Evil Dead Burn

Grade: B-

We already know that Evil Dead Burn won’t be the caboose on this train. Evil Dead Wrath is coming in April of 2028. The announced plot follows a woman in an abusive marriage, who is not only dealing with him but also with her in-laws, who – of course – take his side and conclude that she must be overreacting and exaggerating. It sounds like a prequel to Evil Dead Burn, in which we get the bloody, fiery aftermath.

The same supernatural force that has been at play for 45 years’ worth of movies makes its way to a family. Geneva-born actress Souheila Yacoub plays Alice, who is seeking solace with her in-laws after the death of her husband Will. Flashbacks—and a big ol’ scar on Alice’s stomach—show that Will had a temper. There is a great scene at the dinner table as Alice eats lunch with Will’s family. Nobody has fully turned into a Deadite at this point, but the extreme claustrophobic closeups conjure plenty of tension and dread as familial passive-aggressions and snarky asides rear their heads. It makes me wonder what their Thanksgiving meals were like.

As the Deadite entity infiltrates the family one-by-one, most of the action is set in one location: the lake house where Will and his brother Joe grew up. The interior sets within the house are well utilized, and there is interesting camera work. I loved a shot where the camera pans 270° – from the floor, to the wall, to the ceiling, then to the other wall. The graphically gory fights make clever use of everyday household items. If you didn’t already load your dishwasher with the forks and knives facing down, this might make you start doing that.

The Deadites sound like the actors’ voices were run through an Eventide harmonizer. It makes everything they say sound muddy and difficult to understand. However, for all its bombastic action, director Sébastien Vanicek keeps it moving efficiently, and almost never lets the squirm-inducing visuals get in the way of giving the characters weight. This is a talented cast. The father’s appearance gives off a Robert-Englund-as-Freddy-Krueger vibe. I enjoyed the grandmother with dementia, and the suspicion that she brings out when she suddenly starts remembering things too well. I liked the moments where a character is momentarily trying to hide their new Deaditeness by acting normal. For all the grisly kills, the grossest part for me involved the removal, transfer, and re-application of dentures. I said, “Ew.”

It seems that the spirit of the franchise, at least in the earlier films, was that everything was achieved practically. Bare-bones, grassroots, low budget, however you can make it happen with the resources you have. “Messy, but with heart,” I like to call it. That’s why it’s disappointing when the final manifestation Alice confronts is so obviously digital. It took me out of the movie, and turned what was “messy, but with heart” into the exact inverse phrase: professional and clean-looking, but lacking in heart.

Still, though, I can’t write the whole movie off because of a few stumbles along the way. Evil Dead Burn doesn’t break any new ground, but when it comes to middle chapters, I’ve certainly seen worse. It sets out to do something, and for the most part, succeeds at it. Had the finale maintained the same tactile, practical feel as the rest of the movie, my grade might have been a little higher. That’s where the heart is.

Grade: B-