Evil Dead Burn

Deadites roam the screen in search of a vicious game of psychological torture and an easy buck (as far as the proprietors of this venerable intellectual property are concerned), when a bereaved and dysfunctional family finds itself stuck in a house in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do but go insane and try and kill each other as disgustingly and spectacularly as they can.

As in its 2023 predecessor Evil Dead Rise, Burn makes an attempt to grant backstory and emotional depth to the protagonists; but you do wonder who they’re trying to cater to – gorehounds will look upon them as mere fodder, and civilian audiences will be put off by the gore.

Worryingly, the first act seems to be dragging out a ninety-minute piece of schlock into a 109-minute mediocre family drama, although there is promising dark humour in a funeral scene whose mood is ruined by construction work outside and professional incompetence inside. The resulting bathos is, depending on your disposition, either hilarious or cringeworthy.

The cinematography is a fashionably dull grey, despite the odd shaft of ghostly light and spotting of yellow lamps, while the set designs are tediously realistic. The editor has a tendency towards breathlessly fast cutting during the action set pieces, but builds towards them with a prolonged and patient suspense, lingering on the horrifically infernal imagery that crowns them.

Composer duo Double Danger use the human voice as their primary instrument, as unearthly Ligetian choirs punctuate every jump and shriek with wordless hymns to the hell from which the film’s revolting and very believably made-up villains have spawned.

Director Sébastien Vaniček seems quite enamoured of the psychological and social commentary of the 28 Days Later series, which for some fans might be an awkward fit in this usually less serious universe. But films like these stand or fall on the execution (pun very much intended) of the kills, punches, stabs, dismemberments and eviscerations, and this one is consistently gory, nasty and inventive.

Once the plot really gets going, the film resolves into a thrillingly gruesome revenge fantasy for anyone who’s been in an abusive relationship or been unfairly despised by their in-laws or, in the case of Souheila Yacoub’s latest spunky and tooled-up descendant of Bruce Campbell’s Ash, both.

Given that this is an exercise in brand management, the creative team behind Evil Dead Burn have infused considerable style and effort into this mouldy old recipe. It’s replete with shocks, chuckles, and expertly upended buckets of splatter. While it may lack some of the gonzo energy of the original films, it’s probably a dead end to imagine what Michigan’s Master of Mayhem Sam Raimi might have done with it anyway.

-Stew Mott-