Evil Dead Rise follows the story of a family who accidently unleash bloodthirsty demons who begin an attack on their apartment by hunting down everyone in their premises. The story here which primarily takes place over one night is not quite novel in its concept. Demons and the supernatural are classic integredients of a horror flick. The trick lies in the treatment and that is where this drama works quite well. The screenplay standing at just over 90 minutes does make for a quick watch that doesn’t quite waste time in its narrative.

The drama does open with a typical premise of a slasher horror film. A group of friends vacationing in a remote location until one of them does attack and hunt down the group. This for me was a cliched start and it didn’t quite hit home by any stretch of imagination. The setting does change wherein you are introduced to the protagonist who visits her extended family. A chain of events do unleash the blood thirsty demons. I must admit that the start of the film was quite wobbly and far too convenient for my liking. Firstly, it did take some time to get to the actual conflict and it did seem like a start-stop kind of a drama to begin with, which did threaten to explode but it didn’t quite.

The complete scenario turns on its head after the first 20 odd minutes. The writers do find their groove and how! The tension that is built up in multiple scenes does make for a compelling watch. There is ample amounts of gore and blood which would make any horror cinephile undergo an orgasm. The events might again not be quite novel but the manner in which they unfold, do make them creepy and quite exciting. The survival drama doesn’t offer any respite and is always on the lookout for raising the stakes as all members of the family are impacted in some way or the other, along with the neighbours of the apartment. This kind of a no-nonsense horror film would always be a winner and Evil Dead Rise is no different.

The writing does try and explore the horror genre by trying to combine a few sub-genres. So the supernatural sub-genre is amalgamated with a zombie and body slasher sub-genre that does make for such an exciting watch. The final act too involving a shotgun and a chainsaw seems to be slightly cliched and straight out of the 1970s slasher films. Yet, it is executed so well that you just don’t seem to mind it. It is an entertaining a soul-satisfying finale act that also does well in linking the end with the opening sequence. Overall, the screenplay starts off slowly but ends up being a ripper, literally so!