Most Evil Dead movies rely on a basic attribute: somehow someone either reads from the Necronomicon or a recording does. The words incite the Deadite demons to attack and infect leading to a bloody battle where friends and family slaughter each other in a gore-fest for the ages. There are exceptions such as Army of Darkness, but the basic premise holds for the franchise.
More recently with 2013’s Evil Dead directed by Fede Álvarez and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise directed by Lee Cronin, there has been an attempt to introduce a thematic undercurrent to individuate the movies. Evil Dead concentrated on ultra-violence in a cabin but also on the will of Mia (Jane Levy) to survive despite the dangerous drug addiction that led to her drying out with her friends. In Evil Dead Rise two estranged sisters deal with motherhood and abandonment in an apartment block with ultra-violence. The latest entry, Evil Dead Burn a toxic family mourn the loss of their abusive and aggressive son, and victim blame his wife for his domestic violence.
French director Sébastien Vaniček and co-writer Florent Bernard understand the blueprint for Evil Dead movies and even try for a bit of humour here and there. But, and this is a big but, in 2026 why is it considered entertaining to watch a woman be verbally and physically attacked for nearly the entirety of a film’s 109-minute runtime? Yes, of course, an Evil Dead film is pushing the limits of violence and gore; but if Evil Dead Burn is trying to make a point about ending and leaving dangerous domestic arrangements it copiously and sickly reinforces the abuse by switching it to something supernatural. Vaniček’s take is rife with a regressive misogyny and it is an endurance test.
Joseph Price (Hunter Doolan) is a writer pouring over the diaries of his ancient history specialist grandfather who was involved with the Society of the Wise Man – researching the Naturom Demonto. As Joe is reading the work he accidentally finds a weapon that can destroy the Deadites – the Knife of Kandar – and in uncovering it awakens the Deadites who manipulate circumstances so they can take possession of it and destroy it.
Joseph’s brother Will (George Pullar) and his wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub) are at Will’s club/restaurant celebrating Joseph’s birthday along with Joseph’s girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan). Will gifts Joseph a thousand-dollar fountain pen but is angry when Alice gives him one of her photographs. Will’s behaviour towards Alice is belittling and controlling and later becomes violent. He gets in his car drunk and hits a Deadite on his way home. Alice has decided in the interim that she is done with the marriage, but the marriage isn’t done with her when she has to turn up as a grieving wife to Will’s (seriously under-attended) funeral and is treated like property by Will’s parents Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand). Also present is Will’s grandmother Polly (Maude Davey) who is suffering from dementia.
Of course, Will was the “in” for the Deadites trying to get their hands on the Knife of Kandar which is in the overly dilapidated family home of Susan where Will currently works. It’s also where they decide to have the family wake. Edgar is the first to turn but eventually it’s Alice against the entire family including grandma.
Evil Dead Burn delivers the usual blood-soaked, limb-ripping, action. However, Alice is a target for every manner of degradation even before the in-laws get possessed. The film drags despite the quite excellent soundtrack by Double Danger and the frenetic editing of Maxime Caro. Vaniček’s choice to favour extreme close-ups far too often makes the film choppier than it should be, but when he allows his cinematographer Philip Lozano some space, it must be admitted that the film has some stylish flourishes.
Dialling the notch up for gore doesn’t make for a better Evil Dead film, especially when the thematic throughline is already about a woman, a French immigrant, who is without any support dealing with dangerous behaviour before the Deadites get involved. Splatter for splatter’s sake can work, but in Evil Dead Burn it comes off as extended punishment.
Evil Dead Burn has the thinnest reasoning behind the awakening of the Deadites and doesn’t get better in terms of script. There’s something fundamentally grotesque about Vaniček’s vision that is obnoxious rather than menacing. A repulsive film on every conceivable level which puts everyone through the wringer, dead, alive, or Deadite.
Director: Sébastien Vaniček
Screenplay: Sébastien Vaniček, Florent Bernard. Based on the work of Sam Raimi
Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Erroll Shand, Tandi Wright, Hunter Dolan
Cinematography: Philip Lozano
Soundtrack: Double Danger