Alice Goes to Sunday Lunch

A widowed French girl named Alice (Souheila Yacoub) overcomes her anxieties and reservations to have lunch with her dearly departed partner's ragtag family, to learn, live, laugh, and love again.

(Credit: Mastermind)
Not quite as tight as "Evil Dead Rise", due in part to a rather stop-start first 20-30 minutes (despite a rather fun boiling lake sequence) which deny the film the momentum it needs. The French turn at the helm of the series, however, begins to show a lot of premise with its uncomfortable family dynamic (though perhaps could have been stronger had it not shown the reality of the marriage at the start, and let it bubble as uncomfortable subtext and implication... though who am I to expect subtlty and build up in an "Evil Dead" movie?) and, as always, an excellent performance from Tandi Wright as the proud mother. When it hits its stride and the blood, guts and violence kick in: it's supremely fun. Again, not quite as white-knuckle bonkers as Aunt Beth's Babysitting Adventure, but it has an excellent top-down brawl, a fantastic bathroom sequence and (in keeping with my need for/cynical doubt that they can shock me or make me wince at this point) a part with a pen. It falters with its focus on lore from "Ash's Cabin Vacation" and a focus on Hunter Doohan's brother character, to the extent that you think that he's going to be the lead and they're doing a bait-and-switch; but it finds its feet once again in the last half, goes full throttle and gives you what you want from an "Evil Dead" movie: blood, guts, mayhem and carnage with a goofy sense of humour.
It's not as good as "Aunt Beth's Babysitting Adventure", but a solid and fun enough time. A good Evil Dead movie, not quite a great one.