Great addition to the franchise

Enjoyed this a lot. I'm a sucker for the cabin in the woods setting, but this does a good job of transferring the action to the rundown, soon-to-be-demolished 'Monde Apartments' (nice anagram) in Los Angeles. The reason for the new location is credible, and provides some very cool scenes of the discovery of 'the book'. Photography is great throughout, as is the lighting; between them they give a real sense of enclosed menace. The effects are pretty damned good too, with the movie continuing the franchise tradition of almost everything being practical, rather than CGI.

Although the location is different, the basic format is the same; five people trapped inside a small dwelling, trying to fend-off demonic forces. There are plenty of callbacks to previous entries in the series, in both dialogue and props. And there's plenty of blood.The cast is good, especially Lily Sullivan as the heroic Beth, and the absolute standout, Alyssa Sutherland as 'possessed mom' Ellie (who easily gets my vote for creepiest Deadite so far - and she gets some really good one-liners!). The only real negative for me was the rat king/human centipede type creature at the climax. I found the Deadites more menacing as individuals. Other than that, it's great. Insane to think that this cost only $17 million to make - the exact same budget the previous movie had ten years ago! Just shows what can be done. Evil Dead (2013) is still my peak of the franchise, but this gets close to it. 8/10.