Randall Naegele

To steal from Fast X... "The End of The Road Begins." The end of the Evil Dead franchise has begun. This is another generic horror possession film with "Evil Dead" stamped in the title. The pros 1) Alyssa Sutherland was a great casting choice. Her performance was great and her overall look and sharp facial features worked perfectly for the role. 2) The opening lake scene was well done. The Title Scene in particular was great however, it turned out to be the best part of the film. 3) Art direction was on point. 4) Cinematography was excellent. The cons 1) The story was not engaging. The opening family scene would belong more in the Mad Max universe. Yes, I get it, they are different and artsy, I would challenge the filmmakers to present 5 examples of families similar to this one that they know in their lives. Not widely relatable. 2) When it comes to casting-I can't say this any better than Brandon Smith already did-"The gender of the characters, the gender fluidity of the younger characters, and girl boss attitudes matter much more to the modern audience than the actual quality of the film." It distracted from the suspension of disbelief. Pandering. 3) The story was not engaging. I understand TRT is paramount with this genre but the necronomicon was so cool and was eluding to the different Deadites that were being summoned and I was left hoping they were going to elaborate. The end girl was not likable from the start, actually, none of the characters were particularly likable. At no point was I rooting for anyone other than the Deadites. Lastly on this point, there was no connection to the children or family unit at all. 4) Fun. I think this is where I would have liked to see Sam and Bruce step in a bit more. This franchise used to be FUN. There was no fun here at all. They teased fun when they introduced the trademark props but did not follow through. 5) The homage to The Shining was not earned. This should have been received in the moment as, "Oh my God this is so cool they are doing this!!" but instead was a, "Oh my God, they are not doing this," moment. I'm glad for them that they are earning a profit and happy for all of their respective careers but saddened because that means the next installments will just be more of the same. I'm taking my Evil Dead and Army of Darkness and I'm going home.

This film was about nothing. Poor attempt at tugging at your heart strings while not telling you anything about how these people got in these situations. They could be on the freakin registry for all you know. This film completely neglected what responsible adults refer to as “accountability.” A word that seems to have skipped a couple generations. Kudos to the DP-it looked great. Soundtrack was dope. Not sure if the city shots were purchased b-roll footage but they look incredible. If they weren’t purchased b-roll i would advise selling them as such. If you’re going to continue to work so hard as to complete a documentary, please don’t short yourself by not having any substance.