Review of Evil Dead Rise (2023) by Mathiasbs — 23 Apr 2023

It was kinda meh.

Personally, I like it when a franchise knows what it is; and I feel like with Evil Dead, that has pretty much always been the case. The franchise has always been known for its crazy blend of extreme gore, slapstick comedy and some absolutely horrifying monster designs, but in 2013 they rebooted the franchise and tried very hard to make a serious horror movie - but somehow they kinda of succeeded at that. Evil Dead Rise however, tries to land somewhere in between these two categories of horror and comedy, but ultimately it doesn’t really deliver in either department. There’s still some amazing special effects, great cinematography and a very entertaining third act to be found here though, but 2/3s of the movie is very much like a generic Hollywood horror-movie, without any of the self irony that the series has been known for since its second installment.

The music and sound design definitely doesn’t help with this either, as all the audio is just too polished and, well… Hollywood. There’s no sense of identity. Ultimately though, it’s a decent horror flick, but not worthy of the critics praise.

I imagine a lot of critics like it because it’s been so long since a genuine splatter movie gained mainstream attention, and while that is definitely nice to see, there’s tons of better options out there from decades back.