Evil Dead Rise Still Haunts My Dreams
31 Days of Movies for Spooky Season
Welcome back to Spooktober, dear readers! Day 8’s movie is one I admittedly watch year-round, but it is a terrifying watch that you’ll never forget.
Title: Evil Dead Rise
Directed By: Lee Cronin
Release Date: April 21, 2023
Where to Watch: Max, Hulu, & Youtube (Premium)
Synopsis: A reunion between two estranged sisters gets cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
Non-spoiler thoughts: I have been a fan of the original Evil Dead Franchise for years. While I thought the reboot of Evil Dead was an alright watch, Evil Dead Rise is one that I have went back to watch multiple times. No matter how much I watch it, I am always spooked into the late hours of the night thanks to the fantastic creep factor of this film.
WARNING: The following summary contains SPOILERS.
You have been warned…
The film opens with Teresa and Jessica and Jessica's boyfriend Caleb, who are vacationing at a lakeside cabin when a seemingly sick Jessica scalps Teresa and decapitates Caleb before levitating above the lake. The gore starts right away with this one!
One day earlier, upset at learning she is pregnant, guitar technician Beth visits her sister Ellie, a tattoo artist and single mother to teenagers Danny and Bridget, and child Kassie, in their home at Monde Apartments, a condemned Los Angeles apartment complex. An earthquake shakes the building while the children are in its basement parking lot, uncovering a concealed chamber.
Danny investigates it, discovering religious artifacts, three phonograph records from 1923, and a strange book he takes it to his room, believing he could sell it and use the money to help Ellie. The initial record details rejected efforts by a priest to research the book revealed to be one of three volumes of the Naturom Demonto. The subsequent record reveals the priest continued his research in secret and recites an incantation that summons demonic entities known as Deadites.
The building's power fails and an unseen force possesses Ellie. She returns to the apartment in a trance, menacingly threatens her family, and dies after pleading with Beth to protect her children. Ellie's neighbors help lay her in her bedroom and search for a way out. They find that the staircase has collapsed, the elevator is damaged, and they are unable to access the fire escape before Ellie revives and attacks the family, wounding Beth and Bridget. Beth and the children lock Ellie outside the apartment after she pursues and massacres the neighbors.
Danny confesses to Beth about recovering the Naturom Demonto, and Ellie tricks Kassie into unlocking the door before attacking her. While Danny and Beth are distracted rescuing Kassie and locking Ellie out, Bridget becomes possessed from her wound. Bridget attacks Beth before turning on Danny and Kassie, who inadvertently impales her through the head with a broken broom handle.
Beth listens to the third record to understand how to exorcise the Deadites but learns the priest failed and his allies were all possessed, with only the complete destruction of the host stopping the Deadites. Bridget revives and fatally stabs Danny, who sets Bridget on fire before dying as Ellie infiltrates the apartment using the vents. Realizing Beth is pregnant, Ellie attempts to rip the fetus out of her, but Beth and Kassie can incapacitate her with scissors. Ellie fails to emotionally manipulate Kassie, who accepts that her mother is gone.
Danny and the bodies of the neighbors are possessed, leading Beth and Kassie to take shelter in the damaged elevator. Ellie, Bridget, and Danny merge into a multi-limbed creature known as the Marauder and climb atop the elevator to attack the pair as the elevator fills with blood. The combined weight causes the elevator to plummet to the ground floor, allowing Beth and Kassie to flee into the parking lot.
The Marauder captures Kassie and attempts to behead her with a chainsaw, but Beth returns and distracts it, and she and Kassie destroy the Marauder's body by forcing it into a wood chipper. Ellie's severed head taunts Beth, saying she will be a failure as a mother, prompting her to kick Ellie's head into the chipper. Beth and Kassie escape the building together.
But all is not well as the story picks up the next day, revealing that another tenant in the building named Jessica is infected by the Deadites. This connects back to the shocking opening scene of a possessed Jessica brutally slaying her sister and boyfriend.
The final scene reveals that the events of Evil Dead Rise happened before the gruesome opening scene, and that timeline pivot proves that the Deadites are, in fact, still on the loose.