we see the creature try to put Beth into a woodchipper only for Kassie to turn it off and when Beth does finally get the upper hand she has Kassie switch the woodchipper back on with Beth managing to stuff the creature into the machine, this death is just so good as it does feel very much in line with the rest of the deaths as when it comes to "final boss" fight in all of these films they all do go over the top and having the creature be killed off by a woodchipper is a really over the top kill which is something that does work really well for this film with it even making Beth look like even more of a bada*s then she already does in the first place with the rest of the films kills also being really good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this film is just such a good film as it gives us all of the things that we want to see in an Evil Dead film whilst at the same time also giving us things that we didn't no that we wanted to see in the first place all of which does add up to making this film a really good film in it's own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad thigs that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the mages that I personally used in this very review from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images from this film being Google Images simply because Google Images actually has images from this film really are up and on Google Images and plus pretty much much all of the images that I personally found on Google Images were all really very fairly high quality and as well as being as really very fairly high definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.