Evil Dead Rise

Official Australian release date: 20/4/23. Viewed: 7/5/23.
Director: Lee Cronin
Actors: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Gabrielle Echols, Nell Fisher
Genre: Horror
Rating: R

‘Evil Dead Rise’ is not a direct sequel to the 2013 reboot, but rather a continuation of the demonic possession horror series. No real links to ‘Ash vs Evil Dead’ or Bruce Campbell, but it is produced by him and Sam Rami. It’s filmed in New Zealand, but presumably set in California. The main difference is that this is not set in a cabin in the woods, but rather an apartment building, where Ellie (Sutherland), her kids Bridget (Echols), Danny (Davies) and Kassie (Fisher) live, when their sister/aunty Beth (Sullivan) visits.

Once an earthquake leads to an unearthing of the Book of the Dead, we’re set on a familiar path of demonic possession and horrific gore and violence. While nothing particularly new, the top-level apartment setting opens up new possibilities and the young family with two strong female protagonists is a nice new take. All the actors are good, including the three kids. Soundtrack is appropriately violin-filled and on point.

There’s 12 characters in all, so enough for a good kill-count, with just enough time to get to know the family of 5 and care about them. It’s a tight 95min, so not much fluffing around, which is great. Plenty of vomiting, blood, gore, contortion and the speedy-camera-like-the-wind we’ve come to expect. Nice little nod to ‘The Shining’. While not being tongue-in-cheek, there’s definitely still some laughs and inventive deaths, but genuinely scary and gross in parts.

Overall: Really delivers on the horror to new or old fans

Gav's Rating: 4 stars

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Official Australian release date: 4/5/23. Viewed: 4/5/23.
Director: James Gunn
Actors: Chris Pratt, Bradley Cooper, Karen Gillan, Chukwudi Iwuji
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3’ is the fifth MCU trilogy to wrap up, but the difference here is that it feels like we’ve been waiting a long time, as it’s almost 9 years since the original film showed us how fun and unique a ragtag bunch of semi-superhero aliens could be. Following the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ (and, to a lesser degree, ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ and the Holiday Special), we pick up with Peter (Pratt), Rocket (Cooper), Groot (Diesel), Nebula (Gillan), Mantis (Klementieff), Drax (Bautista), Cosmo (Bakalova) and Kraglin (Gunn) when they’re attacked by Adam Warlock (Poulter) and Rocket is injured, sending them on a journey to save him.

We see a lot – maybe too much? – of Rocket’s history via flashback and how he came to be. While a lot of this is emotional and builds his characters, the other characters – including the “new” Gamora (Saldana) – somehow seem to not have as much to do, or somehow just a little off. The “bad guy” they’re out to defeat is The High Evolutionary (Iwuji), who has undefined powers, but needless to say, likes experimenting on animals trying to perfect evolution.

There’s some cameos, another good soundtrack (including a nice call-back in the mid-credits scene), top-notch CGI and some funny moments throughout. But for all the good moments, they’re almost balanced with not-quite-right parts – the melancholy version of Radiohead’s Creep that sets an odd tone, Rocket’s whole arc, the organic space station, the High Evolutionary’s mask, Gamora’s character, Warlock’s near pointlessness and the inevitable ending. It’s not that it’s bad or that they don’t work, it’s just a lot darker and less exuberant than the other two films.

Overall: Bit of a different adventure to conclude the trilogy

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars