Horror Movie Review: Evil Dead Burn (2026)

The Evil Dead franchise is one of my favourites and all because it has remained consistently good over the years, even when some of the entries haven’t quite been what I like about the franchise. I like the horror, the over-the-top visceral horror that takes characters you care about and puts them in the most horrible of situations. It’s why the very first Evil Dead film and 2023’s Evil Dead Rise are my favourite entries in the franchise, and why I appreciate the 2013 reimagining/remake.

Though that’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the silliness of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. I dig black comedy and the franchise has always had some, but the slapstick of the latter (and the former in some places) is why it’s my least favourite entry.

I mention all of this because Evil Dead Burn doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. It has frenzied and feral energy, stomach-churning and eye-widening violence, realistic gore, and a dark undercurrent of real-life horror that relates to trauma and abuse. Yet, it also has set-pieces designed to make a viewer wince, lore-widening fantasy elements, comedy that enters groan-worthy territory, and an ending that certainly takes things in a new, very questionable, direction. On the one hand, it looks and feels like a modern Evil Dead film, but on the other, it’s a bog-standard possession-related horror film. Almost indistinguishable from any other, outside of the name.

Directed and co-written by Sébastien Vaniček and Florent Bernard, Evil Dead Burn is a sequel to Evil Dead Rise, linking the films via the Deadite Jessica (Greta Van Den Brink) who finds her way to Joseph Price’s (Hunter Doohan) family house where he has been looking into his grandfather’s obsession with the book of the dead, the Deadites, and a Kandarian Dagger. It’s the latter that she’s interested in, as it can be used to destroy Deadites. On route, she gets rundown by a drunken Will Price (George Pullar) who stormed off after having a fight with his wife, Alice (Souheila Yacoub).

Will dies in this crash, burning to death as Jessica’s severed dead recites a passage from the Necronomicon.

Sometime later, and Will’s family have gathered to say goodbye, even though tension exists between Alice and Will’s parents, Edgar (Erroll Shand) and Susan (Tandi Wright). They don’t like Alice, clearly blaming her for what happened to their son, but Joseph and his girlfriend, Thya (Luciane Buchanan) insist that Alice come back to the family home for dinner.

It’s there that Edgar, having had the Deadite possession passed to him, makes it a dinner to remember and the chaos erupts. There’s nothing more important than family, right?

The film hammers us over the head with that, but it means nothing really. Once the violence starts, all semblance of story is thrown out the window, save for mid-film reveal that is designed to make us get behind Alice even more. Except it feels cheap and unearned, especially as we know next to nothing about her and Will’s relationship, and both characters have little to show for it.

Which, considering she is the lead, is a real problem. Especially as the supporting cast get even less, resulting in characters who I simply didn’t care about.

This is baffling to me. Not every film needs defined characters to be enjoyed, far from it, but the Evil Dead franchise always had some. Someone who stood out, someone who you wanted cheer on, someone you felt sorry for, someone who wanted to see get theirs. Hell, even Army of Darkness gave us strong supporting characters and Rise’s family was really likable.

At best, Maude Davey’s dementia-ridden, one-legged Polly (the grandmother) has the ‘aww’ factor, but that was not the intention, I think, and all because her condition makes up the majority of Burn’s comedy.

Evil Dead Burn is the most obvious attempt to be funny since Evil Dead II, with suitably mixed results. There are times where I snorted, such as during the awkward funeral scene, and times where I laughed, such as with the first of two chairlift gags. So, I’m not going to tell you that comedy ruins the film, because it doesn’t, however, it tests the patience and all because one joke, in particular, gets run into the ground to the point where during the fourth or fifth ‘zinger’, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

That’s me though, and I do think plenty will enjoy it, especially as there are times where it does allow some relief from the carnage.

Here’s the thing though. I don’t want a break from the carnage, and if I am going to get one, I don’t want it to be because of the tenth dementia joke in a row.

When Evil Dead Burn lets rip, it really does let rip (although I would prefer more blood and guts), and I would comfortably call this the most feral Evil Dead to date with Vaniček doing a fantastic job of capturing it in a way that felt fresh. There were several moments where I found myself impressed, with one key one being the dinner scene into the car scene. Edge of your seat tension leading into an explosion of violence and some genuinely creative horror. This section of the film is up there as one of my favourite sections in the Evil Dead franchise to date.

There are more, some of which were spoiled by the trailer (how dumb was that trailer!?), so as you can see, I didn’t hate Evil Dead Burn. In fact, had it ended with the house in flames, I’d have probably scored it a 6, maybe a 6.5 out 10. Except it didn’t. There are an additional ten or so minutes to go, and I think it’s one of the worst things I’ve seen in the franchise to date. Downright abandoning everything that makes The Evil Dead its own thing in the world of horror, especially as it utilises CGI. Bad CGI too. Whereas I think other areas of the film will polarise, I’d be surprised to see if anyone likes the final part of the film.

Bad enough to ruin the experience? Not quite, thankfully, but when coupled with my other issues, it does result in Burn being summed up as an overall disappointment.