Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 21, 2023)
With a worldwide gross of $97 million, 2013’s horror reboot Evil Dead broke no box office records. However, with a low $17 million budget, it turned a nice profit.
So why did it take a decade for the film to produce a sequel? Apparently due to development issues, but 2023 finally brought Evil Dead Rise to screens.
Beth (Lily Sullivan) tours with rock bands as a guitar technician. Newly – and unhappily – pregnant, she visits her estranged single mother Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) as well as nephew Danny (Morgan Davies) and nieces Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) in their condemned LA apartment complex.
This awkward reunion gets literally shaken by an earthquake, and when Danny explores an exposed hole in the decrepit building, he discovers some mysterious artifacts. These bring a demonic infestation to the site that threatens the family.
As noted, the 2013 Evil Dead turned a nice profit, and Rise did even better. It stayed with another small $15 million budget and brought in $146 million worldwide.
One assumes that total ensures the studio won’t wait another decade to produce the next Evil Dead. When one appears, I hope it works better than the erratic Rise.
I went into Rise with greater than average expectations, mainly because I thought the 2013 reboot worked well. In a genre littered with a lot of fairly lousy movies, it packed a reasonable punch.
Also, Rise received consistently positive reviews from critics. Add to that good audience marks and I figured Rise would extend the franchise in a compelling manner.
It doesn’t, and part of the problem stems from the film’s plot, or lack thereof. Rise offers a basic introduction to the characters and then consists of little more than creepy scenes and graphic violence.
The movie tosses Beth and family at us with only minimal exposition – and by “minimal”, I mean “nearly non-existent”. We know Beth got knocked-up by some unnamed dude, and we know Ellie’s struggling clan recently got abandoned by her husband.
Want anything more than that? Sorry – no soup for you, as this becomes the essential extent of the film’s exposition and development.
Of course, no one goes to horror movies with hopes of rich, three-dimensional characters and intelligent narratives. Fans care more about tension and graphic gore for the most part.
Which can work. Heck, Sam Raimi’s original 1982 Evil Dead didn’t boast anything more detailed or deep than this and yet it worked.
But Raimi’s flick boasted a gonzo spirit and a sense of inventiveness Rise lacks. It comes with the supernatural elements of the series but otherwise plays like a fairly standard horror film devoid of anything remarkable.
Just as scary movies don’t need terrific characters/narratives, they also don’t require genuine inventiveness to succeed. Even with the predictable traits that come with most flicks in this field, a well-executed effort can succeed.
Rise just feels far too preoccupied with gore and gross-out material for it to prosper. Actual fright and tension take a backseat to nasty visuals.
That tendency makes Rise seem longer than its 96 minutes, and it feels awfully redundant much of the time. We find a never-ending parade of ugly violent scenes that fail to demonstrate much purpose or drama.
It would help if we maintained any real interest in or attachment to the characters. We don’t, and the movie fails to make any of them interesting enough to carry the story.
Rise also continues a horror trend that I find tedious: the “violent teaser” at the start. Too many genre flicks open with “previews” of the terror because those behind them worry that if they wait too long for jolts, audiences will lose interest.
This technique can work, but it now feels like a crutch. A well-made movie would build drama organically and not need to throw gore at the audience right away.
In the case of Rise, the “teaser” seems even less purposeful because it doesn’t really connect to the main narrative. It takes place at a secluded lake, a choice that toys with the audience because we expect Rise to visit that setting ala the first two Raimi movies as well as the 2013 reboot.
However, as noted in my synopsis, a condemned LA apartment building becomes the primary location for Rise. The prologue eventually connects to the plot, but just barely – and it does so in a way that feels more like a nod toward the next film in the series than a necessary story-telling element.
I will acknowledge that Rise achieves a level of brutality uncommon for modern horror flicks. Many pull their punches in a variety of ways, but this one goes down some darker than typical paths.
And I’ve definitely seen many less satisfying genre films than Rise, as even with its flaws, it manages to remain moderately involving. Still, it doesn’t turn into anything particularly memorable and it becomes a disappointment after the thrills of the 2013 reboot.
