By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Evil Dead Rise (USA, 2023. Dir: Lee Cronin): Unlike in most horror movies, the malignant forces depicted in the Evil Dead franchise (the Deadites) are essentially undefeatable. Sure, Ash (Bruce Campbell) may be able to keep them at bay at extreme personal cost, but there’s no sure-fire way to destroy them.

This chapter in the saga knows this very well and successfully toys with the audience’s emotions. I’m guilty of thinking “there’s no way this movie will cause irreparable damage to a family” (a self-imposed rule most American horror films obey) and mere minutes later witnessed director Lee Cronin (The Hole in the Ground) breach every unspoken convention in the book.

Evil Dead Rise opens in a traditional setting, the perfunctory cabin in the woods, but quickly moves to a condemned building in Los Angeles. The few remaining dwellers are getting ready to move, including Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland, Vikings), a beleaguered mother of three. Unaware of her sister’s dire straits, Beth (Lily Sullivan), comes for a visit, burdened by an unexpected pregnancy and lack of prospects.

As luck would have it, an earthquake and teen curiosity conspire to unearth the third volume of the Necronomicon (the “Book of the Dead”). The text and accompanying spirits cause havoc among the family in a demonstration of evil far more transgressive than expected.

To its credit, Evil Dead Rise doesn’t use the jump-scare technique all that much. It’s thoroughly tense with genuine hair-raising moments (imagine The Shining elevator… from inside). The movie only falters when it doubles down on the gore at expense of character development: it wastes an opportunity to pursue more lasting unease as opposed to just temporary thrills. Still, as genre movies go, this is a solid performer. Three stars (out of five).

Evil Dead Rise is now playing in theatres.

Beau Is Afraid (USA, 2023. Dir: Ari Aster): While under no circumstances can be considered a dismissible artistic endeavor, Beau Is Afraid is the weakest of Ari Aster’s films to date. Granted, his two previous movies (Midsommar, Hereditary) are modern classics, but still, one has come to expect greatness from Aster.

Where Midsommar and Hereditary are tight and have clarity of purpose, Beau is meandering and obtuse. Did Astor need three hours to tell us in the most baroque way possible that maternal love can be castrating? No. Hitchcock did it in an hour fifty and using the pulpiest material available.

Alas, at least the first hour of Beau is Afraid is a complete riot, a smorgasbord of black comedy and modern neuroses with a dash of slapstick. The real feat would have been to sustain that pace for the entire movie. Three and a half stars (out of five).

Beau is Afraid is now playing in theatres.

Chevalier (USA, 2022. Dir: Stephen Williams): Imagine coming across the fascinating story of Joseph Bologne, the earliest European composer of African descent to receive widespread acclaim, and bungle it beyond recognition. It’s what happens with Chevalier, a drama that not only oversimplifies Bologne’s figure, but the entire French Revolution.

As portrayed here, Bologne (Kelvin Harrison Jr., Waves) was friends with Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton, Bohemian Rhapsody) and thought that because of his connections, he could run the Paris Opera. Instead, he becomes a target for racist oligarchs and cuckolded husbands. As he loses his privileges, he comes to the realization he should use his gift for more noble purposes.

A glorified soap opera atrociously written, Chevalier is at its best when generating unintended laughs: imagine the streets of Paris weeks before the Revolution, and Marie Antoinette decides this would be a good time to venture into the city to mend fences with her old friend, accompanied only by two guards walking a good ten feet behind. Two stars (out of five).

Chevalier is now playing in theatres.