Evil Dead Rise Review (2023)

Both penned and directed by Lee Cronin, The Evil Dead Rise is the fifth installment in the long-running movie franchise. Starring Mirabai Pease (The Gulf and Black Hands) and Alyssa Sutherland (Vikings and The Mental State), the highly esteemed franchise now focuses its attention on a small family’s torment as they are pitted against flesh-possessing demons.

Evil Dead Rise Storyline

When sisters, Teresa (Mirabai Pease) and Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) reunite after years of estrangement, they are working on rebuilding their bond when an earthquake hits. As the dust settles, Ellie’s children, on returning with pizza, discover a gaping hole in the underground parking lot and soon find a strange book that has been unearthed during the ‘quake, along with some old vinyl records.

With curiosity and youth going hand-in-hand, Ellie’s son, Danny (Morgan Davies, Storm Boy and Beautiful They), takes the book home to study, despite his sister, Beth (Lily Sullivan, Monolith and I Met a Girl), voicing her reservations that ‘these things are buried for a reason’, a fair point, to be fair.

On returning the book to his bedroom, Danny delves into its pages and discovers dark and arcane images depicting demons and their torturous ways. By playing the accompanying records backward, Danny soon discovers that what he has found is – you guessed it – The Book of the Dead.

By going against his sister’s sound advice, Danny has unleashed hell upon his family. He soon realizes his deadly mistake when his family members are one-by-one possessed by an ancient demon. What follows is a bloody battle for survival.

Evil Dead Rise Has It All

While we were expecting great things from Evil Dead Rise, our presumptions were blown out of the water. The fifth movie in the franchise takes all that’s great about the cult saga and gives it the modern edge cinematography and special effects seen in the 2013 movie, Evil Dead.

Evil Dead Rise, steps the game up several notches with an onslaught of horror that simply doesn’t relent. Aside from the opening scenes necessary to tell the story, the pedal is well and truly pushed to the metal throughout. Once all hell breaks loose, not a moment goes by that doesn’t ooze with blood-soaked horror and – surprisingly – with originality.

This isn’t to say that Evil Dead Rise is without its eye-roll-inducing scenes, because it isn’t. With that being said, however, these moments are few and far between and add a little of the franchise-mandatory comedy element that makes the Evil Dead movies exactly what they are today. Aside from the purposeful hilarities, there are a few times the writers let slip a little and overlook minor details; the fact that a soldering iron is used without power is the one that most stuck out to us.

Evil Dead Rise – Summary

The Evil Dead franchise has seemingly been with us since the dawn of time. Where other franchises make a comeback with tired, played-out staples; Evil Dead Rise comes back with flair, aplomb, and an unrelenting whirlwind of prime horror.

Without giving too much away, the real cherry on the cake comes with the final scene. With oceans of blood and a perfect little twist, the ending of Evil Dead Rise was a perfect way to tie off a superb movie. Again, we don’t want to throw needless spoilers at you, but you will see what we mean.

Evil Dead Rise caters to many horror tastes and perfectly encapsulates the essence of the earlier movies. Whether you like gore, psychological horror, or nail-biting tension, Evil Dead Rise has you more than covered. We simply can’t wait for the next Evil Dead title.