Evil Dead Burn: Aren’t In-Laws Just the Worst?

Evil Dead Burn is the sixth installment of the Evil Dead Franchise. The film is directed by Sebastien Vanicek and stars Souheila Yacoub as the main character Alice Price. The supporting cast includes George Pullar, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, and Erroll Shand as her husband and in-laws, respectively. The events of this film takes place shortly after Evil Dead Rise, and there are more than a few connections made between them throughout the film. These films do work as standalone films, so you don’t have to see Evil Dead Rise to enjoy this film. However, it does provide context for this film, especially in the post credit scene. There is a mid-credit and a post credit, so make sure not to get up and leave immediately after the credits roll.

            The film starts with two guys fishing. The girl who turned into a deadite in the previous film, shows up and kills them in brutal fashion. The film cuts to our lead Alice, and her husband getting into a heated argument. The husband then drives away in anger, only for the deadite from the beginning of the movie to show up and kill him. Apparently the deadites are after him and his family because his grandfather was studying the Necronomicon and deadites. In addition, his grandfather had possession of a dagger that could kill them. The deadites seek to use the family so they can find the weapon and destroy it. This film stands out from the others because the deadites play a more active role. Rather than the family unintentionally bringing the deadites to them, the deadites come to them. While the deadites are still twisted as ever, rather than just screwing with their victims, which they still do, they actually have an objective this time.

            The first thing any fan wants to know about a new Evil Dead film is how gory and violent it is. I am happy to state that it gets violent and gory real fast, at least top 2 in the franchise in that department. Even before all hell literally breaks loose, the film is tense and makes the audience uneasy, in a good way, especially at the table scene. When the film gets going, it never lets up, it just keeps cranking up the intensity. While the characters aren’t anything to write home about, there are a lot of interesting character dynamics. Alice and her husband have a very toxic relationship, even abusive. Their dynamic reminds me a lot of the dynamic between the protagonist and her husband in the 2020 movie, The Invisible Man, directed by Leigh Whannell. However, I think that film handled it better. There’s a lot of tension between Alice and her husband’s family, and they even have tensions amongst each other. The film intentionally makes these characters unlikeable. There are many parents that either oblivious or turn a blind eye to their children’s’ flaws. They think their children are better than they actually are, which is all too clear in this film. The husband’s father is shown to be a jerk even before becoming a deadite. It is clear that Alice’s husband inherited most of his negative traits from him. In addition, he emasculates his other son and thinks he is weak, which comes into play later in the film. While Alice gets along a bit better with her mother-in-law initially, she also clearly has issues. She has been estranged from her father, the one who had the weapon that could kill the deadites, for years, and had been forced to take care of her mother all by herself. That kind of baggage has affected her negatively, which only gets worse with the death of her first son. While Alice is mostly friendly with her brother-in-law, he has his issues as well. Because he is constantly belittled by his father and brother, he has low self-esteem, is indecisive, and even cowardly. One thing I like about this film is that they don’t make the characters too stupid. All the decisions the characters make, even the dumb ones, feel believable. Many horror movies suffer the trope of dumb characters. The grandmother of the family has dementia, so it is easy for a deadite to trick her into letting it out. While the mother later in the movie makes a pretty stupid decision, I feel like it was more out desperation to get her family back together and also probably going a little mad, rather than just moronic. The theme of this entry in the franchise is burn, and there sure is a lot of burning. People burn in multiple ways in this film, and big fire breaks out in the end. The family is already pretty messed up even the deadites arrive. The deadites just light the fire on the gasoline. Things continue to ramp up until it builds into a crescendo, and all hell breaks loose.

            The family isn’t the only thing that issues. This film has several as well. One of the main things is how it handles deadite possession. It is not always clear in this movie how a person gets possessed by a deadite. It is sometimes inconsistent. It is not done in the same way for this movie. Sometimes it shows a person getting killed before becoming a deadite, sometimes by rubbing blood on the person, but then another person will get rubbed by a deadite’s blood and nothing happens. Sometimes possession becomes immediate, and others take a while. My guess is that the deadite must actively try to get a certain person possessed. The deadites do like to play with their food, so they may not have tried to get a person possessed immediately. In regards to how long it takes for a possession to occur, it may depend on the will power of the person or the strength of the deadite, or both. While the characters work just enough, I still feel there could have been a little more character work. I feel like they were building up to a character arc for the brother-in-law, and while it’s not like nothing is done with him, it did feel underbaked. In addition, the dog later becomes a deadite and I don’t think the film takes full advantage of it. I don’t think there has been an animal deadite in any of the other films, and I feel like this film could have done more with this concept.

            All in all, this was a solid film. It is far from perfect, but you get your money’s worth in the film’s intensity and carnage. Now the post credit scene does raise some questions. It connects directly with the previous film, and I wonder that it will mean for the next film: Evil Dead Wrath. It will be a prequel to the original Evil Dead. I wonder if the post credit will come into play with that film or if there will be another film after Evil Dead Wrath? There could be time travel like the Army of Darkness movie. If they go that direction, will it affect the timeline of the other films? Will anything from the 2013 film come into play? These are some of the questions to consider. Whatever the case, this franchise remains strong and will hopefully continue to remain strong.

Final Rating: 7/10