Buffalo Film: Franchise chugs along with its combination of gore and comedy

By Matthew Turner
(Image above, L-R: Maude Davey, Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright and Hunter Doohan in Evil Dead Burn)

Director Sébastien Vaniček brings the horrors of the New French Extremity to the infamously gory Evil Dead franchise, but is that enough to keep the franchise chugging along?

As a critic who leans more toward the more bizarre and nonsensical horror films, it is no surprise that the Evil Dead franchise holds a special place in my heart. Ever since I saw Ash Williams engineer a chainsaw hand at the very normal and mature age of 9 years old, I knew that Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi made something truly magical. They cracked the formula that horror should  not just be scares and shocks, rather they should make the viewer scream from laughter and disgust.

While this gross-out horror-comedy style wasn’t, and still isn’t, for everyone, it resonated in such a way in my mind that I will give respect to any film that could successfully do the same. For the most part, Evil Dead as a franchise has been consistent in delivering this delicious sweet and salty treat. But can Evil Dead Burn carry this flame?

Evil Dead Burn flips the narrative formula of having the film centered around a cabin in the woods visited by inquisitive teenagers by focusing on the family of a recently deceased man, William Price, grieving his death at their family summer home.

Rather than spend too much time building up the scares, Evil Dead Burn is shockingly one of the most straightforwardly comedic films in the franchise. The only issue with that statement? Comedic does not equal funny. Bizarre quips and rule of fifths comedy formulas plague the first act of the film as the Price family does its best imitation of the dinner scene from Hereditary as more secrets spill out of the remaining family. 

Where the film does not let viewers down however is through the film’s lead character Alice, the deceased William Price’s scorned widow, played by the relatively unknown Souheila Yacoub.

Yaucoub carries the film with an arc exquisitely built up so you are just jumping at the chance for her to stand up to her judgemental “family.”

Whereas other films, specifically in the New French Extremity movement, known for their extreme and transgressive nature, would be more grounded and grimey with this oppressively downbeat story and tone, Evil Dead Burn contains just enough true nastiness to get even the most cynical viewers, like yours truly, through all the corniness. Gore, close-ups, fountains of fluids, goofy stunt-work and practical effects are all part of the fleshy freaky finale of Evil Dead Burn, and it is clear that Vaniček wanted to one-up Evil Dead Rise in nastiness. Well Sébastien, mission accomplished.

Despite not sitting near the level of Evil Dead II or Evil Dead (2013), Evil Dead Burn is another shining example of how much staying power the Evil Dead franchise has, as well as how much horror has come in the past decade. There is nothing in this film to detract horror heads, but even those with stronger than normal stomachs may need to sit this one out.

Matthew Turner is a scholar of all things film and a teacher of English.