Evil Dead Rise (2023)

The Evil Dead franchise is back!

And it's so atmospheric. They have so great sets. So much potential!

So why they gotta ruin the scares so much?

They're all cliché. They have them in every single one of these movies these days, just like with The Pope's Exorcist most recently.

The twisting body. Crawling on the floor. Sudden turns. Slow turns. Eye movements without body movement. Sudden personality changes. All that stuff. Worst of all they have that typical you're all going to die phrase - which you shouldn't need a mouth to imply.

The evil speaks for itself.

The main downside to American horror is maybe that it tends to overclarify, and exaggerate, to the point it's hard to immerse yourself.

The readings were way more atmospheric than the reaction-based horror that follows.

They build things so well and then just... break the spell immediately.

It's such a shame, cause I loved how it started, and where it seemed to be going. The erratic panning of the camera was so good, the eerie music, the impeccable atmosphere, the old recording, the book, the lighting, the settings, the characters...

There's potential for so much more traumatizing, tantalizing, titillating terror especially when the evil is of a kind that truly knows no mercy, and seems to take pleasure even its own pain.

And yet when it truly matters it falters.

They keep resorting to cheap thrills over total terror.

The movie has so many good moments it somehow manages to squander and throw away, that always end the same, or lead up to the same thing.

Not to mention if the evil's in the blood, or in injury, then why are only two of them really affected? The remaining duo are pretty much drowning in the red stuff too.

The one thing that oughta have made sense doesn't, and the remainder of the movie goes exactly the way you expect it to go.

I'm tempted to score this one so much lower and yet the atmosphere was masterful. There's no denying that. As was the cast.

If only they managed better with the rest.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle