Evil Dead: Rise is the newest instalment in the Evil Dead franchise. Now removed from the typical environment of the countryside, we follow a family in a run-down building. Corrupted by the Necronomicon, a mother turns on her family and a desperate scramble for survival begins

 

Evil Dead: Rise, a review.

    Evil Dead Rise is the newest entry into the franchise, and it has much to live up to. Changing up the placement of events from previous films, the series not so much, and we have new dangers to contend with. The family dynamic adds a vital element of threat, as the mother figure is corrupted to become the danger the children must be protected from. Being an Evil Dead film means that people die, and often in a gruesome manner. Thankfully, this film keeps to the usual visceral scenes and racks up the intensity as the movie plays out. The leads of this film are the sisters Beth and Ellie, played by Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland. With Ellie possessed by a dark spirit, it is up to Beth to protect the children from what had been their mother.

    This film has an opening set with a trio of characters outside the main story. Out in the countryside in a cabin by the lake, events reminiscent of earlier entries unfold, with blood and mayhem ensuing. The film then shifts to one day earlier, to a rough-looking lady's toilet in a bar or club. Here, we meet Beth. Our heroine-to-be uses a pregnancy test while dealing with problems for the band she works for. The result is not to her liking. Now, facing this daunting life change, Beth decides to see her sister. Travelling across the country Beth arrives at the building where Ellie and her children live, and we have the stage for where this drama will play out. And that fact works in the film's favour. Keeping the action in an enclosed space gives the film a sense of claustrophobia, as the family cannot escape easily from that which hunts them. We get a brief overview of the family situation and the relationship between the sisters before events take a dire turn. Inevitably, the book is found, and phrases are recited, bringing dark forces into our world. And this is where the fun begins.

    For those who have watched any of the previous entries, what comes is just what you would expect: blood, gore, and crazed antics. The formula is a familiar one that continues to work well when used here. The formula works particularly well here because of the family dynamic. We are inherently more drawn into a situation when children are at risk. With a demon-possessed mother on the loose, it is up to her sister to protect them from the thing that used to be their mother. Things do not go well, and soon it is only Beth and Kassie that are left fighting for their lives. The tension is maintained well throughout, with the threats growing as time passes, and we get to see the true horror of what Ellie has become. Making it to the building's parking, the pair are drawn into a final conflict with this horror, and Beth is forced to battle it to save Kassie.

    The film is an obvious choice for any fan of the original films, or the 2013 remake. It keeps true to the original lore, with callbacks to the previous entries, and never lets up once the action gets started. I found the acting to be decent by all parties, though Alyssa Sutherland stands out as the twisted version of Ellie, and enjoyed watching them attempt to survive this madness. The film's ending does explain how the opening fits into the narrative, and I was left hoping we might one day get to see where that leads. Evil Dead: Rise is an 8 out of 10, in my opinion. It has all the gore of the earlier entries with solid performances and enough new material to separate it from what came before. I can't wait for the next entry, and I just hope it comes sooner than this film did.

Barbarian, the movie review. A good film with a familiar premise, though a different play through than I expected. Also a different role than I had seen Justin Long in before.

 

Barbarian, a review.

    I was unsure what to make of this movie at first. It opens slowly, centring around Tess sitting in her car after pulling up to a house in the rain. She gets out and attempts to get the key out of the lockbox, only to find it is not there. The place looks empty, and she phones the company she had made the booking with, hurrying back to her car in the meantime. At this time, a light comes on in the house, and Tess rushes back to knock on the door. It is opened by a very tired-looking man with a confused expression. The two talk back and forth, and it is swiftly discovered that the booking company for the house has double-booked them. From there on, the pair work out a deal, Keith offering her the option to stay there and take the bedroom. Reluctantly, at first, Tess takes the deal. The pair soon begin talking, and the initial tension between them fades. Eventually, they retire for the night, and we get our first inkling that something isn't right at this house. Tess wakes up in the night to find her door open. She is obviously nervous, and moving across the room, finds Keith asleep on the sofa. As she moves to him quietly, we see something move behind her and a door close at the end of the corridor. This is the first sign of something suspicious going on in this building. Tess wakes Keith, and he is obviously startled. After questioning him, Tess returns to bed, and we flash forward to her waking in the morning.

    Both of them head off to their respective days. Tess head's to her interview, and we see her do well. So well that it looks as though she has the job in the bag. However, when she mentions where she is staying, her new employer seems surprised and unsettled by the information. This is another hint that something is odd about the house and the area. Tess returns to the house and begins looking around, ending up in the basement. She ends up being trapped inside after the door closes behind her. This leads to her investigating and discovering a secret door. A door that leads to another room, a room with a bed, a bucket, and a camera in it. Tess is obviously freaked out by this and returns to the basement proper, looking for a way out. Keith returns at this moment, looking for the key she was supposed to leave for him, and she manages to get his attention. Together, they open the basement window, and Tess passes the key to Keith. He comes to a panicked Tess, and after a few moments, he leaves to investigate this room. Tess waits and then calls to him, he doesn't answer, and she goes to look for him. He isn't in the room, and Tess looks about in confusion, finding yet another door. A door leads to stairs that lead down into darkness. She calls to Keith, and he shouts back, his voice distant and scared. Stumbling through the tunnels, she finds him hurt moments before a woman comes out of the dark and brutally murders him. Then the film flashes to our next protagonist. 

    Justin Long plays AJ. A Hollywood type enjoying his drive until he gets a phone call. And things are about to take a bad turn for him. And it turns out in the long run that he probably deserves everything that happens to him. I've always enjoyed Justin long, as an actor, but this character is one of the sleeziest that he has ever played. AJ is not a good person, but he believes that he is, to such a degree that he cannot see how he treats others.And it will be his downfall. After his new series drops him, and accusations are made against him, he has to liquidate his assets. It turns out that the house Tess and Keith were staying in is owned by AJ. This leads Aj to the house and what awaits him there within. He finds what Tess did before him, and like her he wanders into the dark below the house. Also like her things do not go well for him. 

    The tunnels below the house lead to roughly carved out room and worse. The woman is living in this space and treating her new guests like they are her babies. She even tries to feed them, until Aj freaks out, leaving Tess still trapped in her cage. Until she manages to free herself and the two of them attempt to flee the tunnels separately. We get a flash back to this space to another time, looking to be the 70's by the clothes and cars on display. A man leaves the house that Tess and AJ are below in the future, heading off in a car. We see him buy things for a new born and then stalk a woman, dressing up a gas man and lying to get into her house. After leaving a window unlocked he leaves and returns to the house, and then down to the basement. In the present Aj and Tess aren't doing so well but they manage to escape the house, helped by a homeless man. With Tess hurt they listen to the man's story of what happened to the area, and what led to this woman being born. Moments before she bursts into their place of safety and kills the old man. Fleeing the pair find themselves atop a water tower, where AJ throws Tess off the tower in an attempt to save himself. The woman jumps off the tower after her, managing to catch her though it looks as though she dies in the effort. Of course that isn't the case and Aj finds that out just before he meets a grizzly end. 

    This is a strange and intense film. It gets its hooks into you and doesn't let go. The performances are good, the 'creature' oddly sad and horrifying, and the overall story grim but interesting. I enjoyed it immensely and would recommend it to any fan of horror. I rate it 8 out of ten, and would watch again. 

The Changeling by Victor LaValle. A story around parenthood, the fantastical, and the events of childhood that follow us our entire lives.

 

The Changeling by Victor Lavalle, a review

 

    I had only read The Ballad of Black Tom by Lavalle previously but it made quite an impression. I went into this book hopeful that it would do the same. Thankfully it proved to be the case. This is not a happy tale, it has moments in it that are heartbreaking and it doesn't shy away from its central themes. Having grown up with fairy tales being prevalent in my country of birth, I went in expecting certain events to unfold in a particular fashion. To my surprise, Lavalle took the story in a direction I did not see coming. That made the story better, in my opinion. Certain events within the story are easy to foresee unfolding but take nothing away from the overall impact of the story.  Apollo Kagwa is a highly believable character, no matter where the story goes, no matter how fantastical, it feels real because of how he interacts with it and the general strangeness of it all.

    The story actually starts with the parents of Apollo Kagwa, telling the tale of their meeting and eventual relationship that then leads to the birth of Apollo. I wasn't sure if this was of much import, but it plays into the story at a much later point. We then get to see the family together for a time, happy in the birth of their son, but it doesn't last for long. The story then jumps to Apollo as a boy, an avid reader, and a smart child. Apollo is haunted by a dream of his missing father coming to take him away, a dream that haunts him throughout his entire life. This dream proves to be something more, but Apollo won't discover that until adulthood. Apollo is an intelligent child, hungry for books, and it turns out quite a shrewd businessman. This love of books, and an ability to turn a profit, leads to his eventual profession and plays into how he meets his wife, Emma. The story does a great job of fleshing out Apollo's character, of making him feel real. He is interesting but flawed. Much of this story is of every day, of a simple but, mostly, happy life. The story shows Apollo growing up, meeting and marrying Emma, and the arrival of their son. Apollo and Emma name the child after Apollo's father, Brian. Apollo and Emma are beset with the typical problems of raising a newborn, exhaustion and lack of sleep soon set in as they go about the day-to-day. Apollo is desperate to be a different kind of father than he experienced, doing everything without any point of reference, eager to show off his child and his commitment to him. At first, everything goes well, but soon Emma begins to take a downwards turn. She seems to be wasting away, and her sister takes her out in the hopes of getting her to open up. It's here that we learn some of Emma's backstory, of the death of her parents and the strangeness surrounding their demise. It is a gruesome and tragic tale, haunting in its quality. After Kim's tale, Emma admits that she doesn't think that Brian is her child. This is the first warning we get of Emma's mental state. Apollo doesn't realize the depth of her thinking, of what she is going through, and continues to post pictures of Brian as he takes the child with him everywhere. He doesn't see the inevitable coming, not until he is bound to a chair in his kitchen and his wife does the unthinkable.

    We meet Apollo months later, healed from the injuries inflicted upon him by his wife but broken by the death of his son. Apollo had spent most of those months in prison after an incident with his wife's prior work colleagues. At this point in the story, Emma is missing, and Apollo has no love left for the woman who killed their son. He is at rock bottom, getting his things in order, and reluctant to return to his home. This is a man on the brink, so close to the edge that he isn't sure of his actions and intentions. In a move to release another hold on his life, he hands a book to his friend Patrice, one he had been saving to sell at a later point. This book is a rare edition of To Kill a MockingBird and worth a considerable amount of money. It is a move that is relinquishing hold on life, Apollo is near suicide, and only the timely arrival of his mother keeps him from doing something foolish.  She tells him of his father, of how they had grown apart. It is revealed that Lillian was going to divorce Brian. Apollo doesn't handle this news well. As the story continues Apollo begins to get strange texts, one of which states that Emma is still alive. Thus begins the spiral into a bizarre version of New York. This New York has witches in it, glamour, magic, and women that had killed their children, children that weren't actually their children. There are monsters too, some like those in fantasy stories and ones that look like people. Apollo is dragged further into this strange world, searching for his missing wife, and in time his son. This is a well-told fairy tale for the modern world. Eventually, Apollo is led to his wife, but she is no longer the woman he knew. Things just get stranger from there.

    This is a well-written book. It gets its hooks into you and never let's go. It shouldn't work as well as it does. It isn't action-packed or sinister in its telling, but something in the way it is told keeps you reading. Apollo works fantastically as the protagonist, flawed enough to be believable and yet compelling enough that you want to see how his journey unfolds. More than anything, it is the theme of parenthood, the failings of our parents, and how they shape us, that take center stage in this book. It looks at how one generation's actions shape the next. How the resulting overcompensation can lead to disaster. There are other themes at play, but these are at the core of the book. LaValle is a fantastic author with a grasp of language that enriches his work. After this book, I intend to search out more of his works. 

    I give this book an easy 9 out of 10. I would recommend this book to any reader, not just of the three genres that I enjoy so much. It is one that I simply couldn't put down, and I barely registered time passing as I moved from one chapter to the next. LaValle is a talent that anyone should keep their eye on.