Rob Munday
For horror fans this weekend, there’ll only be one film on everyone’s lips – Evil Dead Rise. After the franchise was rebooted 10-years ago, with a reimagining of the original movie from 1981 by S/W alum Fede Álvarez (Panic Attack), for this new feature another filmmaker who made his name in shorts – Lee Cronin – steps into the director’s seat. No stranger to the world of features, after his debut The Hole in the Ground impressed on the festival circuit back in 2019/20, Cronin was chosen to helm this latest entry into the series by original director Sam Raimi.
Having directed a trio of short films from 2010 to 2013 – all three are online on his Vimeo channel – Cronin’s directorial talent was evident immediately through his work. Whilst 2010 short Through the Night introduced us to the filmmaker’s mastery of fear and tone, his 2011 film, Billy & Chuck, displayed a lighter side to his work. Both, however, were impeccably made and led him on the road to creating his eye-catching 2013 short Ghost Train.
The haunting story of three friends and their life-changing encounter with a derelict funfair, the 16-minute film takes place in two timelines: one detailing how their childish adventure went astray and the other showing how the events of the past have lived with them ever since. There’s a sense of dread running through Ghost Train from its opening sequence. A simple shot of a train coming through a tunnel is suddenly ominous thanks to the camera movement, lighting and score and it only takes another four shots, all of a man (Michael) looking pensive on a train, for Cronin to have established this is not a journey he’s looking forward to.
Matthew Broe, Sean Gormley & Matthew Dillon (L to R) star as the three young friends.
It’s economical filmmaking and it carries on this way throughout the rest of Ghost Train. As we leave the present to journey into the past, via a really effective match on action cut, we instantly know we’re looking at the same man in his past (the scar on the lip helps). When we’re introduced to the two other young characters, Michael’s brother Peter and their friend Sam, the dynamic between the trio is quickly established. Then, with all three players introduced, Cronin welcomes his fourth, and most dominant, character to the screen: the titular ghost train.
Following a number of close-ups – a decapitated head, some hanging jawbones – we’re presented with our first wide shot of the eerie amusement ride, adorned with a giant grim reaper figure. It’s one thing to have this kind of vision for a short, but it’s another to pull it off. The FX work is impressive. It may look a little dated compared to what you can achieve with today’s CGI (again, this film was made over 10-years-ago), but it’s easy to see the care and attention that has gone into the world-building.
We’re only two-minutes into the film at this point (30-seconds of which were opening titles) and, again, Cronin’s deft hand is conspicuous. He’s quickly established the scenario, showcased some imposing craft and has his audience tense with the promise of the horror yet to unfold. The rest of the film plays out in similar fashion, the past melding seamlessly into the present as we discover what happened to the brothers’ friend Sam and how the pair return to the sinister funfair ride as a form of ritual penance.
The three young boys will regret their decision to ever check out the abandoned funfair.
Although that scary carousel (see above) will be the big draw for horror fans (I’m sure if Ghost Train was made a few years later we might have seen a feature adaptation), at the core of Cronin’s story is a dysfunctional sibling relationship, a theme that would run through both of the director’s features. In his 2019 film, The Hole in the Ground, it was a mother/son bond that he gave his signature treatment, whilst Evil Dead Rise follows estranged siblings as they discover the Necronomicon and unleash the Deadites.
It was The Hole in the Ground that first brought Cronin to Raimi’s attention, with the original Evil Dead director inviting the Irish filmmaker to lunch. At that first meeting they discussed a lot of different things, but being a big fan of Raimi’s debut feature Cronin admits (in this interview on Geek Ireland) that “the whole time I kind of wanted to turn the topic to Evil Dead, and I’m wondering what it might be that they wanted to do next”. Raimi was interested to hear his take, and it obviously impressed as the rest, as they say, is history.
Raimi isn’t the only one impressed with Cronin’s take on the franchise though, following a “rowdy” SXSW premiere earlier this year, critics seem to largely agree that the film’s a hit. With Evil Dead Rise released in theatres worldwide, news of Cronin’s next project has already dropped, with the filmmaker set to direct Thaw for New Line Cinema. An apocalyptic tale of a group of survivors looking for a new home after being left adrift by the melting of the polar ice caps and rising sea levels, news of when we can expect to see Cronin’s latest feature are yet to be disclosed.