Fans of Sam Raimi different parts of his filmography the like, but the Evil Dead series is often one of the most talked about. While the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV show from 2015 and last year’s video game have helped keep the franchise alive in pop culture, alongside the series’ longtime fans, Fede Alvarez’s 2013 reboot marked the last film in the series.
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Now comes Evil Dead Rise, which comes courtesy of director/writer Lee Cronin and following scrapped plans to create more direct sequels to previous installments in the series like Army of Darkness and the aforementioned Ash. The setup is similar to earlier films, with the demonic Natorum Demonto book falling in the hands of a family in LA and possessing Alyssa Sutherland’s Ellie Baker. When Ellie starts showing some clear signs of being uh, Not Herself, it falls to her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan) to play the hero and try to get herself and Ellie’s kids out of the now haunted apartment complex.
Rise was originally meant to drop solely on HBO Max, but got boosted to theatrical primetime, and it appears to have paid off. Warner Bros. has been marketing this thing like mad; if you’ve been to the movies in the last several months, there’s a good chance you saw the trailer in all its cheese grater-y, glass chewing glory. When it premiered at South by Southwest this past March, it received fairly high marks, with some calling it a worthy part of the series and a pretty twisted, insanely gory time that would appeal to horror sickos. In the more recent writeups of the film, some haven’t entirely been able to groove on its wavelength, but those earlier impressions seem to be drawing folks in to give it a shot.
If you’ve seen Evil Dead Rise, let us know your thoughts on it in the comments below. And while you’re at it, tell us what you want from the franchise next, because it seems like Raimi and longtime collaborator Bruce Campbell are keen to bring out future entries at a more consistent pace going forward.
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