Evil Dead Rise

Evil Dead Rise opens in theaters on April 21. Writing and directing a sequel to a beloved horror franchise is no cakewalk, despite how easy Lee Cronin makes ...

“The Little Mermaid” is directed by Oscar® nominee Rob Marshall (“Chicago,” “Mary Poppins Returns”)with a screenplay by two-time Oscar nominee David Magee (“Life of Pi,” “Finding Neverland”). John Wick: Chapter 4 will be available in theaters and IMAX on March 24, 2023 (or March 23rd in Australia/NZ).](/videos/john-wick-chapter-4-official-final-trailer) [The Little Mermaid - Official Trailer“The Little Mermaid” is the beloved story of Ariel, a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. The film stars singer and actress Halle Bailey (“grown-ish”) as Ariel; Jonah Hauer-King (“A Dog’s Way Home”) as Prince Eric; Tony Award® winner Daveed Diggs (“Hamilton”) as the voice of Sebastian; Awkwafina (“Raya and the Last Dragon”) as the voice of Scuttle; Jacob Tremblay (“Luca”) as the voice of Flounder; Noma Dumezweni (“Mary Poppins Returns”) as Queen Selina; Art Malik (“Homeland”) as Sir Grimsby; with Oscar® winner Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men”) as King Triton; and two-time Academy Award® nominee Melissa McCarthy (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” “Bridesmaids”) as Ursula. Much like how Scream VI usesNew York City as a fresh metropolitan backdrop for familiar Ghostface assaults, Rise translates signature Deadite brutality to the claustrophobic confines of a boxy rental with just a few rooms. Neighbors stuck on the same floor as Ellie's apartment add themselves as body count fodder to keep the slayings plentiful, but it's her family who withstands the most physical, psychological, and surreal attacks that gorily weaponize everything from cheese graters to sharpened staffs with baby doll heads crafted by littlest daughters ("Staffanie" will be a fan-favorite prop). Rise somehow keeps up with Fede Alvarez's reported 70,000 gallons of blood used in 2013's Evil Dead while keying into a more heartfelt, yet still traumatic battle against Deadites that reclaims some of Raimi's comedy chops, and uses that dark humor to contrast the darkest plunges.

Read Deadline's review of Lee Cronin's 'Evil Dead Rise', which is set in a cosmopolitan location.

[Rob Tapert](https://deadline.com/tag/rob-tapert/)’s effort to shift things in a new direction, but it didn’t quite work. Physical acting has been a hallmark of the franchise since the first film in 1981, and everyone is on board no matter how uncomfortable it might look. Her possession is connected to the events in L.A that happened the day before as the film cuts to an apartment where Ellie (Sutherland) and her children Danny (Davies), Bridget (Echols) and Kassie (Fisher) live. Danny goes into the hole to explore and finds the Book of the Dead and a few vinyl records. Ellie sends her kids on a pizza run, but as soon as they return, a 5.5 earthquake hits the area, destroying the apartment and creating a deep hole in the parking garage where her kids are. It is interesting seeing these stories shift from a male to female perspective, showing that women can also be heroes of the supernatural as well.

SXSW: Writer and director Lee Cronin brings horror and hell back home.

A new creature gives a callback to Cronenberg and the enormous amount of blood used on set will satisfy fans of Fede Alverez’s 2013 “Evil Dead” remake. Cronin clearly pays homage to iconic horror films in other ways, from an elevator scene that “The Shining” fans will love, a sweet mention to the “A Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, and close-up shots on eyeballs reminiscent of Tobe Hooper’s style in “Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The crunching and cracking sounds, coupled with impressive contortion work, speak to the physically demanding nature of the film and talent of its cast. The Book of the Dead receives a gnarly facelift in “Evil Dead Rise”: the pages have less text to accompany its disturbing sketches, and the book is latched shut by razor-sharp animal teeth that only open once blood falls upon its skin-bound cover. He also utilizes the split diopter shot to increase a sense of paranoia and unease, as well as an effective fisheye lens that allows audiences to get up close and personal with Ellie as she starts to wreak havoc. Cronin successfully delivers a new chapter in the Necronomicon and slays the screen with artistic rigor until the credits roll.

Lee Cronin blends Sam Raimi's goofy mayhem with Fede Álvarez's flair for the disturbing in Evil Dead Rise, the latest entry in the horror-comedy franchise ...

Evil Dead Rise is a worthy addition to the Evil Dead franchise. He also has a love for the Evil Dead movies: Cronin packs the script and screen with as many visual references and homages to the original Sam Raimi films as he can, overloading the film with fan service, from iconic weapons to lines of dialogue and even the choices of shots. There is no army of the undead here: Similar to the 1981 original, the film just deals with one Deadite, playing more as a possession story than what modern moviegoers might expect from a [“zombie movie.”](https://www.polygon.com/22447635/army-of-the-dead-review-netflix) This is a film best seen with a massive horror-loving audience that takes the gruesome horror along with the silly jokes, that screams and cheers along with the action. A big part of why this movie’s more straightforward horrific take works is the change of formula. Evil Dead Rise is a movie made by sickos for sickos.

The iconic Ash Williams actor is an executive producer on the latest movie, which premiered Wednesday at SXSW in Austin, Texas.

But it isn't long before the deadites find their way into Ellie's apartment building and all hell breaks loose. [March 16, 2023] The actor would [go on to star in two sequels](https://www.insider.com/evil-dead-movies-ranked-worst-to-best-2022-11), as well as a Starz TV show in 2015.

Horror movies were in plentiful supply at SXSW, which offered an 'Evil Dead' sequel, an intense Aussie possession thriller, and more.

[SXSW](https://www.chron.com/culture/tv/article/hypnotic-rodriguez-sxsw-17837087.php) programming a couple more prominent premieres in the back half. You can literally hear that shift in the air: Suddenly, the parking lots next to heinously overpriced hotels have a mid-tempo soundtrack, and even the barbecue spot down the street from the big venues starts doubling as a concert hall. The waning days of a film festival can be bittersweet, even lonely.

In 'Evil Dead Rise,' written and directed by Lee Cronin, a mother and her children must fight the demonic forces in their apartment.

Evil Dead Rise is unrelenting in this way, even with the touches of pressure-alleviating humor. Blood is everywhere — penetrating the walls of an elevator and dripping from various orifices. Cronin’s screenplay is light on character development, but there’s a deep interest — in the tradition of Rosemary’s Baby or the more recent It wouldn’t be an Evil Dead installment without maximum gore and blood, and the director doesn’t disappoint. The satanic spirits inside Ellie manipulate the bond between mother and children to trick Danny, Bridget and Kassie. Danny is especially keen on exploring the mysterious lockers and dusty artifacts in the cavern. Beth is a guitar technician for bands (although her sister secretly and cruelly refers to her as a groupie) and Ellie is a tattoo artist living in Los Angeles with her three kids. Cronin sets his version of Evil Dead in in Ellie’s city apartment, creating a more claustrophobic, chamber drama-esque horror. There’s also a haunting, staccato experimentation with the sound design (by Peter Albrechtsen), which seesaws between brash noises and complete silence. We never see what it says, but we can guess when the younger sibling shows up at the door of her older sister. The film flaunts the talents of its promising director, while playing plenty of homage to the predecessors. In some ways, Evil Dead Rise is as much an homage as it is a corrective to Raimi’s original low-budget treat, which has been called out for its shallow and misogynistic treatment of women.

Living there is newly-single tattoo artist Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her three kids: Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), Danny (Morgan Davies) and Kassie (Nell ...

And while I am endlessly thankful for all of the horrible, depraved things that I witnessed in that theater, at times I could imagine Cronin asking “What is the grossest thing I could put in a movie?” and working backwards from there, without paying too much mind to the plot. Of course, equally vital to the setting of any Evil Dead film is its villain, and in Rise, Sutherland exceeds any and all monstrous expectations. The eeriness of the apartment building is emphasized by cinematographer Dave Garbett, who implements split diopter shots to collapse space between Ellie and her victims, making it feel like the world is collapsing on them. Directed by Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground), Rise boldly ditches its familiar cabin-in-the-woods setting for a crumbling inner-city apartment building on the brink of being condemned. The crumbling building becomes a monster in itself, creaking with the audible groans of an anguished creature in perfect synchronicity with the masterfully exaggerated bone-crunchings of the bloodthirsty Deadite, and moving and shaking like a trembling beast. If there’s anything that could have an entire audience cheering when a possessed pre-teen drags a cheese grater across her aunt’s calf like it’s a fresh block of cheddar, it’s an Evil Dead movie.