Another “Evil Dead” worthy of your evil time.
See this graphic above my “Evil Dead Burn” review? That’s one of the possessed characters having the “Here’s Johnny” look, but instead she says: “Please let me out.”
Just as “Evil Dead Rise” has delivered the goods on Sam Raimi’s horror franchise, “Evil Dead Burn” makes good use of your time. It’s the kind where it’s crazy and over the top, and it has a lot of blood and gore, and yet, it’s also the kind that is fun in all these notions. When it comes to gorefests, there must be a fine line between how much carnage horror movies should have and how much fun it can have with the genre. And I think I was having fun with how much gore there is in this franchise.
The new main heroine of “Evil Dead Burn” is a young French woman named Alice (Swiss actress Souheila Yacoub), whose abusive husband Will (George Pullar) gets killed in freak car accident. You know the kind where some possessed woman arranges for his death and vows to kill his family. And that possessed woman would be a Deadite, so you know this family is screwed.
She attends his funeral with no speeches prepared and Will’s family giving her some disdained looks. But despite that, she’s still invited with them for a stay at their family home. The kind in the middle of what I think used to be a forest, and the kind where it would hold a relative’s dark secrets. That’s the kind of place.
The family also consists of Will’s wimpy writer brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan), his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan), their cynical mother Susan (Tandi Wright), their angry father Edgar (Erroll Shand), and their ill grandmother Polly (Maude Davey). They’re the kind of family to make stupid mistakes, starting with the dad who hears what he thinks is Will knocking inside his coffin without saying anything. It’s a Deadite messing with him. And therefore, he sets off the evil for the family.
While Rami, Rob Tapert, Lee Cronin, and Bruce Campbell (the original “Evil Dead” star) are all producers, “Evil Dead Burn” is now directed by French filmmaker Sebastien Vanicek, who is best known for making “Infested.” I love how he adds a French theme with some of the music and its main heroine trying to overcome the demons that have already brought upon her kudos to her dead husband. It shows that a strong woman can come out of an abusive relationship, and the movie likes the genre to handle it in its own light. And despite her nationality, Yacoub does some fine work in the role.
I can’t call it the best of the series, because of the character development within the family. We get to know more of some than others, which is a little unfair, but we do get to the know the gist of them. And the “Evil Dead” franchise puts all its evil into them. Think of a make-out scene that gets bloody, think about Joseph getting stabbed by knives and forks in the dishwasher, think about how twisted entertaining the car accidents get, think about the old lady and what either she or the demons engages herself in, and think about an opening fishing scene that boils up. That’s a lot of evil for one sequel, and it’s all beautifully photographed by Philip Lozano. Or maybe, it’s always had a lot of evil for a sequel.
While we we’re waiting for the screening room of the awful live-action remake of “Moana” to open up, another critic and I were talking about a scene when the main heroine has to climb inside a chimney. I told him I was thinking about “The Grinch,” and he responded: “And green hair gets all over the place.” And we both agreed that it’s violent, but it’s fun to watch this kind of movie. And if a horror movie knows when to reference “The Shining,” you know you’re in for a bloody good time.
And on a small note, I already kept my knives and forks facing down in the dishwasher long before this movie came out. So, don’t think I’m now paranoid. I just don’t want to slice my finger when I take them out.
