by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $9.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, George Pullar
Intro:
… a leaden, dull and frequently miserable slog of a film that tries to hide its tedium amidst unmotivated camera tricks, copious gore and loud noises.
The Evil Dead franchise now has as many “new” films – that is, flicks released from 2013 onwards – as it does “classic” entries, aka the original trilogy that ran from 1981-1993.
They’ve always been a weird bloody set of movies, to be honest. The 1981 original was a gonzo, balls-to-the-wall relentless splatterthon that introduced the world to the mad genius of director Sam Raimi and the gargantuan chin of star Bruce Campbell. Evil Dead 2 (1987) lightly retconned the original for rights holder reasons and then launched into one of the most spectacularly surreal, staggeringly creative and endlessly quotable movies in existence, and a timeless horror comedy classic to boot. Army of Darkness (1993) completed the trilogy in a rousing time-jumping adventure that brimmed with Ray Harryhausen energy and Campbell’s now perfected take on the character of Ash.
The series languished until 2013’s The Evil Dead when Fede Álvarez knocked out a take on the material that didn’t match Raimi’s genius, but was a solid entry, nonetheless. Lee Cronin stepped up to the plate in 2023 with Evil Dead Rise, a thoroughly entertaining, genuinely disturbing flick that managed to channel some of the gleeful malevolence that made Raimi’s first two outings so great.
All of which brings us now to Evil Dead Burn, the latest entry, this time from French director Sébastien Vaniček (Infested).
So, does the sixth entry in the franchise continue the rollercoaster of winning?
Sadly, no. Evil Dead Burn is the Evil Dead series’ first dud entry.
Evil Dead Burn contains a little connective tissue from Rise but is mainly the story of Alice (Souheila Yacoub), the widowed former wife of Will (George Pullar). Alice joins Will’s brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan), Joseph’s girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan) and his unpleasant, resentful parents Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand) for a grim wake in a rundown family home that rather inexplicably looks haunted long before anything demonic actually occurs. Also worth mentioning, Joseph’s departed grandfather has a longstanding connection to the Deadites (the evil entities from the film’s title) and possesses a certain artifact that they’re pretty bloody keen to get back. However, once bodies start dropping and the evil ones begin to mass, socially awkward dinners are the least of anyone’s problems.
On paper, the premise of Evil Dead Burn is pretty good, albeit a tad too similar to Rise. Family gathering? Solid location. Reference to an ancient artifact? Intriguing wrinkle. However, the execution from co-writer/director Sébastien Vaniček never quite works. It’s awkward in the opening as it tries to crowbar in lore from the previous film, but even when it does its own thing, something’s just… off.
Evil Dead (2013) was a bit of a retread, but it felt like a retread of The Evil Dead. Evil Dead Rise was cruel and nasty, but in a way that fit in with the larger Evil Dead vibe. Evil Dead Burn, apart from the usual nods to the Book of the Dead and Kandarian demons, just feels like a generic, mean-spirited supernatural horror about pissed-off zombies with inconsistent powers (sometimes they can boil whole sections of lakes with their minds, other times they’re bamboozled by thin doors). Worse still, Vaniček’s direction, while sporadically flashy, is so shaky and wobbly that it’s more likely to cause motion sickness than dizzy thrills. Not to mention that a number of sequences are rendered nigh on incomprehensible due to confusing camera work, muddy lighting or – in the film’s worst sequence – a tsunami of visual noise pollution and dodgy CGI in the shockingly weak climax.
The actors do their best with a wonky-as-hell script – Souheila Yacoub and Hunter Doohan give it a red hot go – but ultimately every character ends up being unlikable, dull or a combination or the two. It’s a gory film, for sure, and there are plenty of wince-inducing sequences. But unlike Rise, you almost certainly won’t care about any of these people, so severed heads or pulped skulls are greeted more with shrugs or vague appreciation of some decent practical make-up effects than shock or fear.
There’s no fun here, no joy, no gibbering and capering demonic vitality that makes the evil dead in The Evil Dead such engaging antagonists. This is a leaden, dull and frequently miserable slog of a film that tries to hide its tedium amidst unmotivated camera tricks, copious gore and loud noises.
If you’re in the mood for a nasty supernatural horror movie about a bunch of arseholes, most of whom die, then you might find something to like amidst the murk and unconvincing digital flames of Evil Dead Burn. If, however, you were hoping for The Evil Dead series to continue on its weird, wobbly yet wildly entertaining way, we’re sorry to be the bearers of bad news. This is one that should have stayed in the work shed.
Who’s laughing now? Not us, mate. Not us.
