#REVIEW: “EVIL DEAD BURN”

Review by Justin Waldman for Mr. Will Wong

Thirteen years ago, Fede Alvarez showed us that Evil Dead didn’t need to be campy fun, and gave us one of the most sadistic and brutal Evil Dead movies to date. Three years ago Lee Cronin gave us a more disturbing and visceral Evil Dead with Evil Dead Rise, but Fede’s vision still remained the crème of the crop in the new installments, now we have Sebastien Vanicek’s Evil Dead Burn which may be the most gnarly and gruesome evil dead yet, brings back some of the signature Comedy, and packs one hell of a punch to delight Evil Dead fans new and old.

Evil Dead Burn focuses on Alice (Souhelia Racoub) as she is with her husband, Will (George Pullar) and his brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan) are all celebrating Joseph’s birthday, but the night ends with an explosive fight between Alice and Will that leads to Will drunkenly driving off. He is speeding, being reckless, and a will deadite appears and stands in the middle of the road causing Will to crash and ultimately become a deadite and try to wreck havoc. During the next few days, Will’s funeral occurs with Susan and Edgar (Tandi Wright and Errol Shand respectfully) paying respects to their lost son, and Susan’s mother Polly (Maude Davey) whose clearly suffering from Alzheimer’s there as well as she cannot be alone, and Susan takes care of her.

Things are clearly tense as there is a sense of blame, and Alice and Will had a tumultuous relationship to begin with. But before Will is cremated, Edgar wants to visit him once more and pay his respects, and that is when he gets infected and becomes a Deadite and slowly tries to take out the entire family to recover what the Deadites want, and everyone is now caught in the cross fire of the chaos and hell that is about to be unleashed. When the Deadite personality and persona fully takes over, Evil Dead Burn becomes a sick twisted gore fest that is sure to leave some audiences wince and be delighted by the sheer chaos that unfolds.

What makes Evil Dead Burn work is the Script that is penned by both Sebastien Vanicek and Florent Bernard, they both understood what draws new audiences and old audiences into the Evil Dead franchise. While the originals were campy and fun, filled with some Horror, it has evolved into a gore fest and upped the stakes on how the Deadites can inflict hell on their victims and the audience can be delighted as it unfolds. Having a crucial understanding of this, giving audiences a Final Destination-style kill early on the in the opening prologue, and then doubling-down on what Alvarez and Cronin have set expectations to be for a new Evil Dead franchise makes Evil Dead Burn the gnarliest and most fun Evil Dead movie of the new franchise. The lack of character growth and development in any meaningful way or manner leaves the 2013 remake as the benchmark as the quintessential Evil Dead for a new generation.

With a lack of character development, this means the Cast has limited material to work with as the Film focuses on just delivering chaos and gruesomeness – and doing it incredibly well. Souheila Yacoub as our lead is fantastic in her fear, discomfort, and drivenness to just ensure her survival, her fight, and try and keep the peace for as long as she can. Hunter Doohan who is our co-lead, trying to protect his family from whatever is happening and acknowledging that their after what he refused to discard (his grandfathers study) and being the crux of this happening, weighs on him but he carries everything with importance and delivers an impactful performance. However, it is Maude Davey as Polly who steals the scenes throughout Evil Dead Burn. She packs the signature Comedy from the Raimi franchise and breaks tensions by being unhinged, hilarious, and simply chaotic. Everyone rounded out makes Evil Dead Burn a success, and the gnarliest of the script and direction is fully embraced by the cast, but without having further fleshed out characters and being able to deliver more than gore and gruesome moments the performances are less memorable for who performed them versus what just occurred in the movie.

Evil Dead Burn continues to deliver new darkly twisted and disturbing Evil Dead movies but fails at telling a story past Deadites want to get what they want and people suffering. Nothing wrong with that either, it makes for some great entertainment and chaos, but there is nothing truly further fleshed out and lacks something more engaging. Come for the brutality, gore and Deadites and enjoy the blood-soaked chaos that burns into your retinas that is Evil Dead Burn.

Warner Bros. Pictures Canada releases EVIL DEAD BURN in theatres on Friday July 10, 2026.