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Evil Dead Rise – yes, it’s been exactly a whole ten years since the last time the revived franchise hit the big screen, but it’s an entirely separate film. There’s no crossover between even Bruce Campbell’s movies, even though he appeared briefly in a post-credits scene last time.
This time round, we open with friends at a cabin by a lake. Teresa’s (Mirabai Pease) not best pleased that Jessica’s (Anna-Maree Thomas) a bit on the peaky side, but she’ll try and make the best of it, along with Jessica’s boyfriend, Caleb (Richard Crouchley). However, in this short pre-title segment, gory scenes ensue before we go back to one day earlier.
Tomboy guitar technician Beth (Lily Sullivan – Picnic At Hanging Rock) is visiting Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) in her rundown apartment, but the landlord’s not going to fix anything given that the whole block has been condemned, and is being demolished in a month.
Meanwhile, while Ellie’s daughters, Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher), along with Danny (Morgan Davies) are looking around inside a disused building, an earthquake reveals a hole which leads underground to a bank vault, at which point they come across the Book of the Dead…
Before you can say “Groovy!” (even though no-one does in this outing), weird shit happens and Ellie cops for it, hence when her kids ask what’s up with their mum, they get the response while she’s almost hanging off the ceiling, “Mommy’s with the maggots, now”.
Along the way, various family members are affected, there’s a dismembered head talking, and naturally, the chainsaw comes out at one point. However, after the initial scene, there is about 30 minutes of long drawn-out set-up before we get to Ellie & co.
As an aside, while I know cinemas have a duty to show at least one film with subtitles each week, it seemed odd that Evil Dead Rise would be the one they choose.
There’s also a very brief post-credits moment. It’s not essential, but if you can’t manage 97 minutes without going to the toilet, you have no reason to immediately leave the cinema:
Evil Dead Rise is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 97 minutes
Release date: April 21st 2023
Studio: StudioCanal UK
Format: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW 4.5K, Anamorphic Panavision Anamorphic Ultra Panavision 70)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 5/10
Director: Lee Cronin
Producer: Rob Tapert
Screenplay: Lee Cronin
Music: Stephen McKeon
Cast:
Beth: Lily Sullivan
Ellie: Alyssa Sutherland
Bruce: Noah Paul
Bridget: Gabrielle Echols
Danny: Morgan Davies
Kassie: Nell Fisher
Jake: Billy Reynolds-McCarthy
Scott:Tai Wano
Gabriel: Jayden Daniels
Teresa: Mirabai Pease
Caleb: Richard Crouchley
Jessica: Anna-Maree Thomas
Mr. Fonda: Mark Mitchinson
Newscaster: Melissa Xiao
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.