There are the ghost-infested horror films, and then there are movies like Evil Dead Burn.
Don’t be mistaken – Sebastien Vanicek’s Evil Dead Burn is very much a ‘horror’ show and delivers a different calibre of jump scares. A canonical sequel to 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, the film picks up right where the narrative left off. The director hooks you instantly with the return of a surviving deadite from the last film – Jessica – continuing the storyrn from its immediate predecessor.
The story revolves around demonic possession rooted in family bonds, and plenty of red flags squirming around. In the Evil Dead franchise, deadites are, in simple terms, humans whose bodies have been taken over by ancient demonic spirits. Evil Dead Burn begins with these forces already on the loose and having gone rogue.
Early on we meet the central characters and their fraught relationships. Alice (Souheila Yacoub) and her abusive husband Will (George Pullar) are gathered for the birthday of his younger brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan), along with his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan). Tension between Alice and Will is clear – they disagree on everything. Will is hostile and abusive; much about his toxic behaviour is revealed later. He uses labels such as “a drunk” for his wife Alice and claims that she is not interested in building a family, a line of attack his parents appear to accept.
Will’s tragic death after a spat – and his subsequent journey into the wilderness – kicks off the plot. Alice, now his widow, Joseph and his girlfriend travel to the family’s eerie lakeside home in the middle of nowhere. Set against a grieving family gathering, the director foregrounds the dysfunctional human drama that drives the gore, blood and chaos.
From the moment Alice steps into the house, she is made to feel unwelcome. Will’s parents, Edgar (Erroll Shand) and Susan (Tandi Wright), show no qualms about expressing their disdain for her; they openly blame her for his death.
What’s interesting is how the horror template is evolving. Evil Dead Burn is relentless in its gore, and then some more. Long after heads have been slashed and eyes pierced, there is more blood to spill. The director balances showing the family members’ vulnerabilities with the cluster attacks the deadites mount. These deadites target anyone in their path: they kill, possess and spread the demonic plague. They feed on emotional baggage, existing trauma and unhealed wounds – which is exactly why Will’s family becomes their focus.
More than frightening, it is the unyielding pool of blood – spurting from ears and noses – the endless slaughter that makes this an unambiguous horror film. The action-horror sequences keep you on the edge of your seat; they are choreographed tightly and propel the story forward.
Will becomes a deadite after dying, and one by one the family succumbs to its possession. It begins with Will’s father Edgar, cascades to Joseph’s girlfriend Thya, and then onto Will’s mother Susan and the grandmother.
One of the most notable scenes is a car sequence in which Edgar attacks Thya as Joseph watches in horror. Blood splatters the window, the car is punctured through her skull; it is as gruesome as it gets. And it does what it intends: it confronts viewers with the franchise’s core element – possession beyond imagination.
Through all this chaos, Alice is the one who endures the impossible, slowly uncovering the family’s hidden past.
As for the performances, none are out of sync. The family tension is layered with love – rarely visible, but present – and at the end of the day it is the continuous struggle of a mother to hold her family together. Joseph is the younger son who has not removed his grandfather’s occult research from the house despite his mother’s urging. In a late scene, Alice – the sole survivor – comes face to face with her dead husband in human form for a brief second; he whispers, “I love you.” The film juxtaposes the family’s toxic dynamics with the forces that ultimately consume them.
Tandi Wright as Susan tops the heap for performance. Her pain seethes through, and you almost feel sorry for her – until it is revealed she knew all along that her elder son Will was abusive, yet she directed her hatred at her daughter-in-law Alice, who was simply exhausted. Erroll Shand as Edgar is terrifying once possessed. Hunter Doohan’s Joseph elicits sympathy with his innocent demeanour.
What does not work is the washed-out colour palette. For the most part it is grim and unappealing, except when the ‘Evil Dead’ burns: then a few flashes of looming red punctuate the film as menace intensifies.
The emotional core – Alice, who has been fighting a horrifying war long before the deadites possessed her husband’s family – leaves you with much to consider. More than the supernatural, it is the emotional abuse of Alice that anchors the plot, and that largely succeeds.
What stays with you is how, after the darkest night is over and Alice has escaped the clutches of malevolent spirits, she is asked, “Who did this to you?”
She replies coldly, “My husband.”
The ending gives you food for thought as Alice’s eye colour changes, suggesting a remnant of evil may remain within her. Plenty to ponder.
