“Evil Dead Burn” Review

“Evil Dead Burn” follows up 2013’s “Evil Dead” and 2023’s “Evil Dead Rise” as the non-Bruce Campbell installments for the beloved film franchise and, like those prior two takes, foregoes the slapstick charm of “Evil Dead 2” in favor of holding up the comparatively straight faced horror of the original “The Evil Dead” as its creative lodestar. Director Sébastien Vaniček delivers hyper-violent chaos that overstays its welcome but offers enough mayhem and carnage to satisfy fans of the franchise.

The Prices are a doomed family, not that they know that. “Evil Dead Burn” opens with the family’s youngest son, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), listening to recordings from his grandfather, an eccentric who explored the world for artifacts as part of a secretive cult. In the recording, the grandfather explains he found the Kandarian Dagger and has hidden it in the house, warning that to uncover the dagger will awaken the Deadite menace, who will feel its presence and stop at nothing to recover it. Joseph, of course, finds the dagger and unwraps it, setting a target on his family that will end with unimaginable bloodshed.

We meet the other players in short order, during Joseph’s birthday celebration at a nightclub with his girlfriend, Thya (Luciane Buchanan), his brother Will (George Pullar) and Will’s wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub). After a particularly bruising fight between Will and Alice, Will drunkenly drives off in anger, only to die in a horrible car accident caused by a Deadite. After the funeral, Alice agrees to spend the night with Will’s exclusionary family – mother Susan (Tandi Wright), father Edgar (Erroll Shand), and the dementia-suffering grandmother Polly (Maude Davey). It doesn’t take long for the presumed dead Will to start torturing the family in search of the lost dagger.

The Deadites are here and they will tear through everything and everybody until they get what they want.

What follows is the kind of extreme violence that has long defined this franchise, so over the top as to threaten to become cartoony. This movie isn’t just a bad choice for the faint of heart, it’s bad for the normal of heart, people who are generally fine with violent films but may be unprepared for just how sadistic and mean-spirited the mayhem in “Evil Dead Burn” will be. From the opening scene, these characters are tortured and murdered in ceaselessly creative ways, with director Sébastien Vaniček relishing in the gratuitous blood and viscera, basking in it, rubbing the characters’ and the audience’s faces in it.

Nobody is spared from over-the-top misery. Fingers are cut off, faces are smashed into a pulp, skin is peeled off. Some of the most innocent, sympathetic characters get some of the most unhinged deaths, including a family dog who just wants to comfort their troubled owner.

Vaniček establishes a madcap energy early on that seldom lets up, utilizing creative camerawork hearkening back to Sam Raimi’s best, the camera possessed by a Deadite spirit, flying through the woods and all over the house, visually reflecting the chaos onscreen.

While Vaniček acquits himself well with the horror, he struggles more with the comedy and drama. There are a few fumbling attempts at humor but the director lacks the internal rhythm to land a punchline as well as he can a fright, resulting in jokes that are more awkward than funny.

“Evil Dead Burn” loses steam in the third act, when Vaniček decides the true villain was the domestic violence all along. These attempts at serious domestic abuse themes are incongruent with the Looney Tunes horror hijinks, and feels in poor taste in a way the killing of innocent people does not.

Those who love the “Evil Dead” franchise for the playful comedy of the Bruce Campbell sequels may find “Evil Dead Burn” less fun than they would expect, opting as it does to pursue the direct hyper-violent horror of the original “The Evil Dead”, rather than the slapstick horror comedy of its sequels. Those looking for grotesque horror, filled with creative mutilations and delirious energy, will, on the other hand, be fully satisfied by this latest installment in one of Hollywood’s most unlikely franchises.

Evil Dead Burn
Rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and language.
Running Time: 1 hour and 50 minutes

Director Sébastien Vaniček
Writers Sébastien Vaniček, Florent Bernard
Stars Souheila Yacoub, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Tandi Wright, Erroll Shand, Maude Davey
Rating R
Running Time 110 Minutes
Genres Fantasy, Horror, Mystery