Joey Magidson
The Evil Dead franchise is enjoying a resurgence, given how well received Evil Dead Rise (reviewed here) was. In fact, not only do we now have Evil Dead Burn, a prequel in Evil Dead Wrath is already in production. The property has never felt more active, and given how gory it always has been, it somehow has never been bloodier than it is now. Fans of the last installment should be very satisfied with this gorefest, but those with uneasy stomachs need not apply. I’ve seen just about everything in a fright flicks at this point, and even here, I recoiled once or twice.
Evil Dead Burn is easily the most graphic and violent of the series to date, which is really saying something. There’s a focus on the blood and guts here that could have proven distracting from the other elements at play, but there’s such clear thematic elements here that mixes decently well. Now, don’t get me wrong, while the film does tackle abusive relationships, trauma, and toxic families, this is far more about deadite carnage. To that end, the movie more than delivers.
We kick off with a couple of suitably brutal deaths at the hands of a deadite, but soon after the main story kicks in. We’re introduced to Alice (Souheila Yacoub), as well as her husband William (George Pullar), his brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan), and Joseph’s wife Thya (Luciane Buchanan). During a birthday celebration for Joseph at William’s club, Alice angers her husband, leading to an argument. Her drives off, only to meet a fiery end.
Having lost William, Alice and her late husband’s family, including his parents Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgat (Erroll Shand) come together at a secluded house to mourn. Of course, this is also where the Book of the Dead happens to reside, and demonic forces are being unleashed. Slowly but surely, the family is transformed into Deadites, one by one, with Alice a target, but also an ancient weapon believed to be on the grounds. Not only will she have to work through her trauma and this toxic family, she’ll also have to survive some of the most brutal deadite violence we’ve ever seen.
There isn’t much character development to be found here, though they’re at least not two dimensional characters. Souheila Yacoub makes for a solid scream queen/action heroine, as she’s the one we spend the most time with. Hunter Doohan is presented initially as a co-lead with Yacoub, and he’s fine too, but eventually he falls a bit into the background. Luciane Buchanan and Erroll Shand end up with more deadite time than most, while Tandi Wright gets to initiate one of the strangest moments that the franchise has ever attempted. In addition to George Pullar, the small cast also includes Maude Davey.
Filmmaker Sébastien Vanicek brings a mild French new extremity feel to things here. Directing a screenplay he co-wrote with Florent Bernard, Vanicek ups the carnage, really digging in, no pun intended. Bernard and Vanicek aren’t afraid to use trauma to their gory benefit, while they also throw in one or two of the weirder moments in the franchise. Now, there’s also a part involving a dog that I absolutely hated, and Vanicek couldn’t resist a spider cameo (he just directed the spider creature feature Infested), but visually, things are pretty creative. The script does fall a bit short, given it’s occasionally heady European influences, but it’s nothing that some well depicted gore can’t paper over.
Evil Dead Burn isn’t quite as tight or overall satisfying as Evil Dead Rise, but it certainly gets the job done. This is a very nasty bit of business, but given the goals of the Evil Dead series, that has to be taken as a compliment. Bring on Evil Dead Wrath!
SCORE: ★★★
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