Evil Dead Burn

Evil Dead Burn
Starring Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan
Directed by Sebastien Vanicek

The "Children of the Corn" franchise is eleven movies strong, but only the original is passable while each subsequent sequel, reboot, and remake fail to deliver any sort of horror, excitement, or decent filmmaking. "Halloween" has had some great sequels but many have fallen way short of the bar. "Friday the 13th," "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Child's Play," "Hellraiser" and so many other beloved franchises have had hits and misses, but there's really one franchise that's been able to stay above the line and craft its own path: Sam Raimi's "Evil Dead." From its humble beginnings when Raimi and college buddy Bruce Campbell made a now-iconic horror film with pennies and loads of talent, dedication, and originality to its all-but-obvious shot-for-shot remake that turned the horror to comedy, to Campbell's Ash traveling back in time, and even a superior 2013 reboot to a great series and surprise hit "Evil Dead Rise" that took the Deadites from the cabin to a high-rise apartment, the "Evil Dead" franchise has managed to reinvent itself time and again with acclaim. "Evil Dead Burn" doesn't reinvent the wheel, and it's got an incredibly dodgy CGI-filled finale, but manages to maintain the franchise high level of standard.

After her abusive husband Will (George Pullar) dies in a car accident, his wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub) attends the funeral service while the majority of Will's family hates her, especially his mother Susan (Tandi Wright) and father Edgar (Erroll Shand) who pretty much hold her responsible for the family's misfortune. Only Will's brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan) like her, while their grandmother Polly (Maude Davey) has Alzheimer's and doesn't really know where she's at. After the funeral, the family returns home and finds themselves under attack from Deadites who want what the family is keeping secret - a weapon that'll permanently kill the Deadites, leaving Alice and the family to work together to survive.

The "Evil Dead" franchise has been wildly successful because it's like a fine dinner, with each movie sautéing with time, not releasing one after another in rapid succession. The reboot came out in 2013, and "Evil Dead Rise" wasn't released until ten years later. Now, "Burn" comes out a mere three years later, and in a sense it suffers because of it, but also making it feel like a continuation to the previous film with some connective tissue. Both lose the comedy that Raimi and Campbell delivered and now they lean heavily on the gore and violence, and "Burn" especially. However, they do it right by returning to the practical effects that work so well, and again "Burn" excels in this respect - for 95% of the runtime. Sadly, the last 5% is a battle between our heroine and a CGI Deadite that my friend said resembled the CGI in "Terminator" that totally took me out of the film. Until that point I was wholly invested and drawn, but once I saw the abomination I rolled my eyes. It's tragic, because no matter how good you make CGI, it'll always look fake, and for a film that leaned on practical effects, it was even more jarring. 

That said, that's the only main downside I have to the film. The movie centers on a family with a secret, and while most of the characters aren't fully developed, it's an "Evil Dead" movie - we come for the gore, carnage, and violence. French director Sebastien Vanicek is a clear student of the 2000s French Extremity Movement that offered visual, unforgettable images from movies such as "Inside" and "Martyrs," and Vanicek brings those visuals to the American public. This is one of the goriest "Evil Dead" movies to date, with victims suffering all sorts of bodily harm again and again, and after a brief introduction of our characters the violence hits fast, hard, and unrelenting. 

The family is one of the worst in cinematic history, with none of them having likable qualities. Will is an abusive alcoholic. Joseph is a whiny loser who can't do anything. Susan is an enabler. Edgar is just all-around awful. Only Polly is likable, and that's only because she provides the small bits of comedy in the movie due to her Alzheimer's, which is conflicting at best. Will's wife Alice, played by French actress Souheila Yacoub, is a great final girl in the franchise, but even she isn't without fault. Although she was repeatedly abused by Will, she kept coming back to him no matter what, but still finds her strength during the night of carnage at the family home. 

The film was shot with a darker grain than usual, which also isn't the best choice, as it was sometimes difficult to see things happening, and made the blood appear more brown than glorious red, but that's a small nitpick. The cinematography from Philip Lozaro is exquisite, with fantastic visuals including a long one-take that would've been a lot better if it was more colorful, and some dizzying camerawork that hearkens back to Raimi's classic, along with one particularly striking sequence in a bathroom. Throughout the movie the camera does great work at showing what's happening in unique styles, keeping the intensity active. 

While the film falters with its third act CGI, "Evil Dead Burn" is still a fine addition to the beloved franchise, offering all the gore and violence we've come to expect from the series.

The Score: A