Comedy and horror mixed together for me can hit and miss on my first viewing, where I sometimes fail to find the humor in scenarios due to being invested in the horror side. Sometimes I clue in the first time, sometimes it hits on second viewing...I don't know about it here, though, because Evil Dead Rise may have unwittingly crafted a story too harrowing and upsetting for its attempts to bring back some comedy. It's a good upsetting movie, but the tone wasn't balanced for me the way I saw it was trying to be.
The Kandarian Deadite possession has struck a group of campers, leading to one of the absolute best opening titles I've ever seen in a film. Flash to the day before, set in a new locale: a grimy, cluttered city high-rise about to be torn down. Single mom Ellie and her three kids are greeted by her sister Beth, visiting in crisis after learning she's pregnant. An earthquake opens up a vault to a volume of the Book of the Dead, and soon its incantations unleash a possession upon Ellie. The family are trapped at the top of the high-rise facing a demon in mother's skin.
I like the way this movie seems to weld the Evil Dead entries by defining the Ash story, the remake, and this film as set all in one universe, just with three different related books. The film is gory and has some interesting goofy moments, but they hardly feel light, because no Evil Dead film has ever made it so painful and disturbing that Deadites are forever. The parent being possessed is a story where you expect and hope to see a cure, but that just isn't possible here and the abruptness and hopelessness of the situation, compounded with the psychological terror of a familiar face turning cruel and decaying, is gutting. These are relationships that feel precious and sacred, that aren't supposed to be torn away by an evil that wins the second it takes hold. A family setting makes this film so much more tense and uncomfortable, such that there's a hollow feeling I got from the eventual triumph that I don't know if the film fully acknowledged. There's no escapism or joy in surviving this kind of emotional destruction.
It's an excellent, well-made horror story, but I can't tell if the film fully comprehended how disturbing it was.
Film Far heavier than expected, but done well.
Comedy and horror mixed together for me can hit and miss on my first viewing, where I sometimes fail to find the humor in scenarios due to being invested in the horror side. Sometimes I clue in the first time, sometimes it hits on second viewing...I don't know about it here, though, because Evil Dead Rise may have unwittingly crafted a story too harrowing and upsetting for its attempts to bring back some comedy. It's a good upsetting movie, but the tone wasn't balanced for me the way I saw it was trying to be.
The Kandarian Deadite possession has struck a group of campers, leading to one of the absolute best opening titles I've ever seen in a film. Flash to the day before, set in a new locale: a grimy, cluttered city high-rise about to be torn down. Single mom Ellie and her three kids are greeted by her sister Beth, visiting in crisis after learning she's pregnant. An earthquake opens up a vault to a volume of the Book of the Dead, and soon its incantations unleash a possession upon Ellie. The family are trapped at the top of the high-rise facing a demon in mother's skin.
I like the way this movie seems to weld the Evil Dead entries by defining the Ash story, the remake, and this film as set all in one universe, just with three different related books. The film is gory and has some interesting goofy moments, but they hardly feel light, because no Evil Dead film has ever made it so painful and disturbing that Deadites are forever. The parent being possessed is a story where you expect and hope to see a cure, but that just isn't possible here and the abruptness and hopelessness of the situation, compounded with the psychological terror of a familiar face turning cruel and decaying, is gutting. These are relationships that feel precious and sacred, that aren't supposed to be torn away by an evil that wins the second it takes hold. A family setting makes this film so much more tense and uncomfortable, such that there's a hollow feeling I got from the eventual triumph that I don't know if the film fully acknowledged. There's no escapism or joy in surviving this kind of emotional destruction.
It's an excellent, well-made horror story, but I can't tell if the film fully comprehended how disturbing it was.