Matt Konopka reviews ‘Evil Dead Burn’, letting you know why it’s arguably the most vicious ‘Evil Dead’ film yet.
Leading up to Evil Dead Burn, filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček (Infested) noted that he wanted his entry in the franchise to be a “nasty” film that “hurts” and has the audience walk away “tested”. Well, my fellow primitive screwheads, I’m here to tell you that Vaniček accomplished even more than that. With Evil Dead Burn, the director has unleashed the most aggressive, nastiest, meanest Evil Dead of them all. Yeah, it’s pretty groovy.
Picking up sometime after the events of Evil Dead Rise, Joseph (Hunter Doohan) discovers his grandfather’s collected pages of the Necronomicon, an ancient book of evil. Along with them, he finds a weapon, one with the power to destroy demons…and one they’ll do anything to get their hands on. Soon after an accident leaves her abusive husband/Joseph’s brother dead, Alice (Souheila Yacoub) and the rest of the bastard’s family gather at an old, decrepit home in the middle of nowhere. They don’t know it yet, but the Deadites are coming for what ole grandad stole from them. Together, Alice, Joseph, and the others are about to make a stand against the fury of Hell itself. But they’ll be lucky if they’re not all dead by dawn.
Along with the above statement, Vaniček also noted that he was going to pour all the horror he had inside of him into Evil Dead Burn. Believe me, I understand what it means to declare this as the most intense film of the franchise, but it’s true. Whatever horror the filmmaker had bottled up deep down in his soul, it’s up there on the screen. Evil Dead Burn rips…and bites, and claws at your eyes, like a rabid animal foaming at the mouth.
Vaniček opens the Necronomicon and summons non-stop intensity from the first frame all the way to dawn. Burn immediately flies off the tracks and sends audiences careening down a hill and screaming for their lives. During a trio of opening scenes, Joseph uncovers Grandpa’s collection and his membership to The Circle of Wise Men (more or less a cult). The character of Jessica from Evil Dead Rise (now a Deadite) rises from the lake to bring gruesome pain to a couple of fishermen before roasting another like a marshmallow over a campfire.
From there, we meet the rest of Joseph’s family and Alice’s in-laws. There’s the mother, Susan (Tandi Wright), a woman with venom coursing through her veins; Edgar (Erroll Shand), the head of this angry household; Grandma Polly (Maude Davey), a racist old woman with Alzheimer’s who is convinced Joseph’s girlfriend (Luciane Buchanan) is stealing from her. If you haven’t noticed a trend yet, let me make it clear: Most of these people suck. They’re nasty. They’re cruel. And they despise Alice. Worst of all, they’ve spent years looking the other way while their precious son beat her, again, and again, and again.
Therein lies the central theme of Evil Dead Burn, and the fury at the heart of it. Every family has its demons, right? Before the Deadites even arrive, the family might as well be risen from Hell, a group of monsters who have left Alice to suffer. Bit by bit, the ugliness of that sin surfaces through cacophonic screams, gruesome bloodshed, and bone-breaking violence. This is by far the angriest of the Evil Dead films. Evil Dead Burn rages like the fires of Hell, with Yacoub leading the way through an engaging performance that has you pumping your fist for her the whole way.
I hope you don’t mind a little pain, because this Evil Dead hurts. It puts you in the shoes of what Alice has experienced for years and pummels you with one aggressive, brutal, utterly gruesome scene after another. Heads are severed. Burnt flesh is ripped off. And I promise, you’ll never look at your dishwasher the same way again. There is so much blood in Evil Dead Burn, so much brutal, flesh-ripping violence, that I came away stunned it had managed an R-rating. I couldn’t tell you how many gallons of gore were used or how that compares to the other films, but at first glance, Burn sure feels like the bloodiest of them all. It’s like watching those elevator doors from The Shining. The gore washes over you, a tidal wave that coats the screen red.
Yet, more than an abundance of shudder-inducing effects, what hardcore Evil Dead fans may love to hear is that Burn infuses a bit more camp than the previous two entries, harkening back to the good old days of Bruce Campbell chasing his possessed hand through the cabin. No, Vaniček doesn’t treat us to slapstick humor in the vein of The Three Stooges. That’s not his style, and it wouldn’t fit the next level meanness of Burn. The filmmaker does, however, infuse plenty of laughs and gross-out humor so wet, sloppy, and sickening, you can’t help but snicker in your seat. I’ll be damned if I’m going to spoil anything here, so let’s say you should prepare to witness one of the most disgusting make-out scenes I’ve ever seen in a mainstream film.
It’s not all blood and guts that make Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn such a wild ride, either. When I first found out he’d been hired to direct the film, I immediately thought of the hallway scene from his arachnophobic nightmare, Infested. That film is filled with camerawork that ratchets up the tension, and you’d better believe the filmmaker brings that skill set to Burn. Vaniček tosses viewers right into the fire, putting us in the middle of some of the most chaotic and frenzied violence of the franchise. One breath-stealing shot follows Alice as she crawls on the floor, pandemonium exploding around her. I love a tense dinner scene, and Burn has one that had me gripping my chair harder than when I’m at a Thanksgiving feast with belligerent relatives. Vaniček grips you in a vice and makes you want to scream. And some of you will, aplenty.
Is Evil Dead Burn perfect? Of course not. The humor’s hit or miss. Certain plot points come off as more forced than organic. Vaniček tries a little too hard to recapture iconic franchise moments, like a glorious scene of bloodshed from Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead that you’ll certainly recognize. And the ending, well, let’s say too much CG and a fumbled line or two steal much-deserved catharsis.
Still, all of that is minor in comparison to the shriek of rage that Evil Dead Burn unleashes. Ferocious, disgusting, painful, gnarly, insanely bloody, and full of franchise Easter eggs, it’s Evil Dead pushed to eleven. If you can survive it, make sure you stick around through the end credits. Thank me later.
Evil Dead Burn brings the hellfire to theaters on July 10th via Warner Bros.
