In the 80s, horror movies were constantly coming up with new and creative ideas worldwide. However, in today's era, aside from films like "Get Out" and "Hereditary," there are few horror movie ideas that truly stand out.
Why were horror movies in the 80s able to be so imaginative and bold?
The advantage of genre filmmakers in the 80s was that they thought every day about what they could create, whereas now it's more about what they can remake.
Remakes of classic horror films have become a major branch of the horror genre filmmaking. However, there are few successful remakes of old films. Among all the sequels of old IPs in recent years, "Evil Dead: Rise" is one that excites people the most. It maintains the style of the series in photography, music and sound effects, and bloodshed. Many sequels of old IPs in recent years have changed the original feeling of the series. If the quality of the final product cannot satisfy the audience, this kind of behavior will only bring failure and shorten or even destroy the lifespan of the IP series. Reboots of "Final Destination" and "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" are examples of this, as well as "Scream 5-6," “Hellraiser” and "A Nightmare on Elm Street". The characteristics of these remakes are that they blindly add new elements and deepen the complexity of the story, making the story presented to the audience feels like a laundry list. They seem to have forgotten the most important point of horror films: creating atmosphere and terror.
The difference between "Evil Dead: Rise" and other sequels of its IP is that it did not add new elements just for the sake of innovation or to complicate the story. Instead, it leaned towards classic horror films in terms of story setting and storytelling. Of course, "Evil Dead: Rise" also has unique innovations compared to the previous films in the series. The usual plot elements of the IP like young people, forests, and vacation houses are only present in the opening scene, then "Evil Dead: Rise" brings the story and Book of The Dead to a family living in an old community about to be demolished.
"one family, one building, and one night."
The film centers on a family's experiences, making it a more intimate and relatable tale. This is also the most touching part of the film. The movie does not spend too much time depicting the family, but in just a dozen minutes, the audience sees the warmth and love between the family members. As a result, viewers feel a deep connection with the characters, creating a strong emotional foundation for the family's tragic events. The director also experiments with audio-visual techniques by adopting a classic horror storytelling style, omitting humor and slowing down the narrative pace. This approach immerses audiences in the family's repressed emotions as they witness family members possessed by demons and transformed. The story is no longer a collection of unrelatable plotlines. Various scenes' horror craftsmanship is also worthy of praise.
One aspect that gives this film a retro feel in terms of its shots and atmosphere is the use of the Split Diopter Lens shots. These shots create a unique feeling of discomfort for the viewer, which adds to the eerie atmosphere of the story. As with the human eye, a camera lens also has a focal point. When the eye or camera focuses on a shallow depth of field, objects in the background become blurred and out of focus. Similarly, when the focus is on the foreground, objects in the background become blurred. Therefore, filming a scene with both shallow and deep depths of field visible and in focus is not possible with traditional filming techniques. However, the Split Diopter Lens allows both foreground and background elements to be in focus at the same time. It consists of two pieces of glass separated in the middle, splitting the focus plane into two separate areas. This technique is commonly used in cinematography by Brain De Palme in his films to create unique visual effects, such as dramatic tension between two characters or a sense of disorientation in the audience. When these shots are used, viewers will subconsciously feel an unsettling sensation.
When this shot is used to depict the possessed mother's situation, it not only creates a sense of unease but also effectively conveys the impact of her transformation on her family.
"Evil Dead: Rise" disappoints in its lack of consistency.
Whether it be the terrifying experience of a family or the perspective of other loved ones witnessing their family member being possessed, which inevitably evokes thoughts of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, "The Shining".
This film deeply draws inspiration from "The Shining", not only in terms of plot design but also in visual presentation. However, the disappointment also lies in the director and writer's mindless imitation of "The Shining". They seem to have failed to clarify the logic of the horror world, resulting in many inconsistencies. For example, the tribute to "The Shining" with the blood flooding out of the elevator is just a tribute without any logical connection to the plot.
"The Shining" is a psychological thriller where the monster is an unknown ghost; it has no specific physical form, invades the mind, and creates various terrifying hallucinations. The classic horror scenes in "The Shining" are also hallucinations.
On the other hand, the logic of "Evil Dead" is entirely different. The evil spirit summoned by "The Book of the Dead" is first non-physical, but after it invades a person's body, that person rots from the inside out and eventually becomes a physical monster known as "evil dead". For people existing in the physical world, the evil dead is an indestructible physical monster. For those invaded by the evil spirit, it is logical for them to have hallucinations before being taken over, which is a new creative point that could be further explored in the sequels to "Evil Dead".
However, the sudden appearance of a large amount of physically-based blood in the elevator tribute to "The Shining" makes no logical sense. If it were a hallucination, then the person who experienced it should have been targeted by the evil spirit and was about to undergo a transformation. The problem is that this blood is not a hallucination, and Beth and the little sister are not invaded by the evil spirit, yet they are physically drowned in large amounts of real blood out of nowhere in the story world, which completely deviates from the logic of the story world. This scene can be said to be a very crude plot hole. This also led to "Evil Dead: Rise" being just a decent entertainment movie.
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