- Written and Directed by Sébastien Vaniček
- July 10, 2026
- Based on The Evil Dead by Sam Raimi
A young woman seeks solace with her in-laws following the death of her husband in a secluded house where they encounter Deadites.
I’ve judged Evil Dead 2013, Evil Dead Rise, and now Evil Dead Burn against the original Sam Rami trilogy. With its macabre humor and comedic gore, the first three films along with Ash vs Evil Dead were unlike anything to come to the screen before or since despite two films so far having the Evil Dead name attached. The newer films are straight horror instead of being horror comedies.
While Evil Dead Rise took place in a multi-story building (hence the use of ‘rise’), fire and heat play a significant part in this. That they have now built a movie series around a word should have been a bit of a warning. Burn aims to make you uncomfortable with some of the things that happen but never gets frightening. Not even a lazy jump scare. I am cool with them though.
After a scene that has LITTLE to do with the main story involving Jessica (Anna-Maree Thomas) from the last film, Burn segues to a club scene with a group that quickly becomes insufferable as they snip at each other during what is supposed to be a birthday celebration. It is clear there are strong and unhidden divisions among them, so you ask why they are there together. Movies do this way too often.
After an important death the story movies to what amounts to a good house in the missile of nowhere. What you realize is the Deadites were already in the area where most of this movie happens. Why did they then need the character of Alice (Souheila Yacoub) to read from the Necronomicon? They clearly had an idea where to go to get the rather milquetoast designed Kandarian Dagger. What are the rules here?
Back to character relationships. So many people in this movie don’t really like each other. It eventually makes them unlikable as they pick and prod at one another and explode over some of the smallest things. Writers Sébastien Vaniček and Florent Bernard create forced-feeling issues whenever the dynamic amongst the group settles to a more believable hostility. Not every character or relationship needs to be damaged to make things interesting. Too much damage can make them and the film difficult to watch.
These people are meant to be a family in mourning but they’re just bitter and angry and resentful. Burn is an excuse to hear them complain. They MUST take swipes and snips at one another no matter what is going on. Even later in the film as the Deadites are closing in, they cannot put their petty differences aside. Instead they must get that one last barb in.
What we see isn’t scary or shocking. It’s just violent or darkly supernatural. There’s plenty of gore and other things, but the story is traumatic. Not dramatic and not horror. This is 109 minutes of people venting. William (George Pullar) is angry that Alice does not want children is angry that William does. Family matriarch Polly (Maude Davey) is angry with her father travelling the world as part of the Circle of Wise Men as well as her husband for not being as passionate as well as Alice for reasons that predate the death of William. I could go on but I hope you get the idea. If not then this film brimming with insufferable twats might be for you!
I knew right away that the outsider French abused wife Alice would be the hero of the whole movie. As much as Evil Dead Burn is about the family and its trauma, its central character is the one who married into it all and just wants to leave. That makes the ultimate point of the story her leaving despite the heavy amount of personal bitterness.
One of the more visually impressive effects is the scorched son. It’s cool and pits-of-Hell looking over what Evil Dead usually does. William’s return is teased as the family mourns his death making him a bit of a final boss for the story. All the other bosses have been defeated but the Deadites send him because he will get the dagger they seek. How? Be menacing while implying Alice stayed because she has an abuse kink. That is his M.O.
I had no understanding of any true character motivations or names or anything like that. Everyone was essentially a blank slate. I ended the movie with them as I began-a complete stranger. Why they were the way they were could be an accumulation of things but what exactly made them so fractious?
Then there is the Zach Snyder color palette used in Evil Dead Burn. It’s not gray because they dressed the set and environments like that. It’s drab because they used a filter. Something that could look bright and garish like a bit of classic Hammer horror is not what I’m requesting. When I’m looking for is something more authentically photographed that allows me to distinguish the characters but also sets the look.
I found myself absolutely bored by this. Not so bored I turned it off, but I wasn’t invested in watching this either for the kills or the gore or for the characters. It’s a movie that offers almost nothing worth watching other than the tease offered by ‘Evil Dead’ that it will get better. It does not.
I was completely underwhelmed by Evil Dead Burn. It was a bunch of terrible people endlessly complaining rather than a horror movie. Stick with the original films.
