Thanks to Evil Dead Rise, I’ll never touch a cheese grater again

For over four decades, the Evil Dead series has thrilled audiences with blood-soaked demon madness. What began in 1981 with Sam Raimi’s low-budget shocker The Devil’s Dance has now become a remarkable franchise with 5 feature films and the quirky series Ash vs Evil Dead.

The special thing about the series: The Tanz der Teufel and Evil Dead films are extremely entertaining without exception – including the latest chapter, Evil Dead Rise. Horror fans should check out the nasty FSK 18 shocker running in theaters nowdo not miss.

That’s what awaits you in the high-rise horror Evil Dead Rise

What is Evil Dead Rise anyway? Another reboot, a sequel or a spin-off? There are no direct connections to previous Tanz der Teufel films. Instead, a completely new story is told, but it contains everything an Evil Dead fan could wish for.

Already in the first few minutes there are virtuoso tracking shots, a hut in the forest and demonic gore interludes, before the film title epicly climbs the cinema screen with brute volume. By now, at the latest, every horror fan should be aware: this is where we are expected an Evil Dead movie through and through.

You can watch the trailer for Evil Dead Rise here:

But before the Book of the Dead opens and unleashes demonic madness, we first get to know the new main characters. When concert tech Beth (Lily Sullivan) finds out she’s pregnant, she seeks advice from her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland). At first she wasn’t very happy about the reunion. After all, she hasn’t heard from Beth for months and has her hands full with her own life.

Ellie recently became a single mother. The rocking tattoo artist lives with her two daughters Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher) and trans son Danny (Morgan Davies) in a run-down high-rise complex in LA that will soon be vacated. But before the family affairs can be settled, an earthquake shakes the skyscraper and reveals a secret basement where a certain Book of the Dead is kept.

After a slow start, Evil Dead Rise turns the horror excess up to the max

Evil Dead Rise takes its time getting to know the characters and their family conflicts, which makes the inevitable deconstruction of their family unit all the more tragic. But as soon as the Book of the Dead appears, director Lee Cronin embarks on an all-out horror trip that escalates with every additional minute up to the absolute finale of excess.

Evil Dead Rise is essentially a greatest hits album of Evil Dead highlights. Cronin’s love for the franchise is palpable in almost every moment as iconic quotes and weaponry, as well as familiar chill scenarios from four decades of Evil Dead are revisited and reimagined.

Instead of a hut in the woods, the horror of Evil Dead Rise now takes place almost entirely on a sealed off high-rise floor. With clever staging of the confined space unfolds a claustrophobic chamber play. In this, leading actress Alyssa Sutherlands is allowed to freely spin as a demon mom with a black humorous joke and a terrifying presence.

But the biggest highlight of the film are the hand-made effects that make up an extremely painful and nasty horror treat forms. After isolated gore peaks with cheese grater trauma, swallowing broken glass and a wide variety of body fluids, the film surrenders to complete excess in the finale.

When finally 6500 liters of fake blood across the canvas pour out and the roar of a chainsaw begins, Evil Dead Rise knows no restraint.

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Luckily, Evil Dead Rise was saved from streaming fate

Evil Dead Rise was originally scheduled to be streamed on HBO Max. The fact that Warner finally decided to release it in cinemas is a real stroke of luck. Because Evil Dead Rise is exactly the loud and wild brawl horror that should be seen and celebrated in a packed cinema hall.

The collective cry of pain in the cinema hall, when human skin meets a cheese grater in a scene, is already one of my highlight moments of the film year. Even though I’ll never be able to open the kitchen cupboard again without shuddering at the sight of a square grater (to which I’ve already lost a fingertip).

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