Movie Review: ‘Evil Dead Burn’

07/21/2026 by Corrye Van Caeseele-Cook

Plot: The sixth film in the successful Evil Dead franchise, this latest edition finds the Deadites terrorizing a family with mysterious ties to the Necromonicon. After her abusive husband Will (George Pullar) is killed in a car wreck, Alice (Shouhelia Yacoub) and her in-laws gather for Will’s funeral. Unbeknownst to Alice, Will’s grandfather Benjamin was a scholar of the Necronomicon and keeper of a Kandarian dagger capable of sending the Deadites back to Hell. When Will’s Deadite corpse infects his father, Edgar (Erroll Shand), the memorial for Will turns into a violent and gruesome bloodbath. Will any of the family survive, or will they all be dead by dawn?

Review: Horror franchises are fickle things. The genre, by its very nature, caters to a smaller demographic than, say, a Star Wars or a Marvel film, namely because Star Wars and Marvel have a broader appeal. They are four-quadrant film franchises that rake in billions of dollars. Only The Exorcist (if you account for inflation) would be considered a billion-dollar horror film, whereas Marvel has tallied 11 and counting.

From my perspective, in order for a horror franchise to endure and be successful, it needs three fundamental ingredients. The first is that they have to have budgets on the lower end because a return on your investment is much more likely. Secondly, they must be fun. (The Nightmare on Elm Street and the Friday the 13^th franchises succeeded because Freddy and Jason are fun characters. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise didn’t because the original is so incredibly unpleasant. It’s hard to make murdering cannibals fun.) Lastly, they have to offer something novel that keeps the series fresh.

With Evil Dead Burn, French director Sebastien Vanicek soundly triumphs with the first, mostly succeeds with the second, but mildly succeeds with the last. The result is an entertaining, if slightly long, Evil Dead film that should please most fans of the franchise, if not necessarily win new converts. To quote my Boomer southern friends, Evil Dead Burn is “a hoot and a half,” which is exactly what an Evil Dead film should be.

Gruesome, gnarly, mean, and occasionally funny, Vanicek’s love for this franchise bleeds through every single frame. Evoking the best of French extremist cinema like Paul Laugier’s Martyrs, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, or Alexandre Aja’s High Tension, Evil Dead Burn is relentless. It’s relentless in its gore. It’s relentless in its depiction of Deadite violence that goes on way too long—but in the best way possible. It’s relentless in its showcase of a truly dysfunctional family wrapped in a veneer of normalcy. You know that meme with the older bearded gentleman making a grimace in front of a computer? Yeah, that was me most of the film. Vanicek aims to make you uncomfortable for the entire 109-minute run time. Well, my French friend, “mission accomplie avec succes.”

I think the thing that surprised me the most about Evil Dead Burn was the superb cinematography of Philip Lozano. Yes, there were the requisite tracking shots of previous Evil Dead films, but Lozano delivers so much more. There are moments from Vanicek and Lozano that echo both Owen Roizman’s camerawork in The Exorcist and even Jules Brenner’s shots in the 1979 Salem’s Lot miniseries. Hell, there’s even a camera sequence shot from above that echoes Dan Lausten’s similar sequence in John Wick: Chapter 4. Yet none of them feel derivative or plagiarized, but work seamlessly within the narrative. Both Vanicek and Lozano are content to let much of the action occur in camera rather than relying on quick cuts. It makes the film much more disturbing and effective.

Speaking of disturbing, no Evil Dead film would be complete without some truly gruesome gore, and Evil Dead Burn is no exception. Whether it’s a car headrest through the mouth, repeated self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head, or a scene that will make you fear your dishwasher, Evil Dead Burn has it all. Weirdly, one of the most disgusting and memorable moments happens when matriarch Susan (Tandi Wright) makes out with her Deadite husband. Vanicek lets these scenes linger to the point of being excruciating, but that’s exactly the point. The exquisite sound design from Sam Bardet and his team only heightens these scenes. It’s a hyper-immersive, layer-heavy soundscape where you immediately believe that sound is an active threat. Simply incredible. Quite frankly, it’s some of the best sound design of any film I’ve seen this year.

I feel like critics and fans alike often dismiss the acting performances in horror films because the scares are more important. I don’t agree. There have been many a horror film ruined by an awful performance. Thankfully, everyone in Evil Dead Burn gives it their all. Wednesday‘s Hunter Doohan is solid as the second fiddle son Joseph, who’s viewed as the perpetual fuck-up. Tandi Wright delivers an underrated role as matriarch Susan, who wears her forsaken artist career in favor of family, like a shield of bitterness. Maude Davey also shines as the senile grandmother, Polly, who accounts for the majority of the comedic relief in Evil Dead Burn. (There’s a running joke in Vanicek’s film about someone stealing Polly’s stuff that I thought would get old but never did.)

Yet it’s Souheila Yacoub’s (Dune Part Two) powerful performance as the widow Alice that anchors Evil Dead Burn. Alice is barely able to hide the fact that she’s happy Will is dead, because she’s now free of a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. Yet she has to suffer the gaslighting of her in-laws (particularly Susan), who insist Will was an angel and can’t understand why she won’t continue running his club. There’s clearly some pent-up rage there that—much to the delight of this viewer—she eventually gets to unleash on some Deadites. No one has ever been more deserving of a comfort cigarette (if you see the movie, you’ll understand) in recent cinema history.

I have only a few minor gripes with Evil Dead Burn. For one, this movie is too long. Vanicek and company could have shaved 15 or so minutes off of this film and made it a lean, mean 90 minutes. Additionally, after a phenomenal opening sequence involving fishing hooks that kicks things off with a bang, the movie slows down for about ten minutes, losing some momentum. Again, a little tightening here could have improved the pacing. Furthermore, Sebastien Vanicek and Florent Bernard’s characters are written a little thin. I connected much more on an emotional level with Lee Cronin’s characters in Evil Dead Rise. Lastly, despite utilizing practical effects throughout 90% of the film, there’s a sequence in the final act that inexplicably utilizes a CGI character. It was unnecessary, didn’t work, and was so jarring it took me out of the movie.

As a long-time Evil Dead fan, I had a blast with Evil Dead Burn. The people behind this franchise have made the genius decision to give each successive film to different, unknown directors who love these movies and say, “Let’s see what the kid’s got.” I eagerly look forward to Francis Galluppi’s Evil Dead Wrath in 2028. While Evil Dead Burn might have a few cracks in this delicious cake of a film, it’s still worthy to consume.

Just make sure you do so before the Deadites consume you first.

My rating system:

1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad

2 Straight Garbage

3 Bad

4 Sub Par

5 Average

6 Ok

7 Good

8 Great

9 Excellent

10 A Must See