The Deadites come to terrorize a family in Evil Dead Rise. Arrow Video gives us a full-blown 4K UHD special edition.
The Films
I’m always in the bag for an Evil Dead film. I don’t think it’s a hot take to say there hasn’t been a single bad Evil Dead film. That’s not even a mild take. I think the hot take may be, in my humble estimation, the Evil Dead series (including the genius Television Series) is the best horror franchise of the last fifty years. No other franchise has produced a consistent quality of film, including the latest entry into the series, writer/director Lee Cornin’s Evil Dead Rise.
The genius of this film is how it manages to spin the conventions of the series in new and exciting ways. Rather than a cabin in the woods (which does feature but not prominently), it’s the decaying urban landscape of Los Angeles on a dark, stormy night. Within that decaying landscape is a soon to be condemn apartment building that Cornin unleashes the deadites on an unsuspecting family. The hows and whys of the plot, with an Earthquake being the inflection point speaks to Cornin’s ingenious screenplay, pushing new life into the franchise.
Much like Fede Alvarez’s brutal and bloody remake of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead Rises adroitly centers around a family and their current very real problems. Beth (Lily Sullivan), after getting some unexpected news, decides to go see her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and her children (Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher). The first twenty minutes after the shocking prologue unfold methodically, Cornin setting the stage with Beth, Ellie, and the kids for what’s to come. We understand the dynamics of the family so that when the Earthquake hits and unlocks a very familiar piece of Evil Dead lore, we instantly perk up.
Those who think that because kids are in play, the film will go easy on the violence, terror, and gore have another thing coming. Evil Dead Rises, like its predecessors, never plays fair or nice when it comes to the souls at stake. Like all of the entries, there is a sadistic dark humor at play that only the deadites find funny. Cornin’s film definitely amps this up because of the very nature of the family dynamics at play. The film never plays safe and always feels like at any moment a character could die a very gruesome and painful death.
The biggest compliment that one can pay to Evil Dead Rise is that one can only hope that this particular iteration of the franchise continues its success and newfound life with the upcoming Evil Dead Burn. Considering that producers Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi, and Bruce Campbell are involved … rest assured it’s going to be another fifty miles of bad road (in the best way possible).
The Transfers
This 4K UHD disc’s transfer appears to have been provided by Warner Brothers. Inside of the Arrow Video Booklet the following was noted about the transfer:
Evil Dead Rise is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 with Dolby Atmos and 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio. The film is presented in 4K resolution in HDR10 and Dolby Vision.
The 4K master was made available by Warner Bros.
This reviewer cannot compare the original 4K UHD release by Warner Brothers (which came with only the movie. I can say this Arrow 4K UHD is, in the words of one particular Evil Dead character, GROOVY! The highlight of the transfer is the Dolby Vision/HDR encoding. There is a subtlety in the film’s color grading (or lack thereof) that is enhanced by the HDR. The film is graded purposely to be colorless and shades of grays and greens. The transfer and the contrast levels pop because of the Dolby Vision, imbuing everything with fine detail that just cannot be reproduced on SDR. Arrow Video continues to show its mastery of the UHD format with another stellar release. Their relationship with Warner Bros./New Line continues to be one of the best in the Boutique label game baring some of the best transfers of recent memory.
The Extras
They include the following;
- Audio commentary with director Lee Cronin and actors Alyssa Sullivan and Lily Sullivan
- Come Get Some with Lily Sullivan
- Mommy Deadite with Alyssa Sutherland
- The Deadite’s Daughter with Gabrielle Echols
- The Levitating Dead with Anna-Maree Thomas
- Conjuring Deadites with Luke Polti
- Chopping Up Deadites with Bryan Shaw
- Sonic Possessions with Peter Albrechtsen
- Music to Swallow Your Soul with Stephen McKeon
- The Sound of Evil Dead Rise, a 2023 interview with Cronin and Albrechtsen by Glenn Kiser, director of the Dolby Institute
- Raising a New Evil Dead
- Ghost Train
- Behind-the-scenes
- Trailer and TV spots
- Image Galleries
The Audio commentary with director Lee Cronin and actors Alyssa Sullivan and Lily Sullivan. The trio opens with introductions before diving into the fact that this is their first audio commentary for them. Some of the details include how they felt seeing the film for the first time, including the prologue that they were not a part of; how Cornin felt shooting the prologue in the open air; the COVID lockdown in New Zealand that stopped shooting of the film for two months; the fact that they have to “shrink” the title card for the film and the reasons why they have to do this; editing the “airplane” version of the film and what they have to take out; how the production what scheduled out and how the first part with the family was done first and the reasons why; how they achieved the earthquake scenes; Bruce Campbell’s cameo appearance in the film; filming the Ellie possession scene in the elevator; working with body doubles and the second units and how difficult that was because second unit was scheduled at night; the crew that was from Avatar’s crew as they were both shooting at the time; the inspiration the cast took from other various films for their performances; a larger discussion of the difficulty in doing practical makeup FX and gore FX work throughout; a larger discussion of the visual FX work and melding of that and the practical; and much more.
Come Get Some with Lily Sullivan (16:22) – is an all-new interview with actor Lily Sullivan, opening with how she got her start in acting in Australia. The actor goes on to discuss growing up, the films she loved, and her love of horror, even before making Evil Dead Rise; her first reaction to reading the script; the auditioning process; pragmatic issues that came up with doing such an intense film; working with director Lee Cornin and what he brought to the production for her; and much more.
Mommy Deadite with Alyssa Sutherland (17:10) – is an all-new interview with actor Alyssa Sutherland, opening with how she got her start in Modeling moving from Australia to New York, and eventually wanting to act and moving to Los Angeles. The actor goes on to discuss how Jurassic Park formed her love of cinema and how she continues to go to films, by herself, weekly; how the 1990 TV Movie IT and People Under the Stairs were formative films early in her life; the auditioning process; the films she watched in preparation for the role; the makeup application process; working with the various cast members; and much more.
The Deadite’s Daughter with Gabrielle Echols (15:01) – is an all-new interview with actor Gabrielle Echols, beginning with her time as a professional ballet dancer and how she transitioned to acting. The actor goes on to discuss the audition process and how she found out the character would be a deadite; the horror films she loved; the process of applying her makeup appliances and the difficulties she had; and much more.
The Levitating Dead with Anna-Maree Thomas (10:59) – is an all-new interview with actor Anna-Maree Thomas, opening with how Titanic inspired her to be an actor. The actor goes on to discuss her early work on “homegrown” New Zealand production; the audition process, and how COVID factored into that process; the physical nature of the role, and how involved she was during prep with the stunt team; the makeup application process; and much more.
Conjuring Deadites with Luke Polti (12:59) – is an all-new interview with special make-up effects designer Luke Polti begins with what inspired him to become a makeup effects artist. The special makeup effects designer goes on to discuss how short films eventually led to working on Matrix 2 and 3 and long-term film WETA; how he eventually got the gig for Evil Dead Rise; the inspirations they took from the first film; how they designed each of the various makeup applications for the various actors; and much more.
Chopping Up Deadites with Bryan Shaw (14:25) – is an all-new interview with editor Bryan Shaw, which begins with how his father, who was a New Zealand TV Critic inspired his career in film. The editor goes on to discuss how his brother getting a TV hosting role lead to getting hired as an editor; the various work he did that eventually led to working on his work with producer Robert Tapert and his editing of Fede Alvarez’s The Evil Dead, the television series Ash vs The Evil Dead and eventually Lee Cornin’s Evil Dead Rise; how Cornin’s approach in the screenplay helped build a style for the editing; the production and post production process – including the difficulty with having to do so during COVID; and much more.
Sonic Possessions with Peter Albrechtsen (14:20) – is an all-new interview with sound designer Peter Albrechtsen begins with how he got started with sound design. The sound designer goes on to discuss the filmmakers who were an inspiration to go into sound; his first big production, Anti-Christ, and how he eventually got Evil Dead Rises; how he received the original raw sound recordings from the first two films from Producers Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell; how he became involved from the beginning of the production; the collaboration with Cornin and how he approached the design with recording much of it newly with the director’s guidance; the reasons why they wanted to design for Dolby Atmos; the inspiration from other very specific films; and much more.
Music to Swallow Your Soul with Stephen McKeon (13:43) – is an all-new interview with composer Stephen McKeon begins with how his family inspired his love of music. The composer goes on to discuss how he transitioned from rock music to film composing and why; his first hired gig; how he eventually worked with Lee Cornin on his first film, which led to Evil Dead Rise; the approach to composing a horror film; how he collaborated with Cornin on the film; and much more.
The Sound of Evil Dead Rise (51:23) – is an archival interview from 2023 with Cronin and Albrechtsen by Glenn Kiser, director of the Dolby Institute. Recording after its premiere at SXSW at what they called The Dolby House. They discuss the difference between Cronin’s first film and this film, the way they approached the sound, the production, and much more.
Raising a New Evil Dead (6:54) – this archival making-of featurette covers the themes, plot, character, and production of this newest entry of the long-running series. Featuring interviews with director Lee Cornin, producer Bruce Campbell, actors Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, and others.
Ghost Train (16:16) – Arrow has smartly included this short film directed by Lee Cronin from 2013. Ghost Train is a smartly made, haunting horror film about the sins of the past coming back to haunt two childhood friends. Most horror shorts do not effectively combine the emotional with the terror. Cornin with this short has done so, but even greater is that it is done as much visually as it is with performance. Set design, makeup, and visual FX are all truly top-notch and are used for maximum effect. One can see the throughlines here and why Cornin was chosen to direct Evil Dead Risebased on this and his first feature The Hole in the Ground.
Behind-the-scenes (4:29) – these behind-the-scenes videos were recorded by director Lee Cornin during the production using his smartphone. The footage is great, a raw, unfiltered look at various moments during the production. They will not give anyone any insight into the production, but will just give a fun glimpse at moments we don’t normally see (like the moments before and after a stunt or make-up FX gag or trick photography).
Trailer (2:32)
TV spots (3:57) – the gallery consists of 6 TV spots of various lengths.
Image Galleries – a submenu takes you to the two galleries below. Each of the galleries can be navigated by using your Next and Back Chapter stop buttons on your remote.
- Behind the Scenes – consisting of 88 behind-the-scenes photos from the production shoot.
- Storyboard gallery – consisting of 44 storyboards from various set pieces within the film.
The Final Thought
Arrow Video has given us a true 4K UHD special edition upgrade for Evil Dead Rise. Highest Possible Recommendations!!