‘Evil Dead Rise’ is the mother of all horror movies: SXSW review

A word of warning to anyone who likes the following things: mothers, cheese graters, record players, easily exiting a parking garage. “Evil Dead Rise” is ready to ruin all of the above for you.

Writer-director Lee Cronin takes the helm of one of the most consistent horror franchises with this demonically good time. “Evil Dead Rise” screened Wednesday at the Paramount Theatre as a headliner for South by Southwest Film & TV Festival. Film festival crowds are notoriously reactive — the thrill of the game — but believe me when I say I’ve never heard that cavernous movie palace as filled with gasps and yelps as during “Evil Dead Rise.”

When director Sam Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell first unleashed the Deadites upon the world in 1981’s “The Evil Dead,” it’s doubtful that anyone could imagine the durability, and adaptability, of their depraved, delightful concept. Cronin’s infusion of blood feels like meeting a new member of the family.

Here’s what you can expect from “Evil Dead Rise,” out in theaters on April 21.

‘Evil Dead Rise’ is one bad mother.

As per yooshz, a pesky lil’ Necronomicon is behind all the trouble in “Evil Dead Rise.” This time, the flesh in which it’s bound and the blood in which it’s inked find unwilling puppets in a different kind of flesh and blood.

Flaky roadie Beth (Lily Sullivan) just found out she’s pregnant, so she’s come running to her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland). The latter lives in a dilapidated Los Angeles building that used to be a bank, along with her three kids: musically inclined Danny (Morgan Davies), socially aware Bridget (Gabrielle Echols) and badass little Kassie (Nell Fisher). The kids’ father has just skipped out, but the family is fiercely tight-knit (and really cool — mom is a tattoo artist).

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Then an earthquake hits, and out of the wreckage, Danny finds a Necronomicon just layin’ around, plus a couple vinyl records that he spins on his DJ turntable. It turns out to be his worst set ever, because the chants recorded on those platters open up the book of the dead and unleash an evil spirit that soon kills Ellie — horribly, and involving elevator cables. Would you believe, though, that mama soon … rises? And she’s not piloting that familiar maternal form anymore, I'll tell you that much.

What follows will leave audiences thinking about the power of maternal bonds, for good and ill. Also also, they will exit the theater wondering how it would feel to have your scalp ripped off your head. It's like when you go to the bank to open an account and they give you a toaster, too.

Lee Cronin’s spin-off wears the best parts of Sam Raimi’s style like a skin suit.

Raimi is a singular filmmaker, and his original “Evil Dead” triology — creatively gruesome and mordantly goofy — holds a special place in the pitch-black hearts of horror fans. That’s an intimidating place for a director to step, but it’s hard to imagine anyone nailing it harder than Cronin does.

There are a few things that an “Evil Dead” outing needs to feel right, and this film treats them like good improv; it’s very “yes, and.” The Necromonicon is upsettingly alive, but “Evil Dead Rise” trades the original’s hidebound face for a set of sharp chompers. And the Deadites it unleashes still feel as gleeful as anything Hieronymus Bosch cooked up. The upgraded special effects and makeup only help matters, yet it all feels deliriously practical. Can’t CGI an elevator shaft full of blood, really.

Raimi’s visual style, too, is a hallmark of these flicks, and Cronin adapts the visual must-haves — I’m talking about shots where the camera flies really fast through the air like a snake on wings — without ever losing his own tone. The air is claustrophobic, and the evil only seems to spread, through keyholes and air vents.

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Cronin is so lucky that he unleased the twin demons of Sutherland and Sullivan, because you could watch these two hack each other apart all day. As a possessed corpse play-acting motherhood while she hunts her children down, Sutherland gives the kind of monstrous, smiling performance that 1) makes you wonder why these kinds of movies don’t get acting awards, and 2) will send you to a deeply Freudian place. Sullivan, meanwhile, inherits the red-stained, mad-eyed heroism of Campbell’s Ash with grit and love.

And yes. There’s a chainsaw.

Wicked, effed-up, heartfelt and witty: “Evil Dead Rise” is a nearly perfect continuation of a cult-favorite franchise.

Grade: A

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: SXSW film review: ‘Evil Dead Rise’ is the mother of all horror movies