Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Episode 386, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw
Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.
Craig: And I’m Craig.
Todd: Craig, I cannot believe that we are finally getting around to the Evil Dead franchise. ItÂ
Craig: is ridiculous. Like, we both, like, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think I can speak for us both when I say we love these movies.
Oh my
Todd: god, I know them all by heart. I know! How has it been, eight plus years, that we have managed to do it? I could have sworn that we had done the original and the sequel. The evil dead movie from 2013. And you were like, no, we haven’t Todd. And sure enough, I looked it up and couldn’t find it anywhere. We did do a mini so early on in our patron stuff,
Craig: right?
Yeah. Where we kind of glossed over the whole shebang, like. That’s so weird. I started listening to it last night, cause I, I, I, I, me too, I was like, I, I know we’ve talked about it. So I started listening to it last night, but, yeah, I, I can’t believe it either. It’s crazy, I, I honestly feel a little guilty, like, like, I’m, I’m sorry, Raimi, I’m, I’m sorry Mr.
Campbell, I, I, I love you.
Todd: It’s crazy because these are, I mean, I’m sure you share the same feeling, but these are very important movies to me. The original was a big, big, big influence in making me even want to, to try my hand at filmmaking. The second one army of darkness was huge. When we were in high school, my friends and I would quote army of darkness lines to each other all the time.
I must’ve seen each of those three foot films. I don’t know, I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen them. I love them to death, and I show them to anyone who’s never seen them before. And then I saw Evil Dead, the 2013 version. I think you had said, you know, you should check it out, it’s pretty good.
And I did, and I remembered liking that. It was gory and over the top and pretty ridiculous. It’s fine. Fetty Alvarez
Craig: directs it. Yeah, it’s a fine movie. The only thing that I didn’t like about it is, it doesn’t have The humor of the like, it’s, it’s really dark and it’s really gory. And as a standalone film, like if nobody had ever seen the other evil deads and they wanted to see a scary movie, it’s a good, scary movie.
It is. It’s scary. And the effects are great. It was a little lacking to me because it didn’t hit the humor at all because. The first one, God, we don’t have to rehash all of this, but
Todd: we should just go and do the first one that
Craig: I saw was part two and maybe that’s the reason why that one’s my favorite one.
It’s gross. And the deadites are like scary, but they’re also funny. It’s a really funny movie. And I like that. Element of it. And you know, Bruce Campbell is the heart really of this franchise or has been, you know, he’s involved in this, but he’s not really in it. I mean, technically he is in it, but you know, you don’t see his face, but like he produced it and everything.
And he is a super funny, funny guy. Yeah. And so I like that little bit of humor. The movie that we’re doing today is evil dead rice. The most recent bit. In fact, I think this came after the series, too, right? Yeah, it did. This is brand new. It is. This came out just last year,
Todd: right? Yeah, it’s pretty new. I, in fact, I didn’t realize it was already out.
To be honest with you, that’s how, how behind I am on things. I remembered hearing about it. I remembered seeing posters for it. I remembered thinking, Oh, when that comes out, I’m gonna have to check it out. And here we are a year, almost a year later. And I think it came out in April of
Craig: last year. It was originally intended to just be a streaming release.
For HBO Max, but it tested so well that it got a theatrical release, and I’m glad and I’ve got so many things in my head that I want to say I would what I was going to say was, I feel like this one does a good job of balancing the modern expectations for horror and gore. But there is still that little bit of humor in it too.
And there are so many callbacks to the other movies, but much like the other movies, I would say that this one, if you had never seen another evil dead movie, you could watch this and it would be fine. You don’t need. To know what happened in the other ones, right?
Todd: Yeah, the first three in the series, they each take place right after the events of the previous one, you know, evil dead one ends and and then the sequel basically picks up right at the end of that.
Then the third one army of darkness is what happens when Bruce Campbell’s transported at the end of evil dead
Craig: to well and into and army of darkness at the very beginning opens with a recap, right? Yeah, exactly. So you can. Jump on this train on any car.
Todd: Yeah, you really can. And I think a lot of people jumped in on army of darkness, at least in my generation, I think a lot of people ended up seeing army of darkness first.
Or the second one, like you said, cause evil dead, the first one came out like in the late seventies. And, uh, that was the one. That was Sam Raimi. This was basically almost high school kids. Yeah. These guys were super young, fresh out of high school. They had been making Super 8 movies. They were very big, like, Three Stooges type fans, and they were, they loved to do these sort of comedy movies.
And that’s really why the series Has comedy at its core and that’s why I think it’s really important tonally for at least to have some of it in there Right. It’s got to have a little bit of slapstick It’s got to have a little bit of hardy har and this movie has it Whereas the the one from 10 years ago, and I can’t believe it’s taken 10 years to see another theatrically released evil dead movie Yeah, the one from 10 years ago.
You’re right. It was just it was very solid very disturbing horror And without the comedy effect, it just didn’t have the same tone that you expect from an evil dead
Craig: movie, right? I mean, I still liked it. Like it was still a good movie. I just missed that stuff. But, and, and this one does not lean into the comedy hard.
It doesn’t no
Todd: closer to the first one in a way it’s here
Craig: and there, and there are lots of winks and nods. Fans of the franchise, like repeated lines and similar scenarios and, and things like that, so many, so many, there’s no way that we’ll remember to talk about them all. I liked that. But the other thing that I like about this one is that kind of even more so than the 2013 one, this one doesn’t pull any punches and it’s, uh, Pretty dark.
Like I went into this, you know, there’s a Cold open, which we should talk about because it’s good, but ultimately this is a movie about a single mother and her three children and you think, well, wait, they’re, I mean, they’re going to all be okay, right? No,
Todd: they’re not. There aren’t too many people to kill if, if, if they were all going to be okay anyway.
It
Craig: surprised me. This. I don’t know. Like, I guess in the first movie, everybody’s likable. You don’t want anybody to die. They’re just a bunch of innocent kids, but they’re like 20 something kids. These are like kids. Real kid, kid. Yeah. But any, yeah. Anyway, I don’t know where you want to start. I don’t know if you want to jump right into that cold open or
Todd: I think the cold open is kind of nice because it starts us off where we’re so used to the evil dead being out in the woods at a cabin and a very modern looking cabinet that it’s a giant.
A frame that I guess was just a facade for the production, but giant A frame with the woods almost bending around it the way that the, the camera lens is it’s, it’s so
Craig: cool. Well, yeah, the immediate open though, is that classic POV that is consistent through all of them where it’s just like. Some, well, I know, I don’t know how they do it now, but I know that when the Ramey’s started, like in part one and two, they strapped the camera to a two by four and then two guys stood on either side of the two by four and they just ran through the, through the forest woods and that’s what it looks like.
And you know, there’s. The sound of a fly buzzing, which I guess is, you know, consistent throughout the series also, but I also liked that this one tricks you because this is a drone. It comes in on this young, good looking couple on a dock. Like you said, cabin in the woods. But, you know, we don’t know these people, but it’s, I just like that it’s, it’s so immediate, like it tells you in the first three minutes that this is an evil dead movie.
Yeah,
Todd: exactly. It’s got all those little elements, all those little classic elements. And then the kind of ha ha wink, wink that it’s a drone, you know, which is, which is really funny. And it’s just three people. It’s, um, Teresa, Jessica and Jessica’s boyfriend, Caleb. I think it’s Caleb is piloting the drone and Teresa is, uh, standing outside there and the drone almost hits her.
And she makes a comment about how you got to be careful. You know, that almost hit me in the face. And he’s like, ah, It’s okay, it’s not like it would have taken your head off, you know, it just would have scratched your face up real bad. And then Teresa goes inside to see what Jessica is up
Craig: to. Because she’s not well.
Mm hmm. She’s checking on her because she’s
Todd: not well. And I was thinking, are they really gonna start this off that quickly? And sure enough, you know, she’s on her back, on her side in the bed, we can’t see her face. And Teresa is reading Wuthering Heights. Now, who in the world is gonna be reading Wuthering Heights on vacation?
Hands up, this guy. It’s a very nerdy
Craig: girl. I read Wuthering Heights in a boat on a lake in Minnesota. Are you serious? And I am not making that shit up.
Todd: Wow. Well, cool. So anyway, just like Craig, this girl is also reading Wuthering Heights on her vacation. And it does another callback to the first movie.
Where suddenly, as she’s reading the text, Jessica, who can’t see it at all, she’s facing the complete opposite direction, and seems to be asleep. Suddenly starts reciting the text on the page. Which is very similar to in the, in the first Evil Dead when they were playing this little game where they were flipping cards.
Guess, right, and guessing or whatever. Yeah, and that’s the first reveal of the Deadite in that one too. So anyway, long story short, she sits up on bed, she kind of rolls over on the table and uh, over onto the floor. And then, um, Teresa comes by real quick and is like, are you okay, are you okay? And she starts vomiting stuff.
And she just basically goes full on deadite and ends up taking them both out. But that also runs out, cause this is the fun thing I like about the deadites too, is like, they’re not zombies, they’re the evil dead. They’re like dead spirits, nebulous dead spirits that are brought back to life somehow, that just possess people, and then just fuck with everyone around them.
I love it. Cluding! The bodies that they’re in, right? Because they don’t care. They just like to torment people and I just love it and I love the way they look they have a very specific Look, it’s great. And she’s got it all she runs out down to the dock scares the crap out of Jacob grabs the drone And she’s holding it and it’s going and Again, and a nod to something that Jessica had said, or that Teresa had said earlier, smashes it up against her face, and I went, oh my god!
Ha ha ha! Jumps into the lake, but she’s not
Craig: dead. No, he jumps in after her, the boy friend, jumps in after her to like try to save her or whatever, but it’s like Jaws attacks him, like he gets pulled down under, and like the whole water around him turns red. Meanwhile, oh my god, she scalped her cousin by Ripping her ponytail off and so the bloody scalped cousin is on the dock and the deadite girl rises up out of the water and the meat like I don’t even remember what the score was like, but it was like a just a
Todd: swell and the title comes up around her.
Craig: Yes, it rises up the title evil dead rise rises up behind her and you can also see it reflected in the water. I thought it was fantastic.
Todd: And I can’t believe we talked so much about just this little opening scene. But to me, this just encapsulated, this set up, the fact that I knew I was going to like this movie.
Good. I was like, they got it all right. And I was like, I have very high hopes for this. And I was not disappointed. No,
Craig: it’s fantastic. And so then it cuts to black and it tells us one day earlier. Which is kind of cool. It’s kind of cool because you know that this is all going to take place over the course of one day and yeah, I loved it.
But anyway, we meet, I guess, our protagonist, Beth, who is a guitar technician who works for a band but she pees on a stick and finds out she’s pregnant. So, she goes to her sister, Ellie’s house. High rise apartment. That’s the pun of the title evil dead rise because it takes place in a high rise, right?
Which is cool. Like I was excited when I heard that they were gonna take it out of the woods I mean they they did for army of darkness, but that was all a whole
Todd: different medieval
Craig: When I was like, oh they’re gonna put it in an urban like skyrise I thought that was really clever. Ultimately, they don’t really do very much
Todd: with it.
Well, ultimately, the apartment becomes another isolated cabin in every which way, you know, ultimately they can’t get down. Nobody can get up to them. Their cell phones don’t work. They are effectively as isolated in this high rise as everyone is in the cabin in the woods. So, uh, you know, it’s, it’s kind of cool how they did that.
And then they were able to do interesting things with it, right? I’m not
Craig: complaining. I love this movie. I think that the reason that I didn’t realize that it was so new is because I’ve already watched it three times. So I, I’m not complaining. I just kind of thought when I heard that it was going to be set in a high rise, I had like gremlins two or, you know, I don’t know.
I just,
Todd: I just thought something bigger in
Craig: scope, right? Yeah. Like, Oh, this is a great playground for the evil dead. Like they can be, but whatever. Like you’re right. It’s still claustrophobic and confined because Ellie is a single mother. Her sister doesn’t know that because her sister has been not like, Listening to her messages or something.
They have a strained relationship. Whatever. But Ellie, who is played by Alyssa Sullivan. I want to make sure I mention her name because I think she’s fantastic in
Todd: this movie. Alyssa Sutherland. Yes. Oh. It’s so funny. I have seen her now three times just in the last two days. Really? Yeah. I’ve been, I’ve been watching her.
Turned on this, um, this old TV series called The Vikings because my girlfriend’s been playing this Viking game, uh, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla a lot and so then, uh, we kind of got on this Viking kick and we flipped this on and she stars in that series. I think it’s about Ten years old that series, but it’s got Gabriel Byrne in it and about eight years old I think it’s kind of interesting and then we also recently started watching the missed TV series and she’s in that too So then she popped up in here and I was like god Why is she showing up all of a sudden and everything I see but she’s got a real striking look.
Craig: She’s striking That’s exactly what I was gonna say striking.
Todd: Oh, it works so well for the dead. I’d like I
Craig: Spoiler alert! Right, okay, so she’s got these three kids. The oldest is Danny, and he’s, what, 17, I would guess?
Todd: Yeah, maybe 16,
Craig: 17, yeah. Younger sister Bridget, who seems like maybe just a year younger.
She’s a teenager too. And then, Cassie, Is the little girl and she’s little she’s so good in this too because she’s like a figurine, you know She’s like like she’s like a precious moments figurine She’s blonde haired and blue eyed and isn’t
Todd: she even in a dress? I can’t I
mean
Craig: I think she’s in a dress or like a nightgown or something.
I mean she gives me major caroline and Poltergeist one vibes, like a little precious blonde girl that like must be protected at all
Todd: costs.
Craig: Somebody should get her out of this movie.
Todd: I don’t want her
Craig: to see the things that she’s about to see. Oh my god, oh god. Okay. So I took so many notes I don’t know why I took so many notes because it’s actually really simple.
They seem like a great family They all have each other, you know, like they mess around with each other and they’re fun and the little girl has A broomstick with a weird doll’s head on the end and it’s name is Staphanie and the reason that she has it is because her older brother told her that the building used to be a bank.
And somebody greedy died there, and if they hear you walking around with change in your pockets, they’ll scare you to death so they can steal your money. So she has Staphany, so if that ghost ever confronts her, she can scare it to death with Staphany before it can scare
Todd: her to death. I’ve just gotta say that I feel like Staphany is just a little too clever for this eight year old to have made up herself, but I don’t
Craig: know, like, I thought it was It was so weird, but
Todd: so out left field.
I don’t
Craig: know. Kids come up with crazy stuff, but it was funny, but we do get that backstory that this used to be a bank. So when the two sisters have to start having like serious talks, because Ellie has to explain to Beth that her husband left and now like the building is condemned and they’re getting kicked out and they have nowhere to go, like.
It’s trouble all
Todd: around. And Beth has to explain to her that she’s pregnant.
Craig: Right. So they send the kids away to get pizza. And they have those kind of serious conversations. And it’s obvious that they love each other. It’s obvious that they’ve been through a lot. But, you know, there’s also distance, as happens with adult people, you know, like
Todd: Yeah, even when you’re family, you just Well, you’re very close to your family, actually.
You see them an awful lot. I do. My family is Gosh, you know, I can go for months, if not years sometimes, and not say a word to my sisters. And I love them to death! We all get along great. We’re all, we’re wonderful. It’s just, that’s how it is, you know, so
Craig: I get it. I live in the same town as my parents and, and so I, I usually see them at least once a week.
And I think it’s weird if I don’t hear from my sister at least every
Todd: other day. Wow. Are you
Craig: serious? Yeah. Still, I’m not the one that’s good about it. Like she reaches out to me, she texts me and calls me all the time. I called her the other day and I was like, I haven’t heard from you in like three days.
And she’s like, well, I’ve texted you a bunch and you never respond.
Todd: Well, it’s kind of the same here with with Beth too because Beth is not up to date on this whole situation with the husband leaving because Didn’t respond or even really notice or receive the two texts voicemail that Ellie had sent her.
Yeah voicemails. That’s right Well listens to voicemail anymore. Anyway, do you I don’t know if I have voicemail I wouldn’t even know I don’t listen to those things but she’s like calls her she keeps calling her a groupie because she’s a Guitar technician, but she kind of disparages her about that. Like you’re not, you’re just a groupie running around with these, these bands.
There’s a little bit of tension there, a little bit, a little bit of judgment, I suppose. I don’t know. She kind of feels like maybe Beth is on the wrong track with her life or something. They’re
Craig: sisters. Like you can, sibling relationships are complicated, right? Like, I mean, they’re, they’re as complicated, I would say, as like romantic partnerships.
Like, you know, each other so well. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. There thus ends the Dr. Phil portion of our show.
Todd: But anyway, they said, we’re not taking any more calls
Craig: guys. Didn’t they send it right? They send the kids off to get pizza and they have their serious conversation. And just as the kids get back, there’s an earthquake and the kids are in the garage and the ground opens up and when they’re, and they drop the pizza, whatever.
And Danny goes and looks down where the ground has opened up. And he’s like, Hey, it looks like an old bank vault. And it
Todd: is, and like an
Craig: idiot, like an idiot and at his sister, you know, his sister protests, he goes down in there like, bro, there are, there are likely going to be aftershocks. Do you really want to be like.
Anyway, but he has to get down there because it is an old bank vault and it’s more than that. Yeah, it also, there’s a giant crucifix that like groans as it falls over on him. And there are crosses and like Saint Benedict medals, like protection medals, like. Hanging all around a
Todd: giant like sarcophagus shaped thing in the middle like what kind of bank was this I don’t know evil one
Craig: or a good one I guess because I had all those but it was protecting like this is such one of those things in horror movies you’re like.
Get out there if I ever walk in a room that is protected by a huge crucifix and tons of hanging I am turning. Around. Yeah. I am not investigating. This is not a place that I need to be, which
Todd: just gets followed by a series of dumb choices that are very typical in horror movies to the point of parody where you, they just continue to do stupid things they shouldn’t do with mysterious artifacts that are creepy.
Craig: Yeah. Well that’s the thing. He finds a bunch of shit like. He finds a photograph of some, like, priests, like, shaking hands or something, and, and some documents that he doesn’t really look at, but he is, he, he finds a couple of vinyl albums. He’s a DJ, we didn’t mention, so he, he’s interested in these vinyl albums, which I get that, yeah, if he’s a DJ and these are albums from like, God knows when, sure, I
Todd: get it.
The 20s? I’m sure he’s really gonna make a great house mix with those 1920s photograph records. The 20s.
At least, at least he has the material to play it. Who else would have a record player in their apartment?
Craig: And then in that sarcophagus, in which there also appears to be a body that, and that doesn’t seem to bother him. He reaches in and he pulls out. What’s clearly a book like wrapped in like linen and it appears to be moving under the linen So he opens it up and all these bugs fly in his face.
Oh so many red flags, right?
Todd: Stop think about what you have Have you not seen the Evil Dead series?
Craig: But they go back upstairs, there’s a little incidental stuff where the mom is like talking to the neighbors because she is worried about the kids and I don’t know, she can’t get downstairs
Todd: or something. A neighbor brings up the cat walking around in the air vents for purposes.
We know immediately that’s going to come in later.
Craig: Obviously. I was hoping we would get to see a, uh, deadite cat. I know
Todd: I was don’t very
Craig: disappointed me too, but then the kids get back up there and there, you know, it’s everything’s fine, whatever the mom has to go do laundry and Danny starts playing those records.
They won’t play at either of the speeds that the record player will play them at either of the RPMs. And so. He has to, like, physically spin it with his finger, but when he does that, then it starts playing through the speaker system, and the first one he plays, that’s like a conference, right? I would like to present what I believe to be one of the three fabled volumes of Naturum De Monta.
The book Of the dead My tests today have revealed that its bindings are made of pure human flesh It’s passages and etchings inked in blood I seek church approval to translate the spiritual mysteries. It’s pages undoubtedly home Called the book of
Todd: the dead for a reason that was
Craig: bruce campbell That line that you just said, that was Bruce Campbell.
That’s his only appearance in this movie, as far as I know. Right, destroy it, destroy it. By the way,
Todd: I was gritting from ear to ear. Cause this is the series like, hallmark, right? Oh, it’s, yeah, it’s fantastic. There’s always the evil book. And then it always is a recording of somebody. I’ve just discovered this book.
It appears to be the book of the dead. Now, let me read out loud and record from the passages in the first page. I was so happy to see this. Yeah, it
Craig: was a really clever way of doing it because, like, in the original two, at least, It’s like a reel to reel recording. Yeah. So, when it starts up, it starts like, Rrrrraaawww, that’s a little lag, and then it comes, and they, they recreate that here with the vinyl.
It’s, it’s really clever. And then he starts playing. The second one and the priest is like, even though they said I shouldn’t do anything with it. I’m going to anyway. So now I’m going to read from it
Todd: for an incantation that appears to be able to summon demonic entities like he literally says that out loud.
He knows what he’s reading before he reads it. Yeah, it’s funny and
Craig: he starts to read it and strange things start happening and Danny tries to stop like he takes his finger off it, but it keeps playing any. He tries to turn off the record player, but it, it just keeps going. And like the, the pages of the, I guess the wind is blowing in the apartment and the pages of the book are flapping.
Meanwhile, his mother is getting into the elevator with her laundry, and all of a sudden. As this incantation is going on, we see the evil dead POV. I don’t know what else to call it. It’s like the, the spirit POV or whatever. And it’s racing and it ends up slamming into her, slamming her back into the elevator so that we can have Yeah.
The evil dead tree rape scene. Yeah. Even though there’s no raping in this one, which, which I’m, I’m, I’m, no, I’m, I’m glad.
Todd: No, I’m okay with it. I was waiting for it. I’m okay. It’s not there, but
Craig: it is a great homage to, that happens in at least the first, at least the first two, something like.
Todd: It’s one of the most shocking and out of left field scenes in the first movie, because it just happens and then it’s done.
And you’re like, did I just see what I thought I saw? And then it’s never spoken of, you know? And then the other ones, I think people similarly get twisted up with vines and stuff like in the woods and whatnot, but they’re not the one shooting between the legs, like in that first one, but it’s a great homage.
Like you said it more, more than anything, it seems to just like twist her limbs in all directions and maybe even break them
Craig: like with, uh, I’m not, yeah,
Todd: it’s like hanging electrical bits from the elevator because it’s kind of broken because, eh, whatever, but it contorts
Craig: her all. I mean, it’s, it’s beautifully shot.
I mean, it’s, it’s so well, it’s, it’s an amazing scene and it, it contorts her, her, her limbs are, and her neck are all bound. By these wires like thick cords and it’s just moving her around like a marionette and in very like seemingly torturous Positions it just beats the shit out of her for a while. Yeah, even before it pulls her
Todd: up Like it’s like an invisible force like
Craig: a ghost is like punching her.
Mm hmm. So she’s all beat up She goes through this terrible ordeal. It’s very violent. I didn’t notice I should have, I don’t know why I didn’t, but her arms are all tattooed with vines, that’s also an homage, uh, to this. I didn’t notice that either. And that, that’s before she was even attacked, like that’s just part of her character.
So then, She goes back home, but she’s a Deadite now. She walks with a very strange posture, I assume because she’s at least partially broken. But eventually, she’s also, I mean, she’s like an evil demon. She’s a Deadite. I know, listeners, I know you know what I’m talking about. It’s, it’s a distinctive look.
It’s, it’s not like a zombie. It’s, it’s more like a supernatural demon or something, just kind of inhabiting It can do unnatural things. It can move in unnatural ways and float
Todd: and yeah, right. Smile extremely wide and all kinds of crazy stuff. That’s why
Craig: I wanted to mention that actress because she is fantastic.
Like, she was very sympathetic as a character before. Like, she’s this tough, single mother who is really fighting for her family. They live in kind of a slummy, condemned building. These are people who are struggling, but they are a tight family. And, and very easy to root for, and so she’s already sympathetic, and now, for the rest of the movie, she is this deadite, and she plays it so
Todd: well.
She has a lot to do for the rest of the movie. A lot. A lot. She’s kind of, ultimately, the main force against them. I mean, there are gonna be other deadites, but like, she’s constantly there, and she’s the ever present threat, and, you know, up to the very end. She’s terrifying. It is terrifying. She just walks in, stumbles in, and you know what?
As a kid, and seeing your mother just off, you know, even seeing your mom sick, you know, that’s a little scary. I know, uh. Huh, and though, so to see her just suddenly come in and she just more or less, like you said, stumbles into the kitchen in this unnatural walk, slowly starts cracking eggs just by throwing them in a pan, like she’s making them breakfast.
Muttering and mumbling and I think the idea here is that she’s still a little bit there.
Craig: I guess like the real her Has one last gasp It’s in me
Don’t let it take my babies God like oh You watched this just for the first time for this right? What were you thinking at this point? Oh my god. I was thinking There’s no way they’re gonna kill these kids. There’s just
Todd: no way. There’s just no way. I always thought, there’s no way they’re gonna kill the youngest kid.
I feel like teenagers are always fair game in a horror movie. Even these cute ones, you know, that seem really nice and sweet. I guess,
Craig: but usually, not always, but usually They’re the heroes. Well, there’s, you know, there’s like They get killed, but there’s something they shouldn’t have been doing, you know?
And, and in this one, I guess you could justify the brother, like the sister, the middle sister. He, when he opened the book, which was also a cool scene, the, the book is, has like teeth in this one. Mm hmm. And when he tries to open it, he cuts himself and it bleeds on the cover and the blood seeps in. Of course, they don’t see any of this, but then the book opens and they look at it and it’s typical Necronomicon stuff, but the sister’s like, I don’t like it.
Get rid of it. He says, Well, mom is not gonna let us leave the apartment tonight. ’cause of the earthquake. Yeah. Um, she’s like, okay, but get rid of it first thing and then he still plays the records or whatever. I guess you could say if he were to get killed, he brought it on himself, but nobody else did
Todd: But that’s how this works. ,
Craig: even the original, I know it’s the evil dead. The evil dead don’t care.
Todd: Like that’s what sets the series apart really. It doesn’t follow that convention. Now that I’ve. Completely think about it where it doesn’t set up these bad teenagers who are even doing things like, Oh my God, having sex or, Oh, doing drugs, right?
Not that bad. But anyway, it gives them some kind of moral reason to go. I don’t think the series follows that rule at all. Just it just doesn’t care like the evil dead. They get everybody.
Craig: Well, yeah. And the television series, yeah. Doesn’t either like They’ll kill who whoever Kid dead ites, whatever like they don’t care
Todd: either Danny lives with tremendous guilt after this that he was the one who might have caused this or he’s pretty convinced He’s the one who caused it and he is yes
Craig: Mean to do it, but seriously like don’t mess with Evil relics.
It’s never
Todd: good. The warning signs were there. Yeah, right? I mean, come on. Okay, alright. So anyway, a couple of the neighbors come over to help because she’s just, they just think she’s dead, but she looks very strange and they comment on that and they lay her in the bed and there’s a bunch of little creepiness where, you know, they try to close, they close her eyes and then her eyes spring back open again.
There’s even a call out to the first movie, where there’s a close up on her eyes, and then they look left. You know, she’s supposed to be dead. But then, she kind of wakes up. So there’s these neighbors, uh, one guy is from across the street, across the hall, and the other dude is a kind of an older man with a beard and a gun, kind of a good old boy type guy, but It
Craig: doesn’t really matter.
They just need to establish that there are other
Todd: people there. They’re like the only other people in this entire building. It’s kind of insane.
Craig: Well It’s being condemned, and they only, she only has like a week to get out, so I assume that everybody else has just already left. Yeah, I guess it’s Or most everybody, there are
Todd: a few There’s a comment about that, isn’t there?
But
Craig: yeah, you’re right, like, before, when Beth still thinks Ellie is dead, she’s like, talking to her, and she’s like, Uh, you were always the one that fixed things, and blah, blah, blah. And then Ellie starts talking to her through Beth’s phone. Yeah. Like it starts out the messages that she had left, but then it’s like, Beth, help me, I’m burning alive.
And then she wakes up and she’s alive again. And she’s like her temperature, like she’s burning up. So they put her in the tub. And when I say they, I mean, Beth and the children put her in the tub and she convulses and then jumps. Up to the ceiling where she suspends herself from the ceiling and stares at Bridget and screams so loud that the kids and Beth have to cover their ears and everybody else in the building can hear it.
Yeah,
Todd: breaks glass and all that
Craig: stuff. Right. And then she just stops and falls back into the tub. And then she like, comes, her face comes up like just a little bit over the tub, like looking at them. Oh, mummies
Todd: with the maggots now.
Craig: I think they used that in the trailer. This, but this just like it’s scary for what it is that I think are very scary because yeah, they’re sadistic and and they take pleasure in tormenting people and torturing them and that’s that’s creepy, but it’s tenfold creepy that Cassie is maybe what, like seven.
Maybe not even maybe like five.
Todd: She could be six or seven easily. Yeah, she’s about my son thing She’s this
Craig: tiny little child and she’s seeing this is her mother. Yeah Oh my god, it is an absolute nightmare The mom crawls towards them and stabs Beth through the hand and oh
Todd: god, that was painful Yeah,
Craig: well I’ll allow it.
Not the most painful. I’ll allow it because it’s an evil dead movie, but like, it’s just one of those things, like, she gets totally stabbed through the hand and then she just wraps it up and then tapes it. And she’s
Todd: fine. Right? She can even kind of use it.
Craig: Yeah. For the rest of the show. She’s fine. And the mom, this goes on for a long time, like, the mom just kind of torments them.
She jumps on Bridget. She talks to Bridget in her, like, the actual mom voice. And Bridget says, what, what’s happened to you? And she says, I’m free now free from all you titty sucking parasites.
Todd: And then a taxer, there’s a drill. What is that? I think it was a tattoo needle. Oh, okay. I thought, why did they have like dental equipment in here?
Craig: I, maybe, maybe Ellie is a tattoo artist.
Todd: Oh, I think you’re right. Somebody is. Yeah, you’re right. She, she basically ends up nicking her on the cheek before a neighbor walks in at the most inopportune time. So she takes her attention off of Bridget and lunges onto the neighbor out of the hallway and then takes what looks like a giant bite out of his face.
And when she pulls away, you can see that she has bitten his eye out. Yeah. I have never seen that in a movie until now. I just have to feel like they were sitting around just writing like, all right guys, what just hasn’t been done yet? Cause we’re just going to put it all in this movie. But then,
Craig: but then she like chokes on it.
And coughs it up and it flies into somebody
Todd: else’s mouth. Yeah, which is exactly like what happens in the second movie when they’re squeezing the, the, the giant demon and it flies, Except in that movie, when the eyeball pops out of the demon’s mouth and flies into one of the gal’s mouths in there, I think that causes her to be possessed too, and it didn’t seem to have that effect this time.
Well, it
Craig: flies into one of the neighbor’s mouths, I don’t know if that’s, uh, what causes, cause, So, they, they take, the family takes advantage of this situation and locks the mom out. Yes. And so, the mom is out there and we see through the, uh, what’s that called? The peephole. The
Todd: peephole. Ugh.
Craig: You see through the peephole, it’s like the mom just slaughters everybody else in the
Todd: hallway.
It’s like watching TV. All they can do is watch through the peephole as mom is putting on this performance of slaughter in front of them. It’s It’s funny, actually. And it also, it’s, you know, there’s so much of Raimi’s style in this movie. Yes. With the quick zooming in and the quick dolly shots and the interesting angles and this is classic Raimi.
Through that peephole, it’s all distorted and, oh, it’s
Craig: so good. It is great. And, and like you see some of it and you don’t see some of it because you only have the perspective of the peephole. And at one point, The mom is standing in front of the people and you hear a gunshot and she flies out of frame somebody the the big guy the guy that you mentioned before the white hair guy shot her with a rifle, but she’s not dead and she jumps up and she kills him too so now the.
Hallway is littered with like three bodies, and the mom is locked in the hall, and she keeps trying to get back in, but Bridget blames Danny, she says it was the book, Beth’s like, what are you talking about, and Danny’s like, I have to show you something. So they go off together, and so that leaves Cassie and Bridget.
And Cassie asked Bridget if she’s okay because she’s acting a little weird and she goes into the kitchen and I had kind of forgotten about this but like when you get injured in the world of the evil dead like if they bite you or they scratch you You can, you don’t always, but you can become infected with evil.
Todd: It’s an evil infection.
Craig: And you know, ashes hand gets demon infected. And so he has to chop it off before it spreads to the rest. And so, you know, that’s how people sometimes turn into dead And while Danny is Showing Beth the book and the records and stuff. Bridget is in the kitchen turning into a deadite and it’s super gross.
And I felt bad. Like one of the things that I liked about this movie so much was that these were really sympathetic characters. I cared about this whole family. They were decent. Kinds. Equal.
Todd: They didn’t
Craig: deserve this. They weren’t asking for
Todd: it. One bit of premarital sex. No, they weren’t
Craig: asking for it, they were just minding their own business at home and the ground had to open up and reveal.
Evil. Ugh, that was a bummer. But man, that scene was gross
Todd: though, right? Oh god, it was so gross. I like too that they kept a little bit of the original Evil Dead with the, with that kind of those black veiny cracks showing up around the, around the face. I was like, you know, they didn’t have to do that. They didn’t have to.
Slip in all of these actual, you know, they’re doing a new movie They can do whatever or the but the the attention to that level of detail But was just great and such fan service. I loved it Yeah, she turns at the same time that this is happening in there Cassie is getting called by the mother in the mother’s voice because it’s something else the deadites do Yeah, they’ll try to trick you by taking the voice of the victim like what’s wrong with you mom
Craig: I was just feeling sad about me and your dad You But he’s here now, he came home to see us, we’re getting back together, we love each other.
Isn’t
Todd: that right, my darling? Now, if you were Cassie, I don’t care how young you are, and you’re looking through that peephole. And you’re seeing your mom look like she does. I don’t think I’d be able to look at her, let alone believe her to open the
Craig: door. Interesting choice there too, because in the previous movies, the Deadites have the ability to make themselves look like the person.
Yeah, like not to flip right back, right? Not to turn off the evil look. Right, right. And they don’t do that here, which is fine. It’s just as much as they do and you say it’s, it’s fan service. I do think it is, but I also can, I can only imagine that Lee Cronin, the writer director of this movie is a huge fan.
And if you’re a huge
Todd: fan, you try to keep it consistent.
Craig: Well, you want to do it right. You know, you want to, I don’t know. I, I also understand wanting to go in different directions and things like that, but. I don’t know. This feels like a love letter to the franchise.
Todd: Yeah, and I also read, because there’s a lot of turmoil as far as like, were they going to do a second Army of Darkness, were they not?
At one point they were, then that kind of ended up being the TV series. And then this movie, you know, there was going to be a sequel to the 2013 Evil Dead and that didn’t turn out. So then there’s this movie. The Raimi and Campbell and Robert Taper, the producer, have all been involved in all these efforts from the very beginning.
And I was, I was kind of surprised to hear that Bruce Campbell fairly recently, I think, or as recently as last year, said there are probably going to be more of these movies coming out, probably every two to three years. And Raimi and Tappert are working right now on a series bible, writing down the established rules and all that stuff and the timelines and where this can go to guide people in the future.
And I thought, I’m surprised they haven’t done that already, but it’s cool, right? Like, they all care, they want to keep it consistent, and not apparently go off in a wild nude. I guess the whole reason I’m talking about this is we’ve seen so many remakes and redos and reboots that just totally trash.
Everything, they’re trying to be original, you know, and trying to be clever, which, a certain extent of that is okay, but you still want some consistency, and at least the basic rules and the, I don’t know, the visual language and stuff of, of what you love about so many movies that came before. They’re gonna do it, apparently.
They’re gonna make sure. And
Craig: I think that Campbell’s probably right. You know, these will keep happening. This
Todd: one was massively successful.
Craig: So yeah, well, I mean, it’s I’m not surprised that they decided to put it in theaters because it tested. Well, I’m not surprised it tested. Well, especially for fans of the franchise.
I think it’s great. I think it’s fantastic. But you know, what’s her name? Bridgette Bridgette’s transformation is disgusting. She like blood, like black, gross blood bleeds out of every come out of her eyes and her nose and her mouth and her ears. And then she vomits blood. And then the ant finds God, how did they even
Todd: do that?
Right? I don’t know. Cause most of this movie was practical effects. They had very little CGI in this whole thing, which is kind of
Craig: crazy. Well, and it looks fantastic. And she, she pukes up like maggots or something. And then the aunt finds her eating a wine glass. And she says something like, I got to kill the creepy crawlies that I got inside my tummy.
And then she taunts Beth about. Her pregnancy. Beth hasn’t told anybody she’s pregnant. No. And then she attacks Beth and they’re like, I think one of the famous, most famous bits from this movie is the cheese grater. Oh
Todd: God. She
Craig: takes a cheese grater to Beth’s leg and that I can’t believe I don’t recall ever seeing that in a horror movie before.
And I can’t believe I haven’t because that is one of the most nightmarish things I can imagine. Oh,
Todd: ho, ho, ho. Oddly enough, right? I literally screamed out loud, Not the cheese grater! To which Liz turned and looked at me and just busted out laughing. It’s like, you actually said out loud, not the cheese grater.
Had she seen it before? No,
Craig: she hadn’t. Is she a fan
Todd: of the franchise? She is a fan. I don’t know if she’s seen all of them, but she’s seen the first one. We watched the 2013 one together at one point, and so yeah. But, I think It’s so weird. This is the goriest movie with so much gross and insane stuff happening, and I think that bothered me the most.
Oh,
Craig: it’s visceral, because you can, you can imagine, like, that, yeah, that’s even more upsetting than right next. Chainsaw in the head. Well, and Cassie, Cassie, this small child, now, it’s not even intentional, it’s inadvertent, the, uh, her sister, Attacks her and she just holds up Stephanie, Stephanie impales Bridget through the head right through the mouth.
Yeah, right. She’s dead, but when you’re a dead, you’re not really dead. You’re only dead for a while, but so she comes back later, but it’s like little things like the little girl says. This is a nightmare. It’s just like a nightmare. This is what happened to Bridget. Mom gonna have to us. I’m not gonna let that happen.
I promise.
You’d be a good mom someday, honey pie.
Oh, yeah? Yeah. You know how to lie to kids. Oh my god!
Todd: Like,
Craig: what are you doing, Evil Dead movie? Stop
Todd: it! I am not gonna cry in this Evil Dead movie. It’s interesting though, because that seems to like, almost solidify Beth. It’s almost like at this moment, at least how I interpreted it, Beth makes this decision that she wants this baby, and that she’s gonna keep this baby, And now, she needs to be a good mother and protect this baby, and, you know, this, I don’t know, maybe it was just me, but that was like, my feeling, that that’s how, suddenly she snaps and she says, I’m gonna save
Craig: us all.
She, Beth, and Cassie, are Ripley and Newt. Oh, yeah. She is gonna protect this kid.
Todd: Right. So she decides she needs to listen to the third record to understand. She’s like, look, if these things told you how to do it, maybe their third record is going to show us how to end this absolutely not. It’s just, it’s just listening to the priest recording himself despairing about how nothing kills these things, which is funny because in the first movie, uh, or is it the second one?
I can’t remember. They talk about the only thing that will stop these guys is total bodily dismemberment. And in this one, he says, even dismemberment doesn’t work. Every little piece of them will come hunting you down. So, yeah. Yeah, I mean That was different. That was a little different, if I recall, right?
I’ve pretty I seem to remember Oh, no, it’s not true. I seem to remember beheading them, killed them, but no, because no, in the first movie, their heads can
Craig: stay alive
Todd: and talk. Mm hmm. There’s all kinds of comedy with headless bodies
Craig: running around. Well, and Ash’s girlfriend’s head in that vice, talking to him and taunting him.
Mm hmm. But, eventually, The mom gets the idea from the cat to go through the vents, and she gets in and gets in behind Beth while she’s listening to the records, and the sister, who they’ve already killed and tied up in blankets, but she comes back to life and, and attacks. And she stabs the brother in the arm a couple times, so you know he’s done for.
Right in the bicep, Jesus. I know, ugh! The mom attacks Beth, the sister, but while all of this fighting is going on, Cassie is hiding under the couch, and at one point she slides scissors to her aunt so that she can stab the mom. Up through the head with the scissors. There’s a lot of up through the mouth stabbing
Todd: there is.
I guess this is the most brutal. I thought Ellie for sure was going to rip the fetus out of out of Beth. It was so close. She’s on top of her and she’s got her hand down there and she starts to dig her nails. And she
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