(2013)
Directed by Lee Cronin
Starring Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Gabrielle Echols, Morgan Davies, Nell Fisher, Mirabai Pease, Richard Crouchley, Anna-Maree Thomas

I did not get to the theater to see this but did it once it hit the streaming services. Not sure if it was just that service or what, but it looked very dark, like someone had cranked the brightness way down. Since there is no power in the apartment building for a good chunk of the story, it made it incredibly difficult to see what the hell was going on. That made the overall impression of the film for me to thinking it was just okay. So, I was very excited to revisit it now in its 4K release from Arrow. Boy, what a difference.

After a brief opening at a cabin in the woods, with a pretty spectacular title sequence, the story moves to the old apartment building, which is being closed down, so there are not that many tenants left. The main characters are Aunt Beth, who apparently has consistently screwed up her life, and now just found out she’s pregnant. She goes to the apartment to see her sister and 3 kids. Ellie, the sister, sends the kids to go get pizza while she talks to Beth.

As they are coming back with the food, there seems to be an earthquake, with a crack in the underground parking garage opening up a hidden basement area. The son decides to explore it and finds an old book. And of course, we know what book it is. Or, as we learn, it’s a different volume of the Necronomicon, as well as finding some old LPs. Because the kid is a future DJ, he tries to listen to them, and as you’d expect, bad things start to happen.

Ellie is the first one to become infected, which is no spoilers since it’s on the posters. As the rest try to fight her off, and figure out how to escape, others become infected as well, including the few tenants left in the building.

Now, there is no arguing that this is one hell of a gory picture, with gallons of blood, dismemberment, stabbings, chainsaw to the head, and plenty more in its 96-minute running time. The effects are top notch, and we quickly realize that every character in the film is fair game when it comes to being infected. So, at that point, it’s a gorehound’s dream! The characters are great, and the performances, especially once they become possessed, are incredible, so major credits to them.

The only real problem I have with the film is the lip service they give to the original series. I get that this is part of the series, but do we need to have them repeating the same lines of dialogue? Much like in Alien: Romulus, when the character has to use Ripley’s line from Aliens. Did we really have to have that in there? I feel the same way here. This is the 4^th film in the series, unless you count the 2013 remake, so do we still need to go back to that? Having characters say, “Come get some” or when the one of the deadites says “I will swallow your soul” seems to have no reason to be in there other than to appease die-hard fans. That just seems unnecessary. Or uses very similar sequences that were done in the previous films, such as when Ellie first becomes possessed and starts reciting the book that her daughter is reading, which is very similar to the original Evil Dead when Cheryl starts naming the playing cards. When this happens, for me at least, it completely derails the story.

With all that being said, if you can let that go, this new 4k looks incredible. As I said earlier, everything is defined and clear, even in the moments when there is very little light. The amount of gore in here is astonishing, plus, we get a new deadite creature(s) when three of them merge together to become a bizarre and terrifying looking single creature.

For creating another entry into the series, writer/director Lee Cronin does a great job delivering the goods that the fans were most likely waiting for. It does rightly fit in with the Evil Dead series, bringing on the gore and violence, and thankfully keeping it more in the horror genre, rather than the slapstick comedy aspects as where the original film and TV series went. And while we do have the cabin in the opening sequence, I did not mind moving the action to the apartment building. I mean, do we always have to be in a cabin for the whole movie? Especially this far into a film series?

But if you’re even slightly a fan of this movie, you’re going to want to pick up this Arrow release, not just for the picture quality, but for the extras, where, like the blood flowing in this film, they went over-the-top. You have an audio commentary with director Cronin, and actors Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, which is highly entertaining. It was so cool to hear both Sullivan and Sutherland talking about how much fun they had during certain sequences that some actors would run away at having to do it. With the wire work Sutherland did in the elevator, or just dealing with all the blood-filled elevator that Sullivan was in, they had actually looked forward to it. Granted, the vomit sequence might not be one of Sutherland’s favorite moments, but you have to give major kudos to someone who put themselves through it for the final product. Anytime you’re watching a movie, you always have to remember what these people are having to put themselves through to make the film you’re seeing.

The extras are full of new interviews, from actors Sullivan & Sutherland, as well as Gabrielle Echols, Anna-Maree Thomas, makeup effects designer Luke Polti, editor Bryan Shaw, sound designer Peter Albrechtsen, and composer Stephen McKeon. Plenty of fun stories, with some really good insight into the making of it. There is also an interview from 2023 with director Cronin and Albrechtsen by Glenn Kiser, the director of Dolby Institute, a featurette about the film, and behind-the-scenes clips.

Director Cronin directed a film called Hole in the Ground (2019) which I would highly recommend seeking out. But this disc has a short film he made in 2013, called Ghost Train, that is really creepy. I can’t image what it cost just for the production design, but it looks incredible.

So, for a gorehound looking for something that is going to be over the top, then is simply a must have. If you’re a fan of the series, then have no fear because this chapter of it seems to have been in very good hands.