🧟 Undead and Etcetera | 🏆 2023 Ranked

"Open the door like you open your legs, you stinking groupie slut!”

Every new entry in the Evil Dead franchise has a high bar to hit, and Evil Dead Rise gave me exactly what I was expecting: talking decapitated heads, a high-rise equivalent of the tree rape sequences that are apparently essential in this series, bleeding walls, fiery corpses, the misuse of a cheese grater—if it's bloody and entertaining, it's probably here.

This hits near the height of my favorite entry in the series, Fede Álvarez's Evil Dead 2013. I love seeing Jose Cañas with a producer credit. There's about the same level of gruesomeness here, but the pacing and storytelling here is a bit different. This seems to spend more quiet time on emotion and narrative, and I think it does pay off: one becomes somewhat protective of the lead character and the funny blood-drenched youngest daughter; I'd like to see her therapy bill after what they go through. I do not think she will ever look at wood chippers the same way—or ever again if she can help it.

In addition to childhood trauma, Evil Dead Rise has a number of very inventive sequences of violence that make me wonder about the value of an R rating at this point: in sheer gruesome bodily harm and dismemberment, this absolutely tops Frontier(s), my NC-17 previous review. That said, Fronteir(s) is a more disturbing watch because it has some pretense of realism, and this is hyperbolically violent. That does make it a lot of fun.

The plot sets up a sequel within the first ten minutes, and I read that Lee Cronin has potential plans for it, so I will be eagerly waiting to see Evil Dead Rose. I hope it comes quickly. You probably will too. Fully recommended.

Some Lists:

👻 Supernatural Horror
🧟 Undead and Etcetera
🏆 2023 Ranked
💎 Slightly Hidden Horror Gem #8
🌱 Hidden Horror Candidates
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🗂️ Index of Lists (needs an update)

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