Heads are severed and mutilated once again in the latest installment of “Evil Dead,” which understands, at the very least, that any heir to Sam Raimi’s 1981 cult classic must strive to unleash a torrent of unabashedly unpleasant emotions. The gore-fest “Evil Dead Burn” is the second in a series of new reboots aimed at giving promising early-career horror directors a chance to flex their most evil muscles. We can already guess its story, so inventive slash-and-stab orchestration is essential here, although director Sébastien Vanicek only manages it in moments and bursts.
Written by Vanicek and Florent Bernard, the film begins on a lake where a guys' fishing trip uncovers a demonic spirit whose weapon of choice is heat. Boiling, scorching and burning throughout the plot, the entity causes a fiery car accident that leads us directly to the central drama involving Alice (Souheila Yacoub), the widow of the accident victim, Will (George Pullar), and Will's sullen parents, Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand). Will's funeral prompts a ridiculously tense family gathering in a creaky colonial mansion, where the evil spirit, through spotty camera work that moves across several floors and overcrowded rooms, quickly takes possession of the family members and pits them against their living counterparts.
“Evil Dead” acolytes will know not to compare “Evil Dead Burn” to the original (a DIY marvel of what seems like a long, lost era of independent cinema), but the previous installment, “Evil Dead Rise,” is fair game. Against Lee Cronin's finely calibrated ride, Vanicek's version, for all the tricks up its sleeve, never feels in control of its chaos. Individual confrontations stand out in which the violence is contained in small spaces, such as the inside of a car and a bathroom, while longer scenes often make us feel like we're in a haunted house playing Whac-a-Mole.
In any case, the film's vibes are compelling and impressively rotten to match its grim insights into the false promises of the nuclear family, as in a feel-bad dinner scene that references “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” Alice, who is French, has always felt like an outsider in Will's family, and her hazy memories of unhappy scenes from her marriage reveal the ambivalence of her grief. These emotional detours are not particularly compelling; Vanicek and Bernard's attempts to delve deeper into Alice's internal struggles are more distracting than meaningful.
On the other hand, the duo's strange and cruel sense of humor fits nicely with the series' blasphemy mandate. Rounding out the group of potential victims is Will's soft-spoken brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan); Joseph's girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan); and his grandmother, Polly (Maude Davey), whose electric stairlift and dementia are used as a weapon to induce nervous laughter in some of the film's darkest moments.
Vanicek, a French director who broke out in 2023 with his chilling “Infested,” about deadly spiders that invade a skyscraper in the Paris suburbs, winks at his viewers at home with sneaker styles and select stilettos. But among the references to Tobe Hooper and “The Terminator,” the film also pays homage to a generation of American horror hits that turned America — its dreams, homes and, yes, its people — into nightmare fuel for the rest of the world.
evil dead burn
Rated R for arsonist violence, bloodshed, and severed limbs galore. Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes. In cinemas.
