Evil Dead Burn ★★½

Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead trilogy established the core elements of the franchise: ruthless ‘Deadites’ brought to life by reciting incantations from the Book of the Dead, slapstick comedy, and the existence of three versions of the Book of the Dead, this last element key to establishing the reboot of the franchise in 2013’s Evil Dead. In the 2013 film and its follow-up Evil Dead Rise, the franchise has gradually steered away from convention: Evil Dead taking on an unrelenting grimness and doing away with slapstick humor, the events of Evil Dead Rise occurring in an apartment complex rather than a cabin in the woods, and now Evil Dead Burn where reading incantations from the Book aren’t what releases the Deadites. 

Evil Dead Burn picks up where Evil Dead Rise left off with Deadite Jessica (Greta Van Den Brink) on a rampage. Her path intersects with the family at the center of Evil Dead Burn through a chance encounter with Will (George Pullar) that leads to his death. Will, while drunk, had gotten into an argument with his wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub), brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan), and Joseph’s girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan). Will has an abusive relationship with Alice and this latest fight has her seek consolation from Joseph and Thya which enrages Will and he rushes off to his inadvertent end. The family is devastated by their loss, and a taut relationship between Alice and Will’s parents is only made more strained by his death. Alice is portrayed as an outsider to this family, Will having met Alice in France and his parents never truly accepting her. Evil Dead Burn makes a point of emphasizing Alice’s French heritage through cruel stereotypes directed towards her as a French/foreign woman and including several French songs in its soundtrack. Evil Dead Burn director Sébastien Vaniček certainly chooses an unusual way to pay homage to his nationality.

Where we see Vaniček’s impact on the film most notably is in its mean-spirited sense of humor, particularly at the expense of characters. Will and Joseph’s grandmother has dementia, her unawareness of the horror that is happening likely to get the most laughs. And Joseph’s cowardice leads to a rather painful sequence of events for him as a Deadite takes advantage of his fear. Vaniček approaches Evil Dead lore with both reverence and irreverence as the film ties back to Professor Raymond Knowby and Army of Darkness yet resists the use of a chainsaw as a familiar weapon. The film’s horror bears most resemblance to Evil Dead Rise, reinforcing the dangerousness of household objects, particularly in the kitchen. Horror here is of the gruesome variety, the film not as bloody as its modern predecessors yet disgusting in its means of converting certain characters into Deadites.

Evil Dead Burn’s horror is most effective when the Deadites first take hold in the family, leveraging the tension between Alice and Will’s parents to build to an upsetting burst of violence. This scene and the one that follows are standouts in their effectiveness in inducing fear, both within the family and in film audiences. From here however, the film loses its punch, the inevitable fight for survival within the family’s house not as meticulously constructed as its predecessor’s unforgettable elevator and peephole scenes. Alice’s troubled dynamic with her deceased husband and his family, particularly with Will’s father who Erroll Shand plays in a menacing performance, is not realized to its fullest potential and the Deadites’ taunting of Alice remains surface level rather than really getting under her skin. Partly because of this weakness in dialogue, Evil Dead Burn unfortunately lacks the memorable one-liners that have defined earlier films in the franchise.

Although Evil Dead Burn is admirable for its willingness to forego convention, its departure from norms isn’t enough to distinguish itself favorably from its franchise or from an unusually strong summer of horror. This is reflected even in the film’s final confrontation where viewers would be hard-pressed to compare its intensity favorably to that of the Abomination or the Marauder. Still though, Evil Dead Burn is a serviceable entry to the series and extends the lore that has captivated fans of horror’s best enduring franchise. It won’t close the divide between those who enjoy the modern entries and those who believe the series has strayed too far from course, but both camps can certainly be in agreement that the smaller gap between franchise entries is welcome.