Evil Dead Burn - Rob's Review
Evil Dead Burn delivers in the most visceral way possible. It is blood-soaked, gory, disturbing, and brilliantly directed which is exactly what I've come to expect from this modern era of the Evil Dead franchise.
What I love about this series is that 2013 didn't try to reboot the campy, over-the-top horror of the original Bruce Campbell trilogy. Instead, it took the mythology of the Necronomicon and the Deadites and cranked the horror to eleven while stripping away most of the comedy. Evil Dead (2013) and Evil Dead Rise both told fresh stories within the same universe rather than simply remaking what came before.
Evil Dead (2013) remains my favorite of the modern films. Director Fede Álvarez delivered some of the most unexpectedly stunning horror imagery of the last twenty years. The rain of blood during the finale still lives rent-free in my head.
I was less impressed with Evil Dead Rise, so I went into Evil Dead Burn with high expectations but some hesitation. One thing these three directors all share is a willingness to push horror into uncomfortable territory with imagery audiences haven't seen before. Director Sébastien Vaniček has an aggressive, in-your-face style that genuinely made my skin crawl more than once. This is easily one of the goriest films I've seen in years.
But gore alone doesn't make a great horror movie.
What elevates Evil Dead Burn is that it attempts to expand the mythology through the history of the Price family. That's where the film deserves credit, but it's also where it stumbles. There are several plot points you simply have to accept for the story to work, and that's a difficult ask at times.
The Deadites return to the Price family home searching for a hidden dagger. The problem? The dagger is sitting untouched in a bag in the attic. They could simply tear the house apart instead of spending so much time tormenting the family—but if you can overlook that, the film remains an incredibly entertaining ride.
The performances are strong across the board, and the movie wastes no time transforming its characters into terrifyingly brutal Deadites. Unfortunately, the visual effects become a mixed bag. Early practical effects are excellent, but when Will Price, the original victim, returns, he's rendered almost entirely with CGI. The result is disappointing. A practical creature design would have been a game-changer, especially since the earlier effects are so convincing. It honestly made me wonder if the production ran short on its effects budget by the finale.
Souheila Yacoub makes for an excellent final girl, and I'm a sucker for that trope. I've written it myself more than once. She brings intensity, vulnerability, and just enough of an anti-hero edge to make her compelling. My only criticism is that she endures an almost unbelievable amount of punishment. By the end, after being physically and emotionally torn apart, she's somehow sitting in the back of an ambulance smoking a cigarette. The resilience stretches credibility, even by Evil Dead standards. Still, Yacoub carries the film once the rest of the cast inevitably becomes Deadites intent on eviscerating her.
There's a lot to unpack with Evil Dead Burn, but in the end I had an absolute blast. I flinched, watched parts of it through my fingers, and grimaced at the sheer brutality on display. The flaws are real, but they're easy to overlook thanks to the first-rate direction and the relentless Evil Dead energy that defines the film.
While it may not reach the box office numbers of previous entries, I suspect positive word of mouth will keep this one burning for horror fans.
If horror is your jam, Evil Dead Burn is absolutely worth seeing.
4/5
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