Halloween 2023: September 23rd

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

When a new "Evil Dead" movie was announced, I found myself asking an important question: Is it possible to create a good "Evil Dead" without Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell? I know it's developed a mostly positive reputation in the years since but I've never been much of a fan of Fede Alvarez' 2013 installment. When Lee Cronin – of the thoroughly underwhelming "The Hole in the Ground" – was attached to the new movie, and Bruce and Sam promised they'd be hands-off with it, I kept my expectations measured for "Evil Dead Rise." Even among the enthusiastic fan response and theatrical upgrade from its intended-for-HBOMax origins, I went in not sure what to expected. Well, "Evil Dead Rise" blew me back away in April and, revisiting it in the sleepy month of September, I'm still impressed with this one. My god, they pulled it off. 

After learning she's pregnant, Beth returns to Los Angeles to spend some time with her sister, Ellie. It's a tense situation. The apartment building Ellie lives in with her three kids – oldest Bridget, middle son Danny, and youngest Kassie – is about to be torn down. Her husband has recently left her and Beth wasn't there to support Elle. When an earthquake rips through L.A., Danny discovers a forgotten vault under the building's parking garbage. Inside is a cursed book bound in human flesh and recordings of readings from its pages. When he plays the vinyl, Danny unwittingly summons an evil spirit that takes possession of his mother's body. Soon, Beth is trying to her nieces and nephews from the ravenous evil now controlling Ellie. 

My biggest issue with 2014's "Evil Dead" is that I found the characters largely unappealing. "Rise," meanwhile, does everything it can to make its cast as likable as possible. The early scenes devoted to establishing Beth and her family have a lot of heart. Each kid has their own hobbies and quirks. Bridget is into social justice, Danny wants to be a DJ, Kassie carries around a doll head on a broomstick to scare off ghosts. They wrestle and goof around the way siblings do, clearly showing through their actions how close they are. Even Ellie and Beth's careers – tattoo artist and guitar tech – have obviously had some thought put into them. (And not just because almost all these elements end up being plot relevant.) There's a specificity to these guys that you don't always get in franchise horror movies. I quickly found myself caring about them. That makes the horrible things that inevitably happen to them all the more effecting. 

Another reason why "Evil Dead Rise" proves to be such a well-orchestrated horror film is the care Lee Cronin and his team took with the movie's look and feel. I was doubtful an apartment building could capture the same feeling of isolation that the original's cabin in the woods does. Yet they pull it off, largely by emphasizing how dilapidated the building is. The elevator is janky, all the doors are shaky, the ventilation is ancient. It helps create the impression of a place that is in disrepair. When the demonic activity begins, both the elevator and the stairs are taken out, further trapping these characters on a narrow floor. 

Moreover, the cinematography, sound design, lighting, and color correction are top-notch. The camera movements invoke the Raimi style of swooping POVs and playful visuals without directly copying them. An extended shot from the peep hole of a door is especially clever. I realized "Evil Dead Rise" was the real deal when Danny climbing into the dusty bank vault, a giant crucifix falling into view for a jump scare, actually creeped me out. "Rise" isn't just a gore-fest. The movie is invested in creating a shadowy atmosphere of dread, with a sound design that is equal parts whispering and thunderous. 

None of this is to say that "Evil Dead Rise" isn't gory. This is an insanely violent movie determined to make the audience flinch. The gross-out gags of milky vomit and spurting pus are maintained from the original. Objects like a cheese grater, a tattoo gun, and scissors collide with the human body in horrifying ways. Each stab, bite, and cracking of twisted bones hits with maximum impact. The meatiness of the human form, the vulnerability of our eyes and hands, are greatly emphasized. By the end, "Rise" follows "Evil Dead" tradition by soaking the main characters head-to-toe in blood with plenty of the red stuff running down the screen too. The ghoulish make-up effects are unnerving and the movie even sneaks in a proper monstrosity by the end. 

"Evil Dead Rise" is definitively invested in engineering a Raimi-style spookablast. A creepy atmosphere and intense gore are paired alongside other forms of chills, like a ghostly apparition or a clever moment involving a ventilation shaft. Yet it's ultimately the theme of family that makes this one so involving. Beth and Ellie have resentments and issues between each other. Yet they still love one another. Bridget and Danny are deeply protective of Kassie. The Evil Dead's goal is explicitly defined as destroying innocence. Fittingly, everyone soon rallies around protecting little Kassie. Motherhood is an important theme here, Beth's pregnancy scare providing the biggest leap in her character arc. Yet the thought that family protects and loves each other, and the ultimate corruption of that, provides the most meaningful idea. 

The only real flaw I can observe in "Evil Dead Rise" is an unnecessary framing device. That exists seemingly so a cabin in the woods can put in an obligatory appearance here. Otherwise, the writing is strong and rewards the audience for noticing everything little detail that is set up in the first act. Trademark lines reappear, alongside a few deliberate homages to past movies, but they never feel self-serving. Each callback is fitting. In short, "Evil Dead Rise" is a fantastically assembled horror movie, worthy of its name. I went in skeptical but ended up loving it. It's a good foundation for sequels too and I look forward to where the "Evil Dead" franchise might go next. [9/10]

Night of the Big Heat (1967)

Terence Fisher, Christopher Lee, and Peter Cushing were quite the team. The trio would make six movies together from 1957 to 1967. (Fisher would make seven more films with just Cushing and five more with just Lee, further cementing the partnership.) Most of these collaborations were Hammer's iconic reinventions of the Universal monsters, many of which went on to become classics. Yet the last film the stars would make with this director wasn't done for Hammer. Instead, Fisher, Lee, and Cushing would re-team the final time under the auspice of little known company Planet Film Productions. It would be an adaptation of John Lymington's sci-fi novel “Night of the Big Heat.” 

It's winter in the England. Despite that, the near-by island of Fara is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave. The residents of pub the Swan – novelist Jeff Callum, his wife Frankie, mysterious scientist Professor Hanson – do what they can not to swelter. That's more difficult when Annie – Jeff's on-again, off-again mistress – arrives ostensibly to be his secretary. Things get worse when people and animals begin to literally cook in the heat. Hanson believes he's uncovered the cause of the mysterious heat wave: Aliens! As the temperature and body count rise, the island dwellers do what they can to fight off the unseen invaders before everyone bursts into flames. 

Just as it was in 1989, when Spike Lee made “Do the Right Thing,” it was equally true in 1967: The heat brings out the beast in people. The most interesting moments in “Night of the Big Heat”  play with this idea. Annie, a young woman fond of wearing low-cut tops, shows up to make the island figuratively hot. Yet her unstable fixation on Jeff is exacerbated by the rise in temperature, as is Jeff's reactions to her advances. Soon enough, the scorching neat begins to drive people literally insane. A man attacks Annie, attempting to assault her, while everyone gets increasingly ill-tempered. This builds on a frequently discussed but always fruitful theme: That polite society is fragile and it doesn't take much for the inner savagery of mankind to come out.

Unfortunately, as far as horror movie threats go, overwhelming hotness is a tricky one to illustrate on-screen. Fisher and his crew did their best to convey the effects of the heat wave. The actors are always moist with sweat, their clothes totally covered with unflattering stains. Caps pop off soda bottles, glasses of beer shatter, and TVs and radios burst into flames. Whenever the aliens approach, a high-pitch whine is heard. Unfortunately, when the aliens finally appear on-screen, the effects let the movie down. The creature designs, which recall a stiffer version of “Star Trek's” Horta, do not seem especially intimidating. This was a movie monster definitely better left out of sight. 

Ultimately though, there are bigger problems facing “Night of the Big Heat” than unimpressive monsters. Most of the characters in the film are horribly unlikable. The movie never attempts to justify Jeff's infidelity to his wife. Annie is portrayed as a conniving seductress, while also repeatedly abused and decried as a “slut.” The sexism is off-putting and it makes the film's hero seem like a massive asshole. Christopher Lee exerts the same level of bold-voiced authority that he always did, as Hanson, but the character is kind of one-note. Peter Cushing is a sweetheart as the town doctor but he exits the film early on. Ultimately, this kind of British sci-fi/horror, set in a small town and largely within a pub, really needed a cozy cast you enjoyed spending time with. That's something “Night of the Big Heat” is sorely lacking.  

Then there's the matter of that ending. I won't spoil it but “Night of the Big Heat” seems headed for an utterly hopeless conclusion before the laziest of deus ex machinas appear to save the day, literally a minute before the movie's end. When the film was released in the U.S., on a double bill with “Godzilla's Revenge,” it was given the far more lurid title of “Island of the Burning Damned.” That's arguably a catchier title, especially since “Night of the Big Heat” sounds a little bit like a film noir. I think there's a cool idea for a horror movie here but unlikable characters and sloppy writing let the movie down. [5/10]

Cabinet of Curiosities: The Outside

Of the filmmakers invited to participate in del Toro's “Cabinet of Curiosities,” Ana Lily Amirpour is probably the most divisive. “The Outside,” adapted from a web comic by Emily Carroll, follows Stacey. A socially awkward woman, she works at a bank where all the other glamorous ladies gossip non-stop about their sex lives and beauty tips. A nerdy taxidermist married to an unobservant security guard, Stacey has an embarrassing moment at a Christmas work party. Gifted a bottle of Alo Glo, an expensive skin lotion, she applies it the next morning and immediately breaks out in a rash. Thus begins a strange transformation, Stacey's body and mind changing as she endeavors to find a way to fit in with the other girls. 

“The Outside” is closer stylistically to Amirpour's second feature, “The Bad Batch,” than her more critically acclaimed debut. It's a highly exaggerated indictment of shallowness. The costumes are bright and gaudy. The cinematography, from Jeremy Benning, often situations Kate Miccuci as Stacey at the back of shots, while positioning the other women at the front of the frame. It's as if their golden skin, pushed-up tits, sucked and tucked faces are in 3-D. They trade extremely vulgar dialogue, discussing local gossip and their sex lives in explicit detail. On her television, Stacey is always watching vapid programs like shrieking old cartoons and endless infomercials. It's clear that, in order for this awkward nerd to be accepted by these terrible people, she's going to cast off all her quirky behavior to remake herself into a plastic conformist. It's not subtle, to say the least. 

Kate Miccuci, perfectly cast as dorky Stacey, is given dialogue to make Amirpour's point clear. Martin Starr, as her sweet but unperceptive husband, assures her that he loves her no matter what, that she's perfect just the way she is. Yet Stacey repeats that it's different for men, that they aren't scrutinized and judged for their appearance the way women are. Obviously, “The Outside” is meant to put us inside the world of a woman who feels constantly left out because she's not a classical beauty. Yet “The Outside's” world view is so exaggerated, so cartoonish, that it's hard to take this too seriously. We never feel Stacey's loneliness, all pushed aside by the elevated elements of this story. Even though Miccucci is ideally cast, Stacey never feels like a real person. Nobody does, in this viciously shallow world. 

Other elements of “The Outside” didn't work for me either. The episode is indecisively placed between body-horror and a descent into madness. Stacey having conversations with the Alo Glo salesman on the TV, played by a preening Dan Stevens, puts too fine a point on the story's themes and what's to come. Her (possibly?) hallucinating a perfect female body made of skin lotion is certainly a memorable sight. The body horror is a lot more effective, as Miccuci is covered in a peeling, itchy red rash that just gets worst and worst. The needle drops are cool, if also too obvious. I'm sure I'll be dismissed as a typically insensitive man, incapable of understanding a woman's perspective, for giving this a mediocre score. Sorry. [6/10]

Chucky: Death on Denial

Don Mancini absolutely swings for the fences with “Death on Denial,” as bold an episode of “Chucky” as I could've imagined. Set entirely in Jennifer Tilly's Beverly Hills home, it concerns Glen and Glenda – Chucky and Tiffany's doll child, now living in two nonbinary bodies – coming home for a birthday party. There are several guests: Gina Gershon and Joey Pantoliano from “Bound,” Tilly's sister Meg, and Real Housewife Sutton Stryfe. Jennifer/Tiffany has hired a buffoonish bodyguard/butler to guard Nica's room. After he insults everyone, he ends up dead. The power is cut and the door to Nica's room is left open, the quadruple amputee nowhere to be seen. Jennifer pretends that she's throwing a Murder Mystery Party, as she attempts to uncover what happened. Behind-the-scenes drama intervenes and Glen and Glenda have motives of their own.

“Death on Denial” sees Mancini – who directed this one – completely embracing the camp sensibilities of this franchise. It's structured like a murder-mystery play, with Christie-style chapter breaks appearing on pink title cards. The episode is introduced by Chucky, directly addressing the audience as if he's hosting a talk-show. The meta premise of Tiffany also being the real life Jennifer Tilly allows for some bonkers show-biz satire. The Tilly sisters resent each other and Jennifer is fucking both her “Bound” co-stars, at least within this show. The episode features Nica's Chucky personality taking hold, wielding a gun with prosthetic arms that look like they belong on a medieval suit of armor. By the end, Jennifer Tilly shrieks like the grand dame she is, while someone makes a daring escape via wheelchair.

In other words, it's absolutely delightful. Mancini, clearly inspired by hag-horror classics like “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” and “Sunset Boulevard,” indulges in all sorts of cinematic visual touches. There's split screens, to establish all the potential “suspects.” Split diopter shots place both a lip-stick stained wine glass and a TV in the foreground. There's dramatic silhouettes and inverted camera angels. The cast is absolutely hamming it up too. Gershon puts on a number of ridiculous accents, while Pantoliano goes to gloriously sleazy heights. Lachlan Watson debuts as Glen and Glenda and immediately makes a strong impression. Everyone is on exactly the right joyously campy wavelength. 

The episode concludes with Chucky shattering the fourth wall some more, doing what you'd expect him to do while mocking cable censorship standards, and promising to get back to the regular plot in the next episode. Honestly, though, I think I'd prefer it if this show was like this every week instead. “Death on Denial” sees “Chucky” doing something different and operating on an entirely stronger level than I'm used to. [9/10]