In 2023 Irish director Lee Cronin brought the Evil Dead franchise back to theatres with the hit Evil Dead Rise. Is that enough to put your name in the title of your next movie? Apparently. Should it be enough to put your name in the title of your next movie? Probably not, but here we are! Not to be confused with the Brendan Fraser movies, this is a bold new take on the classic monster, one that I can easily see dividing people.
The film follows the Cannon's, an American family living in Cairo. Just a week away from moving back to the US, their daughter Katie is kidnapped. We then jump forward eight years, where parents Charlie (Jack Reynor) and Larissa (Laia Costa) have managed to give their remaining two children as good of a life as they can given the family's circumstances. After a plane crash unearths a mysterious sarcophagus, Katie is found and brought back with her parents to America. While Katie's return brings excitement, only for the mystery of her disappearance to bring a sandstorm of terror to the family.
My thoughts on the movie vary pretty widely from act to act. I found the opening to be strong in setting up the film's creepy tone, while also making you care for each member of the family. As things go awry, you can't help but hope for the best because of how well Cronin allows you to connect with them. Once Katie returns the initial mystery lingers about and hooks you in, knowing that things are just waiting to hit the fan.
The middle act is a mixed bag, though, as a pair of investigative plotlines come into play that drag out the pacing while not doing enough narratively to justify their place in the narrative. There is some intrigue as the mystery unravels, but a lot of the reveals come largely through chance which somewhat cheapens them. At this point in the film, the main storyline also feels like just your average possession movie which was a bit disappointing though.
In the final act though things truly get wild, and that's where I fully locked in. If you go in expecting your average Mummy movie, you'll be disappointed, but if you put yourself in the headspace of an Evil Dead movie, Cronin's tone works a lot better. The finale is gruesome and over the top but it worked on me, delivering the gore and some emotional beats that landed way better than I expected. All throughout the film the gore is fantastic, and little pieces of comedy really make this feel like an Evil Dead movie even though it technically isn't. I watch my fair share of horror movies, but there are gruesome moments that fully had me squirming in my seat.
A large reason this film works is that you care about the family, and while the set up helps in that regard I also loved the cast. Reynor is fantastic as always, and Costa brings her all as a mother torn between the joy of having her daughter back and the fear of the dark truth of her return. Cronin also seems to have a knack for bringing out great creepy kid performances. Natalie Grace plays the older possessed version of Katie, and while the tone of her performance takes a bit of getting used to in that third act she is consistetly unnerving from start to finish. Billie Roy plays the youngest of the kids and she is an absolute scene stealer, delivering some of the film's best comedic moments with a sinister twist I didn't see coming from her.
I also have to make note of the cinematography. A lot of the film does have a pretty basic supernatural horror look, but Cronin and director of photography Dave Garbett throw in a handful of fantastic split-diopter shots and some more aggressive camerawork during the film's more hectic moments, allowing this to stylistically differentiate itself from its similar counterparts.
All this to say, go in expecting an Egyptian Evil Dead movie and you'll probably have a good time. It definitely runs too long thanks to those narrative flaws dragging things out too much, and the tone does take some time to get a handle on, but I still found this to be a fun time. 3/5
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