EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

The written companion

Draft companion · Awaiting editorial review

Evil Dead Rise: The Horror Lands, but Do the People Matter Enough?

A viewer request brings Dan and Matt to Evil Dead Rise, and their discussion finds a distinction between effective horror and complete emotional investment. Matt likes the dark, gruesome experience, but he wants a stronger reason to care about the person the film asks him to follow.

Alyssa Sutherland is the clearest success for him. He finds her possessed character memorable and unsettling, the kind of performance that can define an audience's memory of a horror movie. The threat has force even when the surrounding character setup feels thinner.

That becomes his main frustration. The strained family relationship is established, but he does not think the potential survivor receives enough development to make her fate matter as much as it could. Dan joins the conversation about how the story handles its characters and what remains after the violence.

Neither treats that criticism as proof that the film failed outright. Matt is clear that he enjoyed it and thinks it largely delivers the tone he expected. The qualification is that being disturbed by what happens and being emotionally attached to whom it happens to are different achievements.

Did the family relationship give Evil Dead Rise enough emotional weight for you? Can an exceptionally frightening performance carry a horror film even when its potential survivors feel less developed?

Watch their Evil Dead Rise discussion ↗

Based on auto-generated captions. The linked episode contains graphic descriptions and major spoilers; this companion avoids the ending.