I have taken to watching a film most nights before I go to sleep.  Not every night—but often—it serves as something to look forward to at the end of a work-filled day.  I can indulge my passion and build my expertise in my genre of preference, horror, or I can stretch myself and watch something else.  Either way, I find movie-watching a delightful way to end my day, and so I sat down two nights ago to re-watch Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead (1981) in preparation for Evil Dead Rise (2023) which Michael and I saw last night at the movie theater.  In my estimation, Evil Dead (1981) is a riot.  It’s just raunchy enough, conceptually uncomfortable, and weirdly hilarious.  It lost me a little bit at the end as a lot of movies do (I think many movie endings feel drawn out, or maybe I just have a poor attention span), but in general, what fun to watch, and what a unique take on monstrosity; possession films aren’t usually among my favorites, but I really like the Evil Dead.  So I guess I was expecting something with a similar tone when I saw Evil Dead Rise last night.  What I got was something much more macabre, and, in my opinion, probably more captivating for its bleak vision.

Continue reading “Point-Counterpoint: Divergent Takes on Evil Dead Rise” →