Evil Dead Burn (2026)
Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, Maude Davey, Philip Lozano
Director: Sébastien Vanicek
Nutshell: The ancient curse that ignites whenever there is money to be made is unleashed, and unprecedented horror ensues

 

The film starts with a young lad finding some old scriptures about demons; those familiar with the Evil Dead series, the Necronomicon and the chants will recognise those scribbles instantly – they spell deep, dark trouble!

Moments later, two young men are fishing at the edge of a lake when the horror strikes, with the lake spewing all sorts of nasty tricks and kicking off a storm of devilish debauchery. What starts as a Final Destination-esque situation turns full-on rabid as the demons are spewed up by the lake at full throttle. First one lad is horribly consumed, and then the second follows in rapid succession. The demons are out to create hell, and they are swift to kick into action.

Elsewhere, it is a young man's birthday and his friends gather around to celebrate. The banter between the two friendly couples is put under strain when the recently married couple display cracks in their relationship. A confrontation occurs, and one angry young man departs, only to run into the demons on their rampage. An accident follows with frightening consequences as the demons make their presence known in heady fashion.

It's all spectacularly lurid and comes as an onslaught of blood and gore that hardly lets up for a minute of the film's running time. Extreme brutality kicks off and the flow stems only momentarily before erupting again and again. The film plays like gratuitous Grand Guignol for fans of hardcore blood-and-guts horror, where the plot barely exists except to hold together sequences of gore and gruesome mayhem.

It's fierce, extremely nasty and unrelenting, and if that is what you paid your money for, then you will not be disappointed. The film is essentially a showcase for ultra-violent and gory situations and set pieces that follow each other thick and fast, coming at you like a non-stop conveyor belt.

Sadly, amidst the bloodbath, the obliteration of limbs, the hacking of body parts, impalings, gouging and ripping flesh, there is little time to invest in the characters or their personalities. Nor is there any of the trademark humour of Sam Raimi’s original and classic trilogy. The butchery is wildly splattery, and the accent is on making the viewer cringe and squirm rather than creating any real sense of tension or fear.

The director, who previously made a quite enjoyable film about a spider infestation, does a grand job creating ghastly visuals that shock and appal, but there is no time to create true fear or dread. It all gets a little mind-numbing and repetitive after a while. Gorehounds will be well satisfied as the film delivers the goods without compromise in that department.

Sadly, there is little humour, dark or otherwise, and none of the over-the-top, madcap, deranged horror that was the trademark of Raimi’s films. Still, it improves on the previous instalment of the series, and the director certainly has plenty of flair and artistry. But there is no substitute for Ash, and the Deadites don’t have the one-liners and glib comments that they did during the Evil Dead glory days.

A decent effort that will give fans much of what they expect from an Evil Dead film, and yet there is none of the joy or hysteria that characterised Raimi’s films.  However after just two movies, clearly director Sébastien Vanicek is one to watch.