Chapin City Blues

Rating:

Movie Details:

What’s It’s About:

Three siblings find an ancient vinyl that gives birth to bloodthirsty demons that run amok in a Los Angeles apartment building and thrusts them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable. (Letterboxd)

Let’s Talk About It:

A decade after the first requel, we’re thrust back into the Evil Dead world. And like the 2013 movie, this one also lacks a charismatic lead and the humor that made the original trilogy memorable. 

While I do love callbacks, this movie littered them in hopes to capture the attention of older Deadites (is that what we call Evil Dead fans?) as a way to validate its existence. And, at times, it distracts from the story it was trying (and failing) to tell. Easter eggs aren’t supposed to stand out, unless we’ve changed the rules to the egg hunt. 

And just like Zoe Lister-Jones did with The Craft: Legacy, Cronin tries to capture the best-ofs that made the first three movies memorable that he forgot about his own story.

Afterthought:

This movie sets up the fact that the Evil Dead trilogy and Evil Dead 2013 take place in this cinematic universe as well. It states that there are three Necronomicons in the world, which was a callback to Army of Darkness. It’s been a long while since I’ve watched that movie, but I was under the impression that two of those books were fake. Am I wrong?