‘Evil Dead Rise’ review: Cute kids battle bloodthirsty demons

The old adage “blood is thicker than water” has never been truer than in “Evil Dead Rise,” a sort-of-sequel in which a spiritually possessed mom tries to messily murder her sister and children. 

Director Lee Cronin’s film — the fifth in the “Evil Dead” franchise — uses 1,720 gallons of fake blood.

The gory-as-hell movie is as campy and fun as any chapter in producer Sam Raimi’s four-decade-old horror series. But trapping kids in an apartment — as opposed to college-age friends in a cabin — raises the stakes and brings on legitimate scares. And some hearty laughs, too. 

It’s “Mommie Dearest” gone wild.

In the first scene, though, we’re back in one of those creepy, secluded cottages that made the 1981 film a classic. Out in the woods, a girl-turned-“Deadite” kills her two friends before an on-screen message reads: “One day earlier.” 

The location shifts to the soon-to-be-demolished city apartment building of Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), a mother of three kids who recently separated from her husband. 

The night her sister Beth (Lily Sullivan), a rebellious concert roadie, comes to visit, an earthquake opens a hole in their parking garage concealing our old friend the Book of the Dead and some vinyl recordings of spooky incantations.

Teenage Danny (Morgan Davies) decides to pop them on his turntable and, you know, accidentally destroys his family, including sisters Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and Kassie (Nell Fisher).

Demons are unleashed, one enters Ellie’s body and then Mother Monster brutally goes after Beth and the kids. 

I vastly prefer the “Evil Dead” series to, say, never-ending “Scream” because unlike with Ghostface, no elaborate narrative excuse needs to be drummed up for why ancient evil spirits are still slumming it on earth. They’re indestructible! A poor chump summons them, and they do their dirty work until the host is obliterated. Simple. What changes are the victims.

Sutherland is a terrific terror as she goes from doting, exhausted mom to mischievous, indefatigable, contorting murder machine. A couple of the kids have similar transformations. Particularly freaky is when one noshes on a wine glass while vomiting wriggly insects everywhere. 

All the while, Sullivan’s Beth is an appropriately intuitive and resourceful badass who’s determined to escape and survive. 

Cronin’s movie strikes the right balance of hokey cheese (an eyeball is bitten off and then spat into the mouth of a man, who chokes to death) and the confident shots and special effects 2023 audiences expect. The film never looks cheap, and breezes by at just over 90 minutes.

It’s been a decade since the last “Evil Dead” flick, but I suspect fans won’t have to wait 10 years for the next one to rise.