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Evil Dead Rise's 13 Most Disturbing Scenes, Ranked

Contains spoilers for "Evil Dead Rise."

In an already gonzo year for mainstream movies, here comes "Evil Dead Rise" demanding we hold its beer. The fifth theatrical addition to the long running "Evil Dead" franchise introduces some new faces, along with an impressive tidal wave of gore and sadism.

In a change of scenery for the series, we leave the cabin in the woods behind in favor of a rundown LA apartment occupied by Ellie, her three kids — Danny, Bridget, and Kassie — and her own sister, Beth. Things take a turn when, following an earthquake, Danny uncovers the Book of the Dead in a previously sealed bank vault.

After a recording of the book's incantations is played, Ellie quickly winds up possessed and the rest of the family find themselves in a nightmare made flesh (and blood, lots of blood). What ensues is nearly two hours of carnage your eyeballs won't be able to look away from. So lock the doors and gas up the chainsaw because we're ranking the most disturbing scenes of "Evil Dead Rise."

13. The closing sequence

The film opts to close out by bringing us full circle, revealing what led to the film's horrific opening sequence. We're shown the morning after the anarchy, with the apartment complex finally in a state of calm. It's then that we see that Jessica, the possessed girl from the opening, once lived in the same apartment as Ellie and her family. We quickly learn that she slept through the earthquake and subsequent mayhem of the night before, completely obvious to the nightmare that's occurred.

As she heads into the parking garage, she is FaceTiming with her friend (and future victim) Teresa. It seems that Teresa is having second thoughts about their planned weekend at the cabin, but her cold feet are quickly dissuaded by Jessica. However, as Jessica prepares to leave the garage, she notices the aftermath of the previous night all over the place. This includes several puddles of blood, Ellie's wrecked car, and the bloodstained wood chipper. Just as she starts freaking out, Jessica is suddenly swarmed on both sides by more Deadite spirits, shown through their points-of-view. The film ends, much like the original "Evil Dead," with a frantic close up of Jessica screaming in terror as we smash cut to black.

12. The book is opened

Following a powerful earthquake, the three siblings stumble across a hole in the parking garage, with Danny descending into a decrepit bank vault. After a fake-out jumpscare courtesy of a Jesus statue, Danny stumbles across a payload of old documents and vinyl records. It's then that he finds an altar of sorts, adorned with a surplus of crosses and crucifixes, that contains the Book of the Dead.

The trio return to the apartment, where Danny and Bridget begin examining the book, hoping that it might be worth some money. Bridget is immediately wary of the book — as well she should be, considering where Danny found it and especially due to how it looks. Bear in mind, the book here looks different than in previous "Evil Dead" films, with its pages locked with sharp teeth and sinister veins worming across the cover. It's those very sharp teeth that nick Danny, causing his blood to drip onto the book where it is quickly absorbed into the cover. The book's teeth then unlock, revealing pages upon pages of images depicting possession, evil rituals and horrific human sacrifices. Needless to say, especially given what follows next, Danny would've been better off throwing the book in the nearest sewer grate.

11. A tattooing gone wrong

Following Ellie's possession, she makes several attempts on the lives of Beth and all three of her children. Her oldest daughter Bridget is the first one to be seriously wounded by her demonic mommy dearest. After stabbing Beth through the hand with a piece of glass, Ellie sets her sights on Bridget and picks a unique weapon — her tattoo gun. Earlier on, we're shown a bit of branding for what seems to be Ellie's tattoo business, with much of her work on her own body. This is the first of a few cleverly placed Chekhov's guns that the film peppers into many its most exciting scenes and reveals.

A demonic Ellie attacks her daughter with the gun, the needle getting within a gnat's wing of hitting her eye. Instead, however, Ellie stabs Bridget in the cheek with the gun, leaving a nice juicy cut that she immediately hones in on. She then extends her gnarled bloody tongue and licks her daughter's wound, infecting her with Deadite blood which leads to her possession later on. But that's nothing — wait until you learn just how badly this film misunderstands what you're supposed to do with scissors!

10. An improper use of scissors

If you're not familiar with a "Chekhov's Gun," let "Evil Dead Rise" be a lesson in this particular literary device. It's the rule that when a plot point or an object is given some level of attention early in the film, then it must be relevant to the film later on. This is most certainly the case with "Evil Dead Rise," as there are a few setups with delayed payoffs that the film takes advantage of. One of the best revolves around a pair of very sharp scissors, as early on we see Kassie building her half doll-half staff named Staffney. When Ellie asks where the scissors are, the film makes sure to show us that Kassie stashes them under the couch.

This pays off later on when Ellie finally John McClanes her way back into the apartment through the air ducts. She immediately tries to murder Beth, who is no match in terms of strength against her possessed sister. However, just as Ellie has Beth right where she wants her, a resourceful Kassie notices the scissors and slides them to her aunt. Beth then takes the scissors and jams them up into Ellie's face, temporarily incapacitating her and allowing her to escape.

9. The opening sequence

"Evil Dead Rise" definitely understands its fanbase and wastes very little time giving the people exactly what they came for. We open in familiar territory with a frantic POV shot barreling through the forest before soaring over a majestic lake. Just as the POV reaches Teresa, a girl reading on the dock, it's revealed that this was nothing but a clever fake out. The POV we've seen isn't a demonic presence at all — it's revealed as the camera view from a drone controlled by a guy named Caleb. Caleb has seen fit to annoy Teresa, a friend of his girlfriend Jessica, who is currently resting up inside the cabin.

Teresa goes back inside to read in peace and to check up on Jessica. However, as she reads through the book, a strange sounding Jessica begins reading the words verbatim, as if she's also looking at the page. Her reading quickly turns disturbing as she sits up and begins screaming the words at the top of her lungs before puking and flopping onto the floor. As Teresa leans in to check on her, Jessica shoots up and rips her friend's scalp clean off her head. A bleeding Teresa stumbles outside just in time to horrify Caleb before Jessica decapitates him underwater with his own drone. Jessica then literally rises out of the water as the film's titles rise up from behind her, kicking things off with a sizable bang.

8. Ellie slaughters the entire hallway

Following Ellie's demonic first episode, Beth and the kids attempt to flee, making it into the hallway before mommy gives chase. It's here that Ellie reveals her possessed form to the rest of the floor's tennants, and goes on a complete war path.

This includes jumping on her neighbor Gabe and violently biting his face, eventually ripping his eyeball out with her teeth. There's even a morbidly hilarious moment when Ellie spits Gabe's eyeball into the mouth of one of his terrified sons. Amidst this psychotic attack, Beth and the three kids are able to get back inside the apartment and barricade the door. With the door temporarily secured, Beth approaches the peep hole and takes a look back out into the hallway outside.

In almost an instant Ellie makes quick work of Gabe by ripping his throat out, as well as tearing his two kids apart. She also takes out an elderly tenant brandishing a shotgun, who is quickly dragged away to his presumably gruesome demise. It's a brutal moment that shows just how quickly Ellie can kill and effectively sets things up for the film's climax later on.

7. Ellie gets possessed

The film truly kicks off when Danny plays both of the vinyl records he's found in the abandoned bank vault. Both records contain recordings belonging to someone associated with a church who, against the wishes of many others, has translated the Book of the Dead. The words are spoken via the recording, immediately unleashing the Deadite curse on the apartment complex. It's here that poor Ellie, while heading into the parking garage, is blasted back into the elevator by some unseen entity. As if the wind wasn't thoroughly knocked out of her already, the elevator then pulls a "Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror" and rockets back up to the 13th floor.

After having one of her piercings forcibly ripped out by the invisible entity, the elevator itself begins attacking her. This results in a modern remix of the evil tree sequence from the original film, only here its metal cables as opposed to branches. A battered Ellie heads back into the apartment where, in a possessed trance, she begins aggressively cooking eggs on the stove. Upon being asked if she's okay, Ellie mentions how she was having a dream where she was in a pretty forest with her family. She then notes how she wants to cut all of them open so she can crawl inside of them, before vomiting all over the place.

6. Elevator of blood

From Danny's elevator vision in "The Shining" to a recent sequence in "M3GAN," elevators are definitely the last place you want to be in a horror film. Case in point: the sickening fate that nearly befalls Beth and Kassie when fleeing from the hallway of horrors. After skewering Ellie in the face with scissors, Beth and Kassie escape out into the hallway, the only place they can semi-safely exit at this point.

However, as they look to unlock the door of a potential escape route, the dead residents suddenly spring back to life, all under the influence of the Deadites. As the possessed residents taunt them with a chant of "dead by dawn," Beth and Kassie flee to the malfunctioning elevator. Kassie discovers that what's been keeping the door jammed are Ellie's keys from earlier, allowing the doors to finally close. Sadly, upon hitting the button for the garage on the lower level, the elevator begins to fill with gallons of blood.

The top of the elevator is attacked by an entity with multiple arms, causing it to plummet to the floor below. This leads to a glorious explosion of blood as the elevator collides with the ground floor, freeing Beth and Kassie in the process.

5. Hallway of the Deadites

After a few back-to-back incidents in the apartment, Beth and Kassie make a break for the hallway, still littered with the corpses of their neighbors. They both look to enter a previously mentioned apartment that, currently unoccupied, has access to a potential getaway route via the fire escape. Beth grabs a shotgun from one of the dead residents, which she plans to use to open the apartment, but is distracted by Ellie. Beth is quick to shoot her demonic sister's leg clean off of her body before the rest of the dead residents reveal that they are now Deadites as well. This includes Danny, recently having died in the kitchen, and a heavily burned Bridget, both eagerly waiting to consume their aunt and little sister.

It's a horrific visual and cements just how sadistic the Deadites are, all of them relishing in the suffering of Beth and Kassie. After Beth blows off Ellie's arm as well, she grabs Kassie and flees into the elevator, which then begins filling up with blood. As they struggle through the rising chamber of blood, the possessed Danny and Bridget proceed to begin crawling inside of a cackling Ellie.

4. Bridget gets possessed

After being menaced by Ellie with the tattoo gun, Bridget heads into the bathroom to examine her cut, which is looking noticeably infected. This jumps up a notch when black veins begin spreading from the cut, followed up by a blood fountain pouring out of her nose and mouth. Her fate is fully confirmed when Beth sees Bridget perched on the kitchen counter with her back turned shortly thereafter. Upon turning around, Bridget reveals that she is joyously eating a glass vase, leading to some gnarly shots of the glass cutting her throat from the inside. It seems she wants to kill the maggots wiggling around in her stomach because, as she says, "I don't like having things in my tummy."

She then follows up this sick visual with another one when she begins slicing up Beth's leg with a cheese grater like New Jack from Extreme Championship Wrestling. Kassie is then forced to finally utilize Staffney when she shoves it through the head of her demonic sister. It's a shocking moment and one that reminds the audience that, in an "Evil Dead" movie, nobody is safe.

3. One big happy family

We've teased this one already, but it's definitely worth building up a bit as it's one doozy of a reveal. After Beth and Kassie enter the elevator of blood, we see the possessed Danny and Bridget begin shoving their arms inside of Ellie. For what purpose we aren't sure, until we see a page within the Book of the Dead showing a disgusting demonic abomination, complete with several heads and arms. This explains the multiple sets of arms frantically reaching into the elevator to grab Beth and Kassie before it crashes down into the parking garage.

Upon arrival in the garage, the duo make a quick beeline to Ellie's car, looking to finally escape this nightmare. Unfortunately, the car gets stuck just as the monster on their heels enters the garage, forcing them to make a break for the closing door. Just as they make it through, the creature snatches up Cassie and drags her back in, revealing itself as a grotesque fusion of Ellie, Danny and Bridget. Their appearance is eerily similar to a key boss fight in "The Last of Us: Part II," wherein Abby faces a multiple clicker fusion known as the Rat King.

Also, this definitely pays off on Ellie's desire to crawl inside of her family from earlier on in just about the most jaw-dropping way possible. For many longtime "Evil Dead" fans, this will definitely stand out as a welcome addition to the list of sickening things that Deadites can do.

2. Severing family ties

Every "Evil Dead" movie seems to go completely berserk in its final moments, and this entry is no exception to that tradition. After the reveal of Ellie's demonic fusion with her kids, Kassie is completely at their mercy, even being threatened with a chainsaw. It's here that Beth is able to kick her way back into the parking garage to save her terrified niece. Beth proceeds to get Kassie out of dodge before picking up the chainsaw for herself, only to trip and fall over. Things look dire for Beth as the maniacal monster that used to be her family now looks to stuff her in a wood chipper.

Thankfully, it's once again time for Kassie to save the day, as she's able to switch off the chipper before her aunt can be mulched. Beth then reclaims the chainsaw and begins graphically slicing up her possessed family like meat in a deli slicer. She then begins forcing the chunk through the grinder one-by-one, before all that's left is Ellie who attempts to prey on Beth's emotions once again. Beth, not fooled, says that "Only [her] sister gets to call her Bethy Boo Boo," before shoving the chainsaw through Ellie's head. She then soccer kicks the head into the wood chipper, resulting in a blood shower that covers her and Kassie. It's here that Kassie and Beth, with bloody chainsaw in hand, finally walk off into the morning sun with their nightmare finally over ... for now, at least.

1. You don't look so good, Mom...

Many of you might be shocked to see that the most disturbing scene in "Evil Dead Rise" is comparatively less gruesome than others. Yes, compared to many other scenes in the film, this lacks any eyeballs being bitten out or any cheese graters to the leg. However, what it does have is a terrifying sequence in which a little girl is manipulated by a demon inhabiting her mother's body. Following a bout of creepy singing from Ellie, Kassie climbs up on the dresser and looks through the peephole. Almost as if she can smell her, Ellie immediately turns to the door and begins talking to Kassie, telling her that she feels better. She even goes as far as to say that her father, recently divorced from Ellie, has come home and they can be one big happy family again.

Kassie, clearly smart beyond her years, simply says, "You don't look so good, Mom," but still falls victim to the Deadite mind games. Not even one millisecond after Kassie unlocks the door, Ellie tries to grab her before Beth makes the save. There's a reason that all the trailers for "Evil Dead Rise" have shown bits of this scene — it's far and away the most disturbing moment in the film.