‘Evil Dead Burn’ review: I’m lonely

From Nia DaCosta’s 28 years later: The Bone Temple, at Curry Barker’s Infatuation, to Sam Raimi Send Help, again Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, 2026 has had no shortage of villainous, deadly villains for horror fans. But graphic violence and buckets of blood alone are not enough to make a satisfying or scary movie. Sadly, the group behind Wicked Dead Burned missed the memo, which is surprising since Raimi and Cronin are both producers on this one.

Wicked Dead Burned director Sébastien Vaniček broke through in 2023 with Infested, a goosebump-inducing animal feature about an aggressive nest of spiders taking over the residence. With his crack at the Evil Dead franchise, Vaniček also played his own It has been attacked another author is Florent Bernard, who creates an equally brutal, violent story with little in the way of character development.

However, since 2013 Fede Álvarez is starting again Evil Deadthe ties to the original trilogy have become thinner and thinner as the franchise falters. Yes, the evil dead are rising, enchanted by an ancient object. They cause chaos and horrific attacks on everyday friends and family. And they can be beaten down, but they’re never really out – as long as audiences still come to theaters to see an array of blood, guts, and bile.

What’s missing from these sequels is the humor and heart that Raimi and his leading man Bruce Campbell (also a producer on the series) brought to the original trilogy, to delightful effect. Those movies were violent, not just because of their gruesome violence but also because of their bold joy.

Decades later, I still remember the shock of seeing those trees chasing Cheryl, the joy of seeing Ash fight her in the mirror, and the joy when his chainsaw arm went into action. Yet all subsequent sequels are devoid of this wonderful silliness. This twisted delight keeps Raimi’s filmmaking fresh even in 2026. (Also, see Send Help.) Without it, no matter which horror filmmaker they plug and play in the franchise, the result is a sequel that feels boring, gray, and soulless.

What Wicked Dead Burned about?

Vaniček and Bernard immerse the audience in a rural vacation home, where an American family is grieving the loss of their oldest son, Will (George Pullar). With some help from a Deadite, Will dies in a car accident after escaping a public argument with his French wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub) at their – uh – restaurant.

Okay, to be clear, his mother Susan (Tandi Wright) insists it’s a restaurant. But the only scene set there begins with an extreme close-up of the back of a Black woman as she shakes it at the camera, then tilts up to reveal a packed dance floor, full of writhing bodies, red mood lighting, and loud music. So, does Susan not know her son as well as she thinks? Or is Will’s restaurant less about the French cuisine he reportedly loved and more about overpriced cocktails and nightclub vibes? It doesn’t mean anything because there is nothing in between Wicked Dead Burned it does.

These movies are about innocent people who are tormented by the Deadites, usually through no fault of their own. Raimi has made magic with this premise even beyond the franchise. (Drag me to Hell it’s still a wild ride.) In the case of Wicked Dead BurnedWill’s younger brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan) accidentally discovers a hidden artifact that raises the evil dead. How? Well, he was doing research for his novel, of course!

Maude Davey in “Evil Dead Burn.”
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Yes, it’s just a saying that a sensitive boy is an aspiring writer. Wicked Dead Burned it is full of such clichés, nothing else can build a character. So, we meet restaurateur/nightclub owner Will, who is at odds with his French wife Alice, who we know is serious because she likes to take black and white photos. And Joseph has a girlfriend, Tya (Luciane Buchanan), who may have more interests than he does. But before we learn any of this, he has become a Deadite. I’m fine.

Also in the mix are Joseph and Will’s sarcastic mother Susan and hot-headed father Edgar (Erroll Shand), as well as their one-legged grandmother Polly (Maude Davey), who has dementia. Polly may be meant for comic relief, but the closest she gets to a joke is the little things about her memory loss and prejudice.

Souheila Yacoub is involved, but can’t lift this filth of a movie.

Souheila Yacoub plays Alice in “Evil Dead Burn.”
Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Were the first three Evil Dead movies a waste? Definitely. But Bruce Campbell, with a lantern-shaped jaw as big as his charisma, makes that mess undeniably fun. He was living through hard times, scary, and deeply stupid. The vibe of Wicked Dead Burned he never allows Yacoub to show such breadth.

Instead, she is a woman caught in grief and trauma, forced to play nice with in-laws who openly hate her – and then try to kill her with household items and power tools. Why is he still hanging around, even before Deadite’s business starts? Wicked Dead Burned he won’t even try to go that deep into motivation. So, her in-laws not only clean up spit, blood, mashed potatoes, and other blood, but also bad feelings about her and her loveless relationship with Will.

There may have been a version of this where the barbs were clever in their cruelty, like here Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? or Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? There could be a killing spree where the tribal characters are different instead of a human-shaped wallpaper, set to be torn to shreds. But Vaniček shows no interest in complexity, depth, or genre bending.

The film’s most enjoyable moments have nothing to do with the central characters. The film opens on a fishing trip, where two friends (Keanu Karim and Victory Ndukwe) tease each other before their hobby turns deadly. Later, a carefree crematorium worker (Shyamal Singh) dances to a rap song while performing his duties, moments before he is brutally murdered off-screen. These are fun, enjoy the laughs and something specific before they are torn to ribbons, which is more than can be said for the film family. However, it is worrying that all these actors in higher education institutions who are scheduled to be slaughtered early are people of color like the first victim in the house who is beaten in the face until there is a row of teeth and mucus of blood and brain.

In all this, Yacoub brings the last strong girl. To Vaniček’s credit, he doesn’t slip her into a skin-tight white tank or give her a dress that encourages the audience to play up her body, even if she’s being abused. Dressed in a sweatsuit, she only wears her original fatigues, even to her husband’s funeral which goes nowhere. But as the family around him collapses in pain or becoming an asset, he gnashes his teeth and drags us all along. Evil Dead Burn’s a difficult last act. You force it. But a film so strong in dealing with the mundane and brutal gives it so much room to play, explore, or shine.

Raimi unknowingly built a sandbox in 1981 Evil Deadone he would return to twice more, turning horror into comedy, outrage, and epic action. He got his voice from those movies. But given the same opportunity, a new generation of horror filmmakers (Fede Álvarez in 2013 Evil Dead, Lee Cronin and The Bad Dead Riseand now Sébastien Vaniček with Wicked Dead Burned) have delivered films that are brutal, ugly, and lifeless. They like to shock more than entertain us in a strange place where comedy and horror collide. Instead, it’s just a pastiche that lacks the color, wit, and verve of the original trilogy. So, yes, I’m bored.

Wicked Dead Burned opens in theaters July 10.