Evil Dead Burn
"Evil Dead Burn" is an exercise in elevated horror concerning familial trauma presented in the style of New French Extremity.
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“Evil Dead Burn” is an “Evil Dead” picture unlike any other. Sure, there are demonic possessions, a Necronomicon and a Kandarian Dagger, but French filmmaker Sébastien Vanicek (making his sophomore feature after the Shudder spider flick “Infested”) has different monsters in mind. His “Evil Dead” is an exercise in elevated horror concerning familial trauma presented in the style of New French Extremity. There is humor, but it’s much sparser and far darker.
Married night club owners Alice (Souheila Yacoub) and Will Price (George Pullar) have gathered at their establishment to celebrate the birthday of Will’s younger brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan, no relation to James) alongside his girlfriend Tina (Luciane Buchanan).
After a few bottles of champagne Will and Alice get into a fight, which prompts him to drunkenly drive away despite protestations from Joseph. Will promptly dies in a fiery car crash, which results in a pretty cool and clever title card, and sends his family into a tailspin.
The Price family also consists of patriarch Edgar (Erroll Shand), matriarch Susan (Tandi Wright) and Susan’s sickly mother Polly (Maude Davey). They all blame Alice and Joseph for golden boy Will’s death.
The Prices convene at a lake house that once belonged to Susan’s professor father, but has since been bequeathed to Joseph and fallen into disrepair. Joseph is a struggling writer who’s using his grandfather’s research (namely the Necronomicon) as inspiration. Words from the text are uttered that shouldn’t have been uttered and the supernatural shit hits the fan.
“Evil Dead Burn” is the longest (110 minutes), deepest and arguably meanest “Evil Dead” to date. It’s the sort of flick where they kill the dog not once but twice. On the basis of some of the brutality on display I’m figuring Vanicek’s favorite indie rock band is Car Seat Headrest and he has an unhealthy fascination with Zach Braff’s character’s Mom dying via dishwasher door in “Garden State.”
I liked “Evil Dead Burn” quite a bit, but it isn’t an easy watch, is sort of exhausting and made me wanna take a shower afterwards. (Temperature controlled by myself, not a Deadite.)
(Fans of the franchise will want to stay through the credits as there are not one but two stingers … the second of which leaves breadcrumbs for 2028’s “Evil Dead Wrath” written and directed by Francis Galluppi (“The Last Stop in Yuma County”).)