Evil Dead Rise 2023 Movie Scene The title of the movie rising over the lake with the possessed deadite girl also hovering above the lake

Evil Dead Rise is the best horror movie I’ve seen in years

June 14, 2023

I’ve seen so many bland, boring, and commercial horror movies in these past several years that I lost all hope for the genre. So, when I heard that the Evil Dead franchise is getting a reboot, I instantly forgot all about it. I thought this is going to be another disaster like so many other reboots we’ve seen recently. However, I was dead wrong. Evil Dead Rise is a triumph, a refreshing take on the franchise that offers loads of fun for the fans of the horror genre. I’m willing to go so far as to say that it might be slightly better than the original. I say that as a huge fan of the original trilogy and the character of Ash.

Okay, okay, maybe I’ve gone a bit too far but that’s because this movie is just so damn good. While the original was more character-oriented, funny, and cheeky, this one is loud, flashy, and subversive. It doesn’t shy away from incredibly graphic scenes I’ve seen only in underground horror movies. And the high production values multiply their impact thousand fold. Do you know I fucking flinched when she stabbed her with a knife in the arm? I fucking flinched and I still can’t get over that. Throughout the entire duration of the movie, I wanted to scream to my neighbors, my city, and the entire world: Are you seeing this shit?!

It’s a strange thing that rarely happens to be fully aware you’re watching one of your future favorite movies. And Evil Dead Rise instantly became one of my favorite horror movies. I’ve seen it only once and since then I have a special folder for it. I’m keeping it on stand-by, waiting for the right time. Do you know how good of a movie this is? It’s so good you’re going to forget it’s a single-location horror movie. Yes, almost the entire story takes place in a single location just like in countless other horror movies. And yes, we have all the familiar elements like possession, occult books, spells, and all the other shit.

And on top of it all, we have this sick and demented sense of humor that I simply adored. I still don’t get how this movie became so mainstream. I kept seeing ads for it for weeks before the premiere which means that the test screens were through the roof. Warner Bros realized they have a fucking atomic bomb on their hands. So, now that I’ve calmed down a bit, let’s see what we really have here. Evil Dead Rise is directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) and features a mostly unknown cast. It follows a family who soon finds themselves in a fight for their lives as one of them becomes possessed by an unstoppable evil force.

If you’ve been paying attention to the movies that have been coming out in recent years, you might’ve noticed a certain trend. Since so many movies had male protagonists in the past, now the studios are trying to overcorrect and force female protagonists in every fucking movie. I have nothing against this if it’s done correctly and not for purely commercial reasons. Sadly, most of these changes are of a commercial nature and are actually offensive to women. Evil Dead Rise says you want an almost all-female cast in a movie, are you sure? Do you know what kind of movie this is? It takes this premise and turns it on its head with style.

However, there were a couple of cringy teenage moments but I’m willing to let them go. The pacing is absolutely brutal and once the carnage starts it doesn’t stop ’till the end, some ninety minutes later. The production used more than 6,500 liters or 1,720 gallons of fake blood. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that this is also a real-time flow movie. Yes, we will be following one wild night just like in the original Evil Dead movie. Alyssa Sutherland gave an incredibly haunting performance as Ellie going down in history as one of the scariest motherfuckers ever.

She says that to help her get into the role, she thought of Jim Carrey’s performance in the nineties classic The Mask. So, you see, that’s where the trouble began. That smile. That damned smile. And the rest of the cast was great too, especially Lily Sullivan. And when they all started screaming dead by dawn, my heart was full. I was already hearing Deicide’s song of the same name, Dead by Dawn, in the background. There are so many of these cool and memorable scenes that I could spend the next ten paragraphs writing about them.

Finally, if you’re looking for movies like Evil Dead Rise, the Polish occult masterpiece Hellhole might not be as fast but it sure will be refreshing. I would also add Barbarian and Rec to that shortlist along with Deadstream, a horror comedy to brighten things up a bit. And you can always check out our Rabbit Reviews selection of Occult Movies worth watching.