Producers: Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi Director: Sébastien Vanicek Screenplay: Sébastien Vanicek and Florent Bernard Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, Maude Davey, George Pullar, Keanu Karim, Tapiwa Soropa and Greta van den Brink Distributor: Warner Bros.
Grade: C-
Sam Raimi’s original “Evil Dead” trilogy, which spanned the decade from 1981 to 1992, was slapstick horror: it had plenty of gore, but of a cartoonish sort, and presented all the bloody, over-the-top action with a gleefully knowing smirk. The rebooted version, which began in 2013 and continued with “Evil Dead Rise” in 2023 and now this third installment, features much more gore and does so in a far grimmer, more serious vein, inviting nervous laughter at the nastiness rather than guffaws at the absurdity. Except for gorehounds, they’re much less fun than Raimi’s original movies, aiming merely to turn the stomach rather than tickle the funny bone while doing so.
“Burn” begins with the possessed Jessica (Greta Van Den Brink), presumably the girl from the close of Lee Cronin’s 2023 movie, arising from a lake to do in young bro fishermen Jared (Keanu Karim) and Mike (Tapiwa Soropa) in especially gruesome fashion.
But she apparently has a more specific target in mind. She attacks William Price (George Pullar), a chef specializing in French cuisine, after he’s had a quarrel with his wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub) in a bar and driven away in a rage; Jessica stands in front of Will’s speeding car, causing it to crash and explode. He’s burned to death.
The reason for the attack has been indicated in a prologue. William’s wimpy brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan) has been going through his late grandfather’s research materials on demonology and discovers that the dead man had found a dagger that can destroy Deadites like Jessica. She’s determined to retrieve it, so after dispatching William she attacks the other members of the Price clan (and their pet dog), turning them into Deadites who target one another; in this she first employs Krispy William, who breaks out of his coffin, kills the morgue attendant about to cremate his corpse and possesses his father Edgar (Erroll Shand).
There follow an unpleasant post-funeral meal and a fracas in a car where the raving Edgar turns on Joseph’s girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan). Possessed, she then follows the survivors back home, and soon Joseph, Alice, Edgar’s wife Susan (Tandi Wright) and her disabled mother Polly (Maude Davey), the widow of the deceased demon-hunter, are on the receiving end of Deadite violence.
Director Sébastien Vanicek, who co-wrote the screenplay with Florent Bernard, collaborates with cinematographer Philip Lozano, editor Maxime Caro, the cast, their stunt doubles and CGI stand-ins (like Krispy William, who reappears in the big finale) fabricated by effects supervisor Thierry Onillon and his team in crafting a plethora of frantic, grisly attack scenes; some of these are extremely intricate, with one person spotlit in the foreground while another is tossed around and brutalized in the background—all while the score by Double Danger (Douglas Cavanna and Xavier Caux) blares out at ear-splitting volume.
One of the specialties on display is impalement; forks, knives, and various other implements are employed, including, in one memorable moment early on, the metal spikes that attach the headrests to a car’s seats. But the choreographers of mayhem don’t simply like to show these objects going into a victim; they enjoy showing them being pulled out, with loving slowness, as well. Other contributors to the overall doom-laden visuals include makeup artist Jane O’Kane and sound designer Samy Bardet, while production designer Nick Connor situates most of the action in a suitably creepy old house.
Rage, fear and trembling are mostly what’s asked of the cast, and they supply them ably enough. One feels sorriest for Doohan, playing the poor schlub who seems incapable of decisive action no matter how many times he’s menaced, but it’s Yacoub who proves the most resilient, facing off against Krispy William, intoning ghastly threats, in the end.
There is, one should note, a source of intentional humor running through the movie: the periodically hostile attitude of Polly, who’s suffering from dementia and prone to confuse people and attribute mercenary motives to them. But it’s more than a little tasteless to use a person suffering from a debilitating mental condition as your major source of supposed laughs, especially when Davey is encouraged to play her as a caricature. Throwing in references to domestic violence in a clumsy effort at dramatic heft is tasteless too.
Perhaps worse, though, is the decision to use Polly as the figure who—in a mid-credits stinger—promises a further continuation of the franchise. Raimi was satisfied with three installments; the present-day filmmakers are apparently aiming for more, and to emphasize the fact add a second, post-credits stinger referring back to Cronin’s film.
It must be admitted that “Evil Dead Burn” is a pretty efficient gore-making machine, and if that’s all you’re looking for, it will satisfy. But in the current glut of such blood-soaked horrorshows, it doesn’t stand out as more than perfunctory, just another episode in a franchise that now threatens to go on interminably.