'Evil Dead Rise' review: Gory but not groovy horror shows few signs of life

'Evil Dead Rise', the latest chapter in the horror franchise, could use a little of the spirited, campy, wink-wink charm of the original entries in the series. – Photo: Warner Bros. Malaysia

There's a whole lot of blood and not much else in Evil Dead Rise, the latest chapter in the horror franchise, which could use a little of the spirited, campy, wink-wink charm of the original entries in the series.

Here, we spend most of the runtime locked in an urban apartment building where the Necronomicon, the series' fated Book of the Dead, has unleashed all manner of unholiness on a mother, her sister and her three children. World-record levels of red stuff are spilled in the film's blood-drenched climax, but it's no substitute for the film's lack of wit or self-awareness.