Evil Dead Burn Ups The Mean-Spirited Ante
The Evil Dead formula might be the most successful in the modern era of horror movies. You take the book of the dead, the Necronomicon, and you hand it to a new fresh filmmaker and let them get on with it. It worked with Fede Alvarez and Evil Dead (2013), it worked with Lee Cronin and Evil Dead Rise, and now it works with Sébastien Vanicek and Evil Dead Burn.
The film follows Alice (Souheila, freshly widowed after her husband died in a drunk driving accident. There’s a lot more to it than that, which is revealed throughout the film, but the family she married into offers some juicy secrets for the Deadites to latch onto. After her husband’s death, the family retreats to a vacation house full of memories and darkness. They’re joined by Joseph (Hunter Doohan), his wife Thya (Luciane Buchanan), Susan (Tandi Wright), Edgar (Erroll Shand), and Polly (Maude Davey).
Their grandfather was interested in a new secret society and the Book of the Dead. His research and a previous film’s Deadite, bring back the scourge to terrorize the family. From there, it’s all gas and gore as Alice and the family fight off loved ones turned into monsters searching for a dagger that’s the key to keeping them at bay.
Evil Dead Burn continues the trend of placing a fundamentally messed-up familial situation in a new environment and throwing Deadites at it. The subtext hits you like a truck but doesn’t overpower the film in any way. There’s a lot about abuse, neglect, and family dynamics here for audiences to chew on.
Some Truly Head-Rest Inducing Scenes
From the get-go, Evil Dead Burn does not screw around. The opening scene might not have the opening title sequence glory that was Evil Dead Rise, but it immediately lets the audience know that they’re in for a hellacious movie. It only gets better from there with effects and set pieces that are among the best in the series. Head-rests through the cheek, hot candle wax down the gullet, an extended beatdown, near-misses with saw blades, Deadite makeout sessions, it’s all here.
Evil Dead Burn is also surprisingly hilarious. This isn’t like some sort of Marvel movie, including humor just for the sake of it, though. Polly, the dementia-riddled grandmother, is the source of much of the humor in the film as she comments on the situation or says something that’s out of place because her mental state is somewhere else. There’s also unintentional comedy where a Deadite is going through the house absolutely savaging Joseph during an extended sequence.
That sequence features a one-take with Alice trying to hide as Deadite Edgar turns on some brute force. An abusive father turns even worse as a Deadite, and Erroll Shand’s performance is terrifying. Sebastien Vanicek and Co’s camera work during this extended section is masterful. There are other spots in the film where it doesn’t make any sense how a camera can move that way, but it works on screen. Evil Dead has always been known for the fluid movement of the camera and Evil Dead Burn continues that.
A Crowd-Pleaser For Sure
The film centers on Souheilia Yacoub’s performance as Alice. She drives all the action, she keeps the plot moving along, and she’s our final girl. Everything that happens in the film is because of her, good and bad. The familial dynamic of Evil Dead Burn is arguably the most fascinating. Previous entries in the franchise have looked into how messed up a family can get, but this one feels like the most real. We’ve all been in some sort of situation like the ones that Alice gets put in and it makes for a better and more relatable film.
The only complaint that I would have is that the film feels like it reaches a natural conclusion and then goes on for a bit longer. It makes sense in the film and with the context of an abusive relationship, but it does make it drag just a bit. Outside of that, Evil Dead Burn is an exquisite horror film.
This film does not screw around in the slightest. I was struck sitting in my seat, waiting with bated breath for every scene and to see where it was going. There are so many moments where you think they can’t go there, and they do. I was sitting in my chair with horror and glee at what Evil Dead Burn was up to.
For longtime fans of the series, this is yet another satisfying entry and for newcomers, the water is warm, burn with us.
Evil Dead Burn releases in theaters on July 10th, 2026.
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