Easter isn’t the first thing I think of during these fine spring months; I am an atheist. However, I am also Mexican, and we have a lot of traditions. And every year, the fish menus, the pop-up stands filled with baskets and cascarones, rabbit piñatas, and flowers and crosses, spring up all over. The schools let out for a 4-day weekend. Best of all, I will serve a big meal somewhere in the middle of the day, as per Mexican tradition. I didn’t receive goodie baskets growing up, but I will make gift baskets for family. Moreover, Easter is another reason to celebrate something I like. It’s the perfect reason to round up some movies for an Easter Streaming Guide, and I have the perfect theme: She Is Risen. I didn’t even know I was religious.
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Where You Can Watch: Max
Directed by Lee Cronin
This choice may be too literal, but the image of a woman rising from a lake and the killer title card, She has undoubtedly risen. Evil Dead Rise reunites estranged sisters Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and Beth (Lily Sullivan) after the latter discovers she is pregnant. Ellie’s son Danny finds and plays with stuff he shouldn’t, Mom is possessed and dies and returns as Super Deadite Mom, and Beth must try to save them all. Don’t worry, she doesn’t. Lots of blood (picture way too much), fast-paced, freaky fights, and the faithful chainsaw and cheese grater because anything can be a weapon. This is the woman energy I crave.
Return of the Living Dead III (1993)
Directed by Brian Yuzna
Where You Can Watch: Prime, Plex, and Tubi
Another movie poster sold me on this one. Also, reading Brian Yuzna’s name (Society, The Dentist) makes me giddy. Think of Return of the Living Dead III as its own entity inspired by the ideas in its predecessors. We follow Julie (Melinda Clarke), a wild young woman who is brought back to life by her idiot boyfriend Curt (J. Trevor Edmund) using military experiments. The undead Julie has to fight the urge to eat brains, and I don’t want to know what these zombies are thinking. Julie turns to self-harm to keep the cravings at bay, while Curt causes a minor zombie apocalypse on his dad’s military base. Awesome, gnarly zombies, effects, and Riverman (Basil Wallace) looks fantastic! However, it’s Julie’s transformation that’s the star.
Sister Death / Hermana Muerte (2023)
Directed by Paco Plaza
Where You Can Watch: Netflix
This one was lost in the steady stream of nunsploitation and exorcism films. Don’t get me wrong; I’m here for it. Fortunately, I found Sister Death on Netflix, and it was a pleasant surprise. Narcisa (Aria Bedmar) arrives at a school run in an old convent and has yet to take her vows. Something supernatural happens, and that’s the regular recipe for this type of horror. However, the novice Narcisa is an intriguing character, and along with the children, the environment and location, poltergesit-like activity, steady pacing, music, etc, made for a fantastical haunting. Overall, Sister Death is a satisfying revenge tale of sorts with the rising of another nun and an incredibly thrilling ending.
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II
Directed by Bruce Pittman
Where You Can Watch: Prime, AMC+, Shudder, Plex, Pluto, Tubi, Peacock, and Hoopla
As teenagers, my sister and I saw a movie poster at this hole-in-the-wall video store and fell in love. Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II. It rhymed, and it sounded cool. That was all we had for info, and we went on a quest to search all video rental stores until we found it. That was an adventure, and we waited (as we did in the days of olde) for weeks for a video tape. My first disappointment was that Prom Night II wasn’t a sequel but clever marketing using the same school name and the popular Prom Night movie title. Second, Mary Lou is a terrible person but not for liking sex, alcohol, and bad boys. She has a wicked tongue, and she’s rude, which demands a witch’s burning. That’s the rules. Don’t worry; she will rise again! There are some great effects in some places, nasty kills, an awesome transformation and performance from Wendy Lyon, a creepy tonguey riding horse toy, and one incestuous kissing session.
Ringu 1998
Directed by Hideo Nakata
Where You Can Rewatch: Kanopy, Tubi, Shudder, AMC+, Philo, and The Criterion Channel
The one and only Sadako crept her way onto our screens and waited patiently for us to hit play on our VCRs. We all know about the tape and the call afterward with a nice warning, and then you die seven days later. Ringu is bewitching. It’s slow and gloomy and features one of the best ghosts to crawl out of a television set. The remake is excellent as well. Watch either, and I hope somebody’s phone rings right about now…
Black Sunday (1960)
Directed by Mario Bava
Where You Can Watch: Prime, Kanopy, Shudder, AMC+, and Plex
In the early days of the black and white era, Princess Asa (Barbara Steele in dual roles) is condemned for witchcraft. Her own weasly brother is there to lead the execution, which is wild even without the Satan mask death. She curses them and vows to return. We all know someone will stumble upon her centuries later and accidentally set her free. Black Sunday is gorgeous, dark, and moody. Asa is vengeful, and I support women’s rights and wrongs. And, of course, she has a lookalike distant relative named Katia whom she’d like to replace. I do love a woman who knows what she wants and goes for it.
Slay (2024)
Directed by Jem Garrard
Where You Can Watch: Tubi
A quartet of drag queens accidentally book a show at the wrongest bar in the middle of nowhere. The crowd is unwelcoming, to say the least. Even so, the show must go on. Slay is campy and refreshingly charming. Gorgeous queens, great characters, excellent writing, plenty of vampires, and perfect location for a raucous night with plenty of kills. I wouldn’t know which character to pick as my favorite, although Jax (Donia Kash) is the cutest and sweetest, just like me (I am!). Nonetheless, I would die for Heidi N Closet. Look forward to lots of laughs, blood, glitter, teamwork, and two Shes shall rise.
Overall, you can see how much I love Easter. But with my own mascot, the ratty old, drumming rabbit from Caveat (and later Oddity), Mexican food as prescribed by the Bible, and best of all, I will be smashing eggs on loved ones’ heads and stealing candy from small children. Watch horror. Let the Shes rise!
