“The Evil Rises” (* out of four) was a grade-Z horror thriller about a group of young friends (Bailey La Flam, Michael Glauser, Julian De La Mora) and others who discover an ancient statue that (yawn) unleashes an evil spirit and entity unto the world; it’s up to a pizza delivery boy, a detective, and (naturally) a priest to save the day and send the statue back to the bowels of Hell. Or something like that. Incredibly low-rent thriller is also low on thrills and low on brains. Movies like these make you wonder whether the horror genre will ever effectively “rise” again!