Evil Dead Rise (R21)

97 minutes, opens on Thursday
4 stars

The story: An earthquake uncovers a book buried beneath a Los Angeles apartment building. Yes, that book – the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis grimoire – which will doom a young family by summoning anew demon spirits for a fifth Evil Dead film.

There are technically three editions of the aforementioned Book of the Dead.

Series creator and American film-maker Sam Raimi introduced the first for his Evil Dead cult classic horror trilogy (1981 to 1992); Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead tapped the second; and the third exhumed in Evil Dead Rise is brought home by curious teen Danny (Morgan Davies).

Really kiddo, does the book’s human skin binding not give you pause?

The Deadites take quick possession of mum (Alyssa Sutherland), turning her into a rabid rotting zombie. She will savage every mortal.

Fighting for survival over one long night – while trapped with her inside the high-rise that has no electricity following the earthquake – are Danny, tough middle daughter Bridget (Gabrielle Echols), little Kassie (Nell Fisher) and mum’s estranged rocker sister Aunt Beth (Lily Sullivan).

The claustrophobic mid-town setting may be far removed from the series’ earlier woodland cabin, but Irish writer-director Lee Cronin’s (The Hole In The Ground, 2019) confident retelling with its strong family dynamics and stonking performances remains pure Evil Dead in spirit.

It is intense blood-drenched bedlam. Knives, scissors, slamming bodies, a chainsaw plus cheese grater are imaginatively mobilised for decapitation and dismemberment, and the creatures are gruesome.

Raimi and his original hero, Bruce “Ash” Campbell, are the producers. Their iconic catchphrase “Dead by dawn” returns as both homage and a warning to all.

Hot take: It is an A for a splatter-schlock B-movie that does what it is expected to do with brutal efficiency.

Rebound (PG13)

122 minutes, opens on Thursday
4 stars

The story: In 2012, a struggling team with just six players overcomes impossible odds to reach the finals of South Korea’s National High School Basketball Championship.

Based on the true story of Busan’s Jungang High School and filmed on location, Rebound is a South Korean underdog sports biopic so cliched, you ask yourself why you would watch it.

Kim Eun-hee is a reason – the creative mind behind the Netflix hit zombie series Kingdom (2019 to 2020) is the screenwriter for her director-husband Jang Hang-jun.

Also, cherubic Coach Kang (Ahn Jae-hong) is a sad sack you genuinely want to root for.

On the day of his appointment as Jungang High’s new basketball coach, one who has no coaching experience, the players walk out and even the backboard in the decrepit gym collapses in protest.

Never was there a more inauspicious start. But Kang perseveres in scraping together a ragtag team of rejects.

“Rebound” is a hoopster term, meaning to regain possession of the ball after a missed shot.

The title tells you right off that Kang and his boys are all about seizing this second redemptive shot at the national tournament to restore the school’s long-ago glory as a powerhouse.

And they will succeed with humour and drama for an enjoyable zero-to-hero romp despite exhaustion, injuries, in-fighting, fouls and mightier rivals. Only three of Kang’s six passionate youths are left standing by the climactic quarter of the eight-week run.

The Korean Basketball League provided technical assistance and cameo as match officials throughout the dynamic court scenes.

Hot take: This inspirational hoopfest plays skilfully by the genre rulebook to score a crowdpleaser. Go, Jungang High.