Evil Dead: Burn - Review

I have a list on Letterboxd of films that I think would take years off my mum’s life, and Evil Dead: Burn is most certainly one of them. At just shy of two hours, we are literally (if you see this film in 4DX like I did) flung around a family’s trauma with the most vicious and gruesome violence I have seen in a long time. There are also just moments of non-brutal grossness that impressively managed to get a more audible reaction than the most bloody scenes. It’s a beautiful experiment in how sometimes someone putting another person’s dentures in their mouth is more repulsive than burning skin being peeled off someone’s hand. Who am I to judge?

Alice (Souheila Yacoub) is dealing with her husband Will’s (George Pullar) sudden death. She attends his small and unfortunately located funeral with his family members. Each speech is interrupted by a jackhammer right outside the crematorium, really kicking off the mean spirited approach this film has to its characters. Will’s brother, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), and his partner Thya (Luciane Buchanan) play more sympathetic roles in Alice’s grieving journey, while his parents, Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand) have a slightly differing opinion. Alice and Will’s relationship was contentious, which we see right before his death, leading Will’s parents to harbour blame towards Alice. This creates a lovely atmosphere for a family dinner, where we start to see the classic Evil Dead shenanigans begin. Once the Deadites appear, it’s an all out attack on both the characters’ lives and the audience’s tolerance for blood.

Evil Dead has been impressively consistent in its dedication to being the meanest movie franchise out there. It will introduce you to flawed characters and then kill them in the most horrible and campy ways. While I think this film lacks a little bit of the camp seen in Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead: Rise, Burn has enough comedy in it to keep it feeling like a surface level bloodbath, rather than just watching unbearable violence. I also think the filmmaking approach is the reason that this film worked so well for me, with the insistence on using practical effects, you get so much more squelch for your slash, more crunch for your crack, and more thud for your whack. There are CG-enhanced shots of course, but an equal care is taken to preserve the believability in the VFX that I never felt taken out of the action. Beyond just the kills being creative, the camera work and editing were highlights for me. They worked together so well with longer one shot sequences mixed in with fast paced, dynamic cuts that really sell the tension and brutality of the moment.

More brutal than the film, was my experience in 4DX watching Evil Dead: Burn. My previous and only outing in 4DX was for 2023’s Wonka. So from that I didn’t really think much of the format. We delightfully bobbed to the music and had a polite spritz of water every so often. Evil Dead: Burn however, has quite significantly changed my opinion on the 4DX experience. We were thrown, jolted, whipped, soaked, and blinded at every possible opportunity. That sounds horrible on paper, but it enhanced this film so much for me. I don’t think 4DX belongs in every genre, but horror films like this are ones that I think benefit from the visceral approach that 4DX gives you. It’s definitely going to be a format I will look into from now on, maybe for a second viewing though, as it does take up a lot of your attention while you’re there.

Beyond the kills and the moving seat, I don’t think the story is the most in-depth and impressive. It lacks a lot of motivation, but I don’t think that’s unique to this entry in the franchise. Without the water sprays and fog machine, I think I would have been less dazzled by this. Evil Dead: Rise had a lot of connection in the family dynamic that I think made it a lot more enjoyable as a base level experience, but Evil Dead: Burn ramps up the violence that certainly leaves an impression in its creativity and complete lack of empathy for its characters. The franchise lives on as the meanest and most gruesome horror films being released, and I of course would like 100 more. Luckily, the next entry, Evil Dead: Wrath is already in post production, so there is no sign of the Book of the Dead being closed anytime soon.

Evil Dead: Burn is in theatres July 9th.