The Movie: Evil Dead Burn
The Director: Sébastien Vanicek
The Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Errol Shand, Maude Davey
The Story: After the loss of her husband, a woman seeks solace with her in-laws. As one by one they transform into deadites, she comes to discover that the vows she took in life - survive even in death.
The Rating: 7 / 10
The Review:
Evil Dead is one of the most iconic horror franchises in the history of cinema with each installment going to great lengths to give audiences a bloody good time and this latest entry is no exception. Sébastien Vanicek, whose 2023 debut feature film Infested had arachnophobes heading for the hills, takes over as writer and director filling the movie with as many stabs, chops, bites, hacks, kicks, burns, gun shots, and any other form of pain and destruction inducing violence you could ever think of.
The bulk of the story is contained inside of a run-down home owned by the family members who are central to this movie although new to the franchise. There are a few minor threads that carry over from the franchise's lore, but Vanicek does a great job of creating another stand-alone story that lives within the "Deadite" universe, so to speak. There's also less of a focus on dumping massive amounts of blood all over everything in exchange for more brutal violence similar to what might fit into the French horror cinema era that brought us classics like 2008's Martyrs and 2007's Frontier(s).
The story focuses on dysfunctional family dynamics and toxic spousal abuse which both can be horrifying on their own before you ever add supernatural demons to the mix which was a great foundation for Vanicek to work with and also allowed for a fresh take on telling this type of story. Horror in general has explored these topics in various forms although dropping them into the context of the Evil Dead franchise made for some fun and compelling story telling beats that cements how the movie treads close to absurdity without ever falling over the edge.
If you're looking for the Sam Raimi style comedic aspects that were a hallmark of his films, you're not going to find it this time around and that's not a bad thing at all. Tonally and visually, the director creates something entirely new in a way that fits his brand of brutality when it comes to all the violent acts that take place. I also like the fact that just about everything becomes a weapon and Vanicek manages to nod back to the previous movies use of something like a chainsaw in a subtle way that just makes you happy that it's there.
Souheila Yacoub plays the main character and, for those who take deep dives into the horror genre, you may recognize her from Gaspar Noé's Climax, a movie I loved but never want to watch again. Between these two movies, Yacoub has more than adequately proven that she can take on roles that push the characters to their physical and emotional limits which I'm sure is at least in part thanks to her background in both dance and gymnastics. Out of any of the cast, I would say her performance as well as the work we get from Tandi Wright as the matriarch of the family stands out and both give real weight to the issues and challenges their characters face.
Fans of the franchise should be happy with this installment, even with the continued exploration into different styles of filmmaking that began with the 2013 Evil Dead reboot and will continue at least in to 2028 with Evil Dead Wrath. It makes me happy to see Evil Dead movies alive and well especially with both Sam Raimi and the man himself, Mr. Bruce Campbell involved in some capacity.
Thank you for reading this review. Writing about horror movies is always fun for me as I've been a fan of the genre dating back to childhood memories watching Alien, Poltergeist, and whatever other scary movies my parents would let me and my brother watch. I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.
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