This latest chapter is light on the humour and heavy on the red stuff. Set in an almost film noir run-down Los Angeles apartment building, this poor family has no idea of what’s about to come. When an earthquake happens, this is Southern Californian after all, it unearths that sacred tome and all hell breaks loose.

Now just about every family has a horror story about the parental units, My personal shocker involves a mother-in-law but the transformation of ma Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) from pleasant parent to a manifestation of pure evil completely swamps my tale of woe. The combined efforts of costume designers, make-up artists and special effects folks are supremely impressive with the change.

Ellie becomes truly frightening and might set a new standard for demonic transformations. With cartoon levels of blood that shows there is no shortage of the scarlet fluid in Hollywood, Evil Dead Rise raises things to a raucous and almost ridiculous level of gore. Along with all the shocks are a few nervous laughs and some very interesting technical achievements. See it with someone you love, maybe just not the in-laws.
Rob Hudson
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Moving the action out of the woods and into the city, “Evil Dead Rise” tells a twisted tale of two estranged sisters, played by Sutherland and Sullivan, whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.

“Evil Dead Rise” is produced by Rob Tapert (“Ash vs Evil Dead,” “Don’t Breathe”) and executive produced by series creator and horror icon Sam Raimi and cult legend and “Ash” himself, Bruce Campbell, along with John Keville, Macdara Kelleher, Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Romel Adam and Victoria Palmieri.

Cronin is joined behind the camera by director of photography Dave Garbett (“Z for Zachariah,” “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”), production designer Nick Bassett (“Guns Akimbo,” “Sweet Tooth”), editor Bryan Shaw (“Ash vs Evil Dead,” “Spartacus”) and costume designer Sarah Voon (“Chasing Great,” “Inside”), with a score by Stephen McKeon (“The Hole in the Ground,” “Primeval”).

A New Line Cinema / Renaissance Pictures presentation of a Pacific Renaissance and Wild Atlantic Pictures production, “Evil Dead Rise” will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and is set to open only in cinemas April 20.
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Their captain (Robert Taylor), even after recognising the ship’s Nazi flag sees little hope without their assistance and orders his men, one woman, and a Russian soldier to board the ship. He does not survive the boarding. When the survivors finally board the ship, they initially discover that there are no occupants on-board, and so begins the glorious schlockfest that is Blood Vessel.

Getting the balance between believability and outrageousness right is the key to enjoying this type of film and the filmmakers work hard to get the mix correct. As the now six wander the ship, it starts to give up its secrets. They find a dead crew member seemingly turned inside out with his veins on the outside and other unexplainable phenomena. We also get snipers of the survivor’s backstories and their ongoing agendas.

As the gore and craziness ramp up so do the stakes for survival. When they find a young female survivor, she and the ship begin to give clues as to what happened. Claustrophobic and dimly lit, the sense of impending doom is never far away. With the introduction of the supernatural, things become unhinged. Equal parts hilarious and disturbing, Blood Vessel is a fun fright night laugh.

Blood Vessel will be releasing August 5, DVD – JB Hi Fi and Sanity and Video on Demand iTunes/Google /Fetch/Foxtel Store/Umbrella Entertainment.

Rob Hudson
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