Evil Dead Burn Review: A Bloody Good Time
by Chris Evangelista · /FilmBefore Christopher McQuarrie took over, the "Mission: Impossible" franchise followed an interesting format: each film was helmed by a different director, and in turn, each director brought their own distinct style to their respective film. While I love (most of) the movies McQuarrie made, I confess I kind of wish "Mission: Impossible" had stuck with this scenario and kept handing the sequels to new directors. But while "Mission: Impossible" gave up on this idea, the "Evil Dead" series has now embraced it, and it's working out wonderfully. (Of course, the "Mission" series isn't the first to do this; the "Alien" films also adopted this format for a while.)
The "Evil Dead" films can be broken into two distinct eras. There's the original trilogy — "The Evil Dead," "Evil Dead II," and "Army of Darkness" — directed by Sam Raimi. Then there's the current modern period, which has so far given us three very different films all helmed by different directors. First there was Fede Álvarez's gruesome 2013 remake/reboot "Evil Dead." Then in 2023, Lee Cronin directed the entertaining "Evil Dead Rise." Now, there's "Evil Dead Burn," a blast of blood-soaked mayhem from filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček. (Another movie, "Evil Dead Wrath," directed by Francis Galluppi, is due out in 2028.)
Raimi's original films all have their own distinct flavor. While all three share a main character, Bruce Campbell's hapless hero Ash, they feel unique. The first film was a freakshow of clever camera tricks and creative gore. The sequel was a quasi-remake that embraced slapstick farce. And "Army of Darkness" sent Ash back in time to give us a blend of fantasy and horror. The new "Evil Dead" films are similarly different, though not quite as flavorful as Raimi's work.
Evil Dead Burn is surprisingly funny
Álvarez's 2013 effort abandoned any trace of comedy, while "Evil Dead Rise," which also had no real room for humor, relocated the action from a cabin in the woods to a high-rise apartment building. Now "Evil Dead Burn" gives us a family get-together gone to hell, and the results are a hoot.
Vaniček, who directed the delightfully icky spider movie "Infested," sets out to give us the best of both worlds by following the body horror nastiness of the previous two "Dead" films while also remembering to have a little fun. I liked "Evil Dead" 2013 and "Evil Dead Rise," but both of those films tried so hard to be full-blown tales of terror that they forgot what made Raimi's original trilogy so enjoyable: Raimi wanted the audience to have a good time, even when he was trying to scare them.
Despite what the intense marketing has shown, "Evil Dead Burn" is surprisingly funny, giving us a hefty dose of comedy beats that liven the mood and keep the movie from being an unrelenting pain fest. Vaniček doesn't lay the humor on too thick, but it's very clearly there, and it makes the movie all the more memorable. But gorehounds need not worry: "Evil Dead Burn" is also unapologetically nasty, finding clever new ways to torture its main characters and reduce their bodies to pulpy, blood-drenched meat.
There's a needless MacGuffin in Evil Dead Burn
In "Evil Dead Burn," French transplant Alice (Souheila Yacoub) is about to spend some time with her American in-laws. This won't be a pleasant visit. Alice's husband Will (George Pullar) has just died in a fiery car crash, and while Will's grieving family have nothing but fond memories of the dead man, Alice knows that Will was actually a violent, abusive jerk who treated her cruelly and left her with both emotional and physical scars.
This setup might make you think that "Evil Dead Burn" is taking a "the real horror is trauma!" approach that so many modern horror movies adopt, but while there's an emotional throughline involving abuse, denial, and breaking free of generational trauma, Vaniček and co-writer Florent Bernard are primarily using that for window dressing.
Unfortunately, they also add an unnecessary MacGuffin into the mix. In the previous "Evil Dead" movies, the Deadites, the franchise's possessed demonic villains, simply exist to cause terror, pain, and death. "Evil Dead Burn" gives them a bit more of a purpose: they're hunting for an object that's been in the possession of Will's family for generations. This feels a tad pointless and also robs the Deadites of a bit of their nasty nihilistic charm.
Evil Dead Burn wastes no time
"Evil Dead Burn" wastes no time getting to the terror. Almost immediately, things start to go very wrong. After the family retreats to an old, crumbling house, Will's father, Edgar (Erroll Shand), begins acting ... strange. Will's mother, Susan (Tandi Wright), also gives Alice the cold shoulder, and it seems clear that both of Will's parents have never been particularly fond of their son's wife.
The only sympathetic family members seem to be Will's brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan), although even they treat Alice a tad poorly at times (simply put: Alice is the only likable character here, and Yacoub makes a sympathetic lead). Also on hand: Susan's elderly mother Polly (Maude Davey), who is suffering from dementia (and who also provides many of the film's big laughs).
All of these characters will suffer grievous bodily harm throughout "Evil Dead Burn," as that has become the franchise's modus operandi: inflicting pain on its main characters in creative ways that make the audience cringe. Most of these characters will also become possessed by those nasty Deadites, with poor Alice serving as our final girl heroine trying to get through the night. Alice doesn't become a quippy ass-kicker like Ash, although Vaniček keeps teasing moments involving deadly power tools for her to use. She mostly just wants to find a way to survive.
Director Sébastien Vaniček gives Evil Dead Burn a great visual flair
"Evil Dead Burn" starts to stretch its story a bit thin as it goes along, but Vaniček, working with cinematographer Philip Lozano, keeps things lively by unleashing one jaw-dropping camera trick after another. This is in keeping with the spirit of the series: Raimi's original became so renowned because the young filmmaker found ways to get cinematically creative on a small budget.
There were multiple moments in "Evil Dead Burn" where I wanted to mutter "Oh hell yeah" under my breath as the film almost casually dropped one killer shot after another, be it the way the camera stays mounted on a boat that flips over in the film's prologue, or a delightfully clever moment where it's revealed that the action we're watching unfold is actually framed within a wall mirror. The camera is constantly spinning about and flipping upside down, keeping everything off-kilter in a manner that aids the narrative rather than distracting from it.
And it's fun. The previous two "Evil Dead" movies, especially 2013's "Evil Dead," had virtually no room for fun, and while that's fine, I have to say I missed laughing along with the events of these films. I don't want to give you the impression that "Evil Dead Burn" is a full-blown bit of slapstick like "Evil Dead II," but it has more of a sense of humor than the previous two movies combined, and that goes a long way (there's one particular cut that quickly smashes from someone getting hit by a car to a woman shaking her derriere on a dance floor that had my audience howling with good-natured laughter).
I hope they keep making Evil Dead movies with different directors
Three films in, I think it's fair to say the modern "Evil Dead" movies have found the right formula. While nothing will ever quite compare to what Raimi originally created (how could it?), I've grown quite fond of this new approach of handing each movie to a different director and letting them run wild.
Of the three new films, "Burn" is the most distinct, at least visually. But I can't wait to see what Francis Galluppi does with "Evil Dead Wrath," nor can I wait to see what happens when another filmmaker takes over for him, should that happen (and it should).
There's still plenty of life left in "Evil Dead."
/Film Rating: 7 out of 10
"Evil Dead Burn" opens in theaters on July 10, 2026.