In the Spring of 2023, The Movie Sleuth’s editor-in-chief
and founder Christopher George saw Irish The Hole in the Ground writer-director
Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, ostensibly the fifth film in Sam Raimi and
Bob Tapert’s Evil Dead franchise.
Originally a Michigan based collegiate indie beginning in 1978 with Within
the Woods followed by the feature 1981 film with The Evil Dead that
spawned two sequels Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness directed by
Raimi starring Bruce Campbell as a hapless idiot battling demonic dead-ites set
free upon the world via the ancient text Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the
series was such that like the entities themselves they simply won’t die without
a fight. In 2013 a big-budget reboot by
future Alien Romulus director Fede Alvarez came about followed by a
Starz limited event series Ash vs. Evil Dead which brought Campbell back
into the proceedings.
While the show ended in 2018 and the future of the Evil
Dead franchise seemed uncertain with Campbell going on the record saying he
was done with Ash, Warner Brothers and New Line Cinema who originally
distributed The Evil Dead in the United States teamed up for what was
shaping up to be a made-for-streaming sequel film for the HBO Max platform
entitled Evil Dead Rise.
Something of a companion piece to Demons 2 by way of [*REC]
for its claustrophobic apartment setting and its leanings towards grisly makeup
and gore effects, the film was shot in New Zealand and after undergoing test
screenings, Warner Brothers decided to bump the streamer up to a full-blown
theatrical release. The result, much
like Lionsgate’s decision to reroute the straight-to-video Saw to
theaters thereby spawning an entire ongoing franchise, more than paid off as it
to date became the highest crossing Evil Dead film in the franchise
taking in $147 million against its meager $20 million budget.
Warner Brothers released the film on streaming, Blu-ray and
4K disc platforms a few months later as part of the new push to move films out
of theaters before people have a chance to see them without rushing. While a fully digital workflow production
where the digital data and audio streams have been ported over successfully to
the disc releases, the studio declined to include one thing of any sort in the
way of extras. Bare bones despite a
hefty price tag, the disc releases that came out from the studio only included
the film and nothing besides.
Arrow
Video, well aware of this, sought to fill in the gaps with what is more or less
their new limited 4K special edition director-approved release which comes with
so many extras it is more than a little staggering. Featuring interviews with nearly all of the
cast members, featuring an audio commentary with the director and his two lead
actresses, interviews with the makeup effects artists and editor and featuring
an extensive breakdown of the film’s Dolby Atmos sound design by the head of
the Dolby Institute and including a collector’s booklet, reversible poster and
sleeve art and a collectible slipcover, Arrow Video has gone above and beyond
all out on this spectacular release.
Yes technically it is a double dip and the audio and video
contents are identical to the Warner disc, but this set even includes a short
film by the director Ghost Train from 2013 and further has tons of
conceptual artwork and storyboards included.
Really, you are rebuying this for the comprehensive extras. Those who already own the previous Warner
disc and don’t really care about bonus features should be fine with what they
have, but for those like myself who still don’t own this will likely want to go
for the Arrow as it is undoubtedly the definitive home video release. For a movie that did well but was dumped on
disc with little attention from the studio, it is a minor cause for celebration
that Arrow Video have swooped in and delivered such a deluxe limited edition of
the latest and still the most commercially successful film out of the whole Evil
Dead franchise.
--Andrew Kotwicki