Evil Dead Burn
The recently widowed Alice (Souheila Yacoub, "Climax") emigrated to the U.S. from France in order to marry her husband Will (George Pullar), but she had been wanting to get out of the abusive marriage before his death. Now she finds herself caught between grief and desperation, embedded with in-laws who she is about to learn have a complicated family history with the Necronomicon in "Evil Dead Burn."
Laura's Review: B+
Following Lee Cronin's terrific franchise reviver "Evil Dead Rise," which explored maternal themes, cowriter (with Florent Bernard)/director Sébastien Vaniček ("Infested") also keeps it in the family, this time with domestic abuse its driver. This is a particularly gory entry, but an exquisitely crafted one, Vaniček constructing several impressive set pieces while director of photography Philip Lozano honors the Raimi Cam and the work of makeup and effects designer Jane O’Kane.
Like the prior entry, "Burn" kicks off with a prologue, albeit one which will be folded back into the movie's main plot. Jared (Keanu Karim) and Mike (Tapiwa Soropa) are enjoying a day lake fishing from a pier when Mike leaves momentarily. Suddenly Jared's hooked something, but, horrified when he reels in a human head, drops his entire rig into the water. Suddenly it shoots up, fishing line and lure ensnaring him and pulling him down into the water. Mike returns just in time to see his buddy struggling and jumps into a boat to try and save him. Unable to fathom just what's going on, Mike freaks out when he pulls only half of Jared out of the water before seeing a female head emerge, before claw-like hands upend his boat. Then something really strange happens and the Deddite (Greta van den Brink) walks out of the lake and onto a road and the path of an oncoming car.
After having heard during opening credits that Doctor Pryce discovered something that would stop the Deddites, but that it had to remain secured and hidden so they wouldn't find it, we arrive at the birthday party of the grandson, Joseph (Hunter Doohan, TV's 'Wednesday'), who we've seen find and unwrap that Kandarian dagger. Joseph and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan, TV's 'Chief of War') aren't exactly having a good time, though, because his older brother Will, who, along with his wife Alice, owns and runs the restaurant where they're celebrating, is being loudly abusive to her, accusing her of undermining his gift because she's given Joseph a photograph she took. The argument continues in the parking lot, Will driving off in a rage to come into contact with that Deddite who walked out of the lake.
While Joseph and Thya are supportive, Alice gets a weak hug from her mother-in-law Susan (Tandi Wright, "Pearl") at the crematorium where Will's services will be held and her father-in-law Edgar (Erroll Shand) is practically hostile. Susan's 85 year-old mother Polly (Maude Davey, "The Dry") is wheelchair bound and, due to dementia, doesn't know who Alice is. After a bizarre service limited to this group and accompanied by loud construction noise, Edgar demands to 'see his son' just before his coffin is about to be cremated and, left alone with it after threatening the attendant, hears a knock from inside. A malevolent condition is about to infect the Pryce family.
Back at the crumbling homestead, Susan is intent on making a family lunch, but it is a disaster, Edgar intent on palming sharp objects, the family dog, Max, their first recipient. Joseph and Thya will attempt to rush Edgar, who has self inflicted wounds, to the hospital, but that also goes seriously, violently awry. Vaniček has a real knack for choreographing supernatural car crashes while their reanimated victims are impressively horrific looking thanks to O’Kane's impressive talents, like Thya returning to the Pryce home with a headrest embedded in her throat. Max doesn't stay buried for long either and Alice, whose last words to Will were 'go to Hell,' will go through it herself, armed with a brush cutter and chainsaw, before bidding a final adieu to the man who's brought all this upon them.
Yacoub is impressive in a very physical performance while also exhibiting grit and the conflicting emotions of mourning the man she once loved and relief at his departure, however temporary. The film's abuse theme is also reflected in Susan and Wright conveys resentment at having had to shoulder her family after her grandfather's absence as well as the dissatisfaction of what appears to be her own marriage grown cold (it heats up in the third act in a scene both disgusting and somewhat nonsensical). Buchanan is a sympathetic human and unstoppable Deddite, with Doohan also appealing, at least until his own freak-out causes Alice flashbacks to his abusive brother. Davey adds much needed comic relief to break the tension until she becomes a ghoul too. Pullar is a reprehensible Will, a close-up of his smiling face in a wedding video playing on the Pryce's TV turned threatening when the screen cracks during some mayhem. Alice and Will's wedding song, 'A peu près' is used several times throughout the film in addition to Danger Mouse's electronic score. Production designer Nick Connor has made the Pryce homestead a rambling old home in disrepair, one whose attic contains grandpa's research (i.e., "Evil Dead" touchstones), a basement housing tools and mousetraps, a kitchen whose dishwasher has been left with sharp objects pointing upwards and a Victorian roof, the better to clamber over.
"Evil Dead Burn" may just be the goriest, most splatterific of the franchise. It certainly is the ultimate in in-law horror stories.
Warner Brothers releases "Evil Dead Burn" in theaters on 7/10/26.
