The following contains spoilers for Evil Dead Rise, now playing in theaters.
In Evil Dead Rise, the Deadite story gets revamped by director Lee Cronin. On the heels of 2013's Evil Dead, this film switches to Los Angeles, unleashing the possessed Ellie in a cramped apartment complex. Unfortunately, the terror's just as gory away from the usual lakeside setting as the demon inside pushes Ellie to hunt her kids and sister, Beth.
Sadly, as much as the heroes fight back, not everyone makes it out alive. It's all part of a horrific ending that harps on the importance of family. But it also dissects how consequences are felt when part of the inner circle breaks the rules and tries to hide their sins.
Evil Dead Rise Creates a Devilish Monster
While Evil Dead is usually about folks who need exorcising, the franchise, as seen in Army of Darkness and the Ash vs. Evil Dead series, also incorporates monsters. That comes to pass in the Evil Dead Rise finale when Ellie absorbs her victims. They include two of her three teenage kids -- Bridget and Danny -- forming a monster with human heads.It nods to creatures from Stranger Things, Doom, Resident Evil and The Last of Us 2's Rat King. That subverts the conclusion where many expected Beth and the youngest daughter, Kassie, to try to pull a Hail Mary and cast the demon out. Instead, they battle the beast when they make their way to the parkade.
Luckily, Kassie fights her fears and activates a wood chipper, allowing Beth to grind the being to death. Beth takes Kassie and the chainsaw she had that nods to Ash, becoming a couple of hardcore final girls as they head out. It's a hopeful moment built by tons of tension, suspense, horror and action.
Evil Dead Rise's Ending Is All About Repercussions
Now, what's notable is while Beth and Kassie leave, the evil spirit still lingers around. It possesses a woman, Jessica, who's heading off to a cabin by a lake with her friends. She actually opened the film, attacking and maiming them, nodding to The Evil Dead and Evil Dead. This scene explains why Jessica became a killer, and while it concludes the movie, it speaks to more than homage and nostalgia to the past -- it highlights how dire Danny's mistake is.
That isn't to call Danny a villain, but if he had listened to the siblings and not broken into a church vault in their building when an earthquake struck in the first act, none of this would have happened. Danny read from the new Necrominicon aft, ignoring recordings of a priest warning about the threat within and how the book had such a monstrous presence, drawing blood with its teeth and holding drawings of Hell. To make it worse, after this released the demon that took Ellie's body as a vessel, Danny kept quiet about the host, waiting until it was too late.
By that point, the being had designs for the rest of the family, infected Bridget and kicked over dominoes that'd allow it to murder neighbors and make them Deadites. It's why Danny died apologizing, filled with guilt and shame, knowing the danger released. To make it worse, the Book of the Dead's in the apartment and Jessica's out in the open -- spreading the curse and possibly expanding the series in what could well shape satanic panic and supernatural pandemic that'd further evolve the property. Ultimately, it's Danny's fault for breaking the rules, being stubborn and creating a ground zero that teases apocalyptic repercussions and more innocents dying.
To see Danny's mistake unleash demonic destruction, Evil Dead Rise is now in theaters.