‘Evil Dead Burn’ Review: Violent, Visceral, and Shockingly Humorous Horror
Evil Dead Burn continues the franchise’s merry tradition of brutally assaulting its audience with flinch-inducing horror. The movie makes good on that promise as the film opens with a victim being barbed by a swarm of fishing hooks as a deadite reels in her prey by the face. With almost half a dozen movies in this franchise, filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček and producer Sam Raimi have gently nudged it back towards its silly side, just not in the way you think. The violence is grotesque and horrific, but there is also a comical, demented execution to the bloodshed. Almost like the deadites are Johnny Knoxville, pronouncing “Welcome to Jackass,” before taking a big shot of hot candle wax.
With humor also comes style. The latest entry not only aims to make the audience squirm in their seats; it also features a fresh visual approach to unleashing mayhem. Making it one of the more impressively shot Evil Dead movies in a while.
The plot of Evil Dead Burn
The sequel, written by Florent Bernard and Vaniček, explores additional themes of generational aggression within families. The story Bernard and Vaniček are telling pinpoints the learned behavior between a father and son.
The film’s main plot begins at a nightclub, showing two couples in a social mix as loud music drums in the background. The first couple is William (George Pullard) and his spouse, Alice (Souheila Yacoub), along with William’s brother, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), and his girlfriend, Thya (Luciane Buchanan).
From the jump, we understand William has little self-control over his emotions. Alice, a French woman who drank too much, becomes flirty with William’s brother, Joseph, and William emotionally whips Alice with his words right in front of everyone before storming off in his car alone and getting into an accident. Unfortunately for William, his car wreck is the result of a deadite stepping in front of his car, which results in his death.
The story then pivots to William’s funeral, where we meet his father, Edgar (Erroll Shand), and Susan (Tandi Wright). Alice, who is now our main character, receives nothing but passive-aggressive comments from both Edgar and Susan during and after the funeral, revealing a tension towards Alice that was evidently present before William’s death.
We also receive our first tastes of the film’s dark humor as loud construction keeps intruding on the memorial. The script further injects comedic moments through its one elderly character, Polly (Maude Davey), who becomes one of the film’s biggest scene stealers.
After the funeral ends, something begins taking hold of Edgar, forcibly attempting to channel his inner grief into rage. Once they reconvene at an old, run-down home. Tensions grow thicker, and Edgar’s temper strangely escalates, forcing the deadites to come out and play.
A violent, visceral, yet shockingly humorous horror film
From here, the film pushes full throttle into deadite anarchy, mostly from the confines of a single setting. Each of William’s family members slowly becomes contaminated by the evil, and the possessed do everything possible to find a new way to make the viewer gasp, groan, or cover their eyes.
One sequence involving a pen will stay with moviegoers long after the film ends. It’s rare for violence to make me cover my eyes, but I found myself unwittingly avoiding the screen with my hands during this sequence. And once you think it is over, it just keeps going further to milk the gnarly segment for everything it’s worth. It’s not for the squeamish, but if one is watching an Evil Dead movie, silly, cringe-inducing gore is expected.
The way it made the audience react was hilariously responsive. It’s because of the reaction that I compare it to watching a Jackass segment. It’s the same feeling one receives while watching Johnny Knoxville and his band of weirdos give each other paper cuts. We don’t know what the deadites might do to their victims, but it will cause a reaction, and it does so with violent mischievous glee. And yet, gratefully, it has substance underneath the playful shock.
Evil Dead Burn dissects abusive relationships with style
As the horror ramps up, so does the cinematography and editing. Cinematographer Philip Lozano and editor Maxime Caro beautifully dance together as they compose inventive visuals. A sequence shows a deadite viciously attacking a family member before his face hits the camera, followed by a backward pan reveal that everything witnessed was a reflection. Another has a deadite dragging a character across the floor, only to reveal that the floor is actually a deadite dragging them up a wall.
The sound design will inflict glorious pain on the viewer as well. But the less said about that sequence, the better. It’s some of the best technical work in the franchise, creating fresh filmmaking ideas to complement the story and its themes.
Exploring the concepts of abuse is nothing new within the horror genre. But what is new is the dissection of passed-down aggression. At its core, Evil Dead Burn is a brutal examination of a family that enabled men’s horrible behavior in the home. And throughout, it’s implied that the history of the family Alice married into is filled with abuse and neglect. More so, it organically ties these themes back to the roots of Evil Dead.
My chief complaint with Evil Dead Burn is the use of CGI in various moments. One deadite walks around with a hole in his head and face, and the visual does not hold water against some of the best practical effects from the franchise. The movie also incorporates a final boss covered in questionable computer-made ingredients.
Even so, the sixth entry hits like a sledgehammer. It strikes every violent nerve to make the audience groan and squirm, all the while boasting killer editing and camerawork, along with solid themes about abuse. I’m not sure if I will call this my favorite of the new entries, but it’s a blast to watch in a crowded theater.
Also check out: Reviews of Obsession, The Furious, and Giallo Horror Cinema
