Evil Dead Burn – Movie Review
Evil Dead is back (again), baby! After a rollicking and violent spin-off series began (again) in 2023 with Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise (although credit must also be given to Fede Alverez’s 2013 Evil Dead for keeping the brutality alive), it became apparent that giving up and coming horror filmmakers the torch to keep Sam Raimi’s flag flying within standalone stories in this franchise was a great move. And the next entry into the series comes from French filmmaker Sebastien Vanicek, who injects a whole lot of French New Extremity style filmmaking to make what could be the gnarliest and nastiest Evil Dead movie yet with Evil Dead Burn.
Following the sudden and shocking death of her husband, Alice (Souheila Yacoub) must navigate her complicated grief with her late husband’s family at an old family home in the middle of nowhere – a house holding some terrifying secrets related to the necronomicon (aka The Book of the Dead). While Alice has strong connections with the younger members of the family, Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and Thya (Luciane Buchanan), she struggles to feel the love from her in-laws, Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand), and their mother, Polly (Maude Davey). But, this upsetting affair soon becomes the family reunion from hell as the family slowly become Deadites, leading to some disgustingly violent shenanigans.
And, oh boy, are those shenanigans violent. Sebastien Vanicek has undoubtedly made the most brutal and nasty Evil Dead movie to date… and that is saying something. Cheese graters and box cutters be damned, Vanicek taps into the French New Extremity style of gritty and relentless filmmaking (made popular by films in the early 2000s such as High Tension or Martyrs) that is not just brutal in a physical sense, but contains such a nasty energy behind the violence that exacerbates the squirm factor.
Car head rests and doors, dishwashers, grass trimmers – everything is a weapon of mass gore, and in the hand of some nasty Deadites, leads to some truly uncomfortable moments. You have to be a special kind of horror freak to really enjoy what’s happening on screen (especially when no one, human or animal, is safe), but there’s no denying how impressive it is that Vanicek has managed to one-up the core element of a franchise that has previously relished in being downright nasty.
Even within all of the gnarly nastiness, there is still a wicked sense of fun that fuels that chaos, which is another staple of the Evil Dead series. As much as it’s a fucked up affair, it is kind of funny. Whether in human or Deadite form, the core cast who carry a good chunk of the film within its primarily singular location are having a bloody good time (literally and metaphorically) balancing the film’s brutality and wicked humour. The sentient Deadites quipping and scheming with some absolutely heinous one-liners is a good amount of shocking and hilarious, while there are reaction shots of characters watching the chaos unfold that is truly laugh-out-loud funny. However, that fun doesn’t necessarily blend too well with the story’s attempt at some pretty heavy sincerity.
At its core, Evil Dead Burn is a confronting exploration of how different people grieve, and how this heightened sense of emotion can uncover the truths about family that often stay hidden. With the emotional narrative focused around Alice, who through flashbacks has a much more sinister and deeper story behind her complications around grieving her husband, compared to how a mother and father may be holding resentment towards Alice through their grief. There are some complex layers to the emotional core of the story, and there absolutely should be props given to Vanicek and co-writer Florent Bernard for continuing the Evil Dead tradition of exploring the emotional pains that often fuel the physical.
However, it’s not the strongest element of the film, and it’s been done better before within the franchise. Evil Dead Burn just takes a little too long to really get going, and while the emotional set up makes sense to some of the pay-offs later in the film (including a finale that may prove a little more divisive in its execution), there is a pacing drag and dreariness that comes with the innate sincerity of it all, resulting in a slight tonal clash at points once the Deadite action kicks off.
All in all, Evil Dead Burn pulls off something that seemed impossible – it took the nastiest, gnarliest, grossest horror franchise and made it gnarlier and nastier in a film that is brutal in both its violence and wicked sense of humour. Not all of the emotional beats of the narrative land, but for the horror sicko fans of this franchise, there is a lot to chew on with this latest entry.
Evil Dead Burn is in Australian cinemas July 9
