This article contains spoilers for Evil Dead Rise.
Much has been made about a certain scene with a cheese grater inEvil Dead Rise. I’m not surprised. Evil Dead is turning 42 years old this year, and finding new and anarchically creative ways to dish out bodily harm has helped keep the series alive. The cheese grater is one example of Rise pumping fresh Karo syrup into the series' nearly half-century old veins.
The change in setting, more generally, is a source of life blood for this new entry. Until now, the series has (with the exception of Army of Darkness) stuck to the woods, with the original The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and the 2013 reboot all sending a group of young people to a rural cabin where they find a copy of the Necronomicon, unwisely recite its incantations, then watch in horror as their friends are transformed into murderous Deadites by the evil they’ve invited in.
RELATED:Evil Dead Doesn’t Need To Be Campy
Evil Dead Rise (as the name suggests) transplants the action to a high rise apartment building on the verge of demolition, but repeats the same basic formula. While a departure from past entries, moving to a place where people live, not just vacation, opens up a world of possibilities. Instead of taking shelter in a cabin, Rise’s central family are attempting to survive in a confined apartment. And, because they’re at home, the Deadites can attack them with household items, like a cheese grater and a wine glass.
The cheese grater has featured heavily in the film’s promotion — you can even get an official t-shirt with the logo emblazoned on the notorious utensil — but, for my money, the gnarliest bit of gore in Rise happens early on in the same scene. Lily Sullivan’s Beth enters the kitchen to see her niece, Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), perched on the countertop with her back turned. Beth calls her name and Bridget turns toward her, pitch black ink streaming down her face. She holds a wine glass in her hands, smiles an evil Deadite grin, and takes a big chomp of glass. Beth watches, horrified, as she chews and swallows. As she does, there’s a gnarly insert shot of the sharp shards stretching against then piercing through the flesh of her throat.
Evil Dead Rise is a gorey film from the first scene, but after shifting away from the cabin-set terror, scalping, and decapitation that precedes the title card, it takes some time for it to build up a head of steam. There were bloody moments before the glass chomp, but this was the bit where I thought, “Oh, we’re really in it now.” And then, Lee Cronin hits us with the cheese grater.
The cheese grater is a good moment, but it actually hit less hard for mecontext than it would if I had just stumbled onto the clip on Twitter. Once you’ve seen a teenage girl possessed by an evil spirit purposely puncture her throat with shards of glass, what’s a little calf grating between family?
NEXT:The Callisto Protocol’s Death Animations Are Fun, But Excruciatingly Long
