Evil Dead Burn Movie Review

“Evil Dead Burn” is the most recent entry in the ‘Evil-Dead-Verse’. That is the universe of ‘Evil Dead’ movies (started in 1981) and it features the lovely creatures called ‘Deadites’. These are things summoned from the darkness, that are neither living nor dead. Hey, perfect time for a Family Reunion!

There is an unrelated opening about a couple of fishermen at a lake. But they are attacked by a creature rising from the lake. This in not the “Lady in the Lake’ — it is the “Lady Deadite in the Lake’. The guys are soon dead, and the Deadite Lady is out to get someone in particular. But the family needs to be introduced first.

There is a guy named Will (played by George Pullar) who runs a restaurant. His brother Joseph (played by Hunter Doohan) is there after his birthday party. Will is married to a French woman named Alice (played by Souheila Yacoub). Will has an abusive relationship with her, and he is very drunk at the moment. Joseph is married to Thya (played by Luciane Buchanan), and they both try to get the keys from Will.

Will drives away super angry and has a ‘run-in’ with the Lady Deadite. Or maybe a ‘run-over’, you could say. But the accident kills Will. So now the family gets together for a funeral service. Of course, the Mortuary is right next to a construction site. During the solemn service — there is loud noise all during the funeral.

Alice does not feel very welcome to meet up with Will’s parents. They feel she might be to blame for Will’s death. There is the father Edgar (played by Erroll Shand), and his wife Susan (played by Tandi Wright).

Joseph and Thya are there to support Alice, but the parents are still not happy with her. Also, there is the dementia-affected grandma Polly (played by Maude Davey). Polly likes Alice, mostly because she doesn’t remember anything.

At the Mortuary, Edgar wants a final few minutes with his son. That’s bad for Edgar, because Will is now a full-on Deadite. Now Edgar is infected, or some such thing. Everyone is back at the ‘Cabin the Woods’. Opps! Change that to the ‘Decrepit Mansion in the Woods’. Joseph and Thya now own this rickety building that once belonged to the grandparents.

The Family Dinner after the funeral is a tense situation. Everyone does not yet know that Edgar is about to go full Deadite. There is some unwarranted cruelty to a family dog. The dog is now dead, or maybe the latest Deadite.

Things go off the rails, and everyone all gets on the Train to Crazy Town. Edgar is no longer alive, but a true Deadite. And now his only goal is to make every person in his family get turned into a Deadite.

Polly, the older grandma, is the only one to say funny things every once in a while. Everyone else gets turned into a Deadite after a while. Even lovable Polly gets to join the Deadite group, but only after she gets a few good lines. Alice is getting assaulted by just about every other member of the family.

Alice was abused by her husband Will early in the marriage. But now she is the only person left to fight back. Edgar, and his new Deadite Dog, is stalking the house. Thya has become a Deadite and she is coming after everyone.

Joseph is getting fitted for his Deadite grand entrance. Susan is getting a loving kiss from the Deadite Edgar. Now, Susan has joined the Deadite Group Chat. So, there is nobody coming to help Alice…

It’s a good thing for Alice that the grandfather of Will and Joseph was the guy involved with the Secret Society that researched Deadites. He was the person who found the Magical Stabby Knife that is the only thing capable of killing the Deadites. She is still being chased and harassed by the family of Deadites that her in-laws have become.

It’s come full circle for this family. That initial traffic accident death has caused the whole family to grab the Deadite Brass Ring. In the end, there is only one survivor. There is only one Final Girl. Good job Alice!

But wait – what if Alice is about to get on the Deadite Crazy Train? Well, we must need to wait for the sequel…

——————————————————————————————————————————————–

“Evil Dead Burn” has traded in the earlier versions of ‘Evil Dead’ that were more ‘camp horror’ to this version. This version is ‘Gore Porn’ on steroids. The amount of brutal violence and disgusting practical body horror is very intense. It is done with almost a sense of professional glee.

It is as if somebody showed the Director (Sébastien Vaniček) another bloody, gory, disturbing horror movie that really shocked audiences. Then Sébastien said – “Hold my beer”. The gruesome action and violent activity is really cranked up in this movie.

It does follow many of the rules in the ‘Evil-Dead-Verse’. Get a group of people isolated in a remote house, and get one of them ‘infected’ into a Deadite. Then watch the tension get jacked up higher and higher as more people succumb to the horror.

People get beaten, poked, hanged, garroted, slashed, dismembered, stabbed, smashed, crashed, and generally treated like a mean dog’s chew toy. The resulting level of human suffering is so over the top – it might as well be orbiting right next to the International Space Station.

“Evil Dead Burn” is a rough movie to watch, with all the cruelty and violence and gore. If that’s your thing, then it could be a way to ‘Burn’ a couple of hours…