Evil Dead Burn
★★★★
In-laws. Either some of the most chill or some of the worst people you may ever know. But what if they’re also demonically possessed? Well, then it might be time to grab the chainsaw.
Evil Dead Burn is the sixth feature film installment in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise and the third in its standalone straight-horror series distinct from Raimi’s trilogy. It is directed by French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček, who made a splash with his debut Infested, a horror creature feature about spiders infesting a banlieue neighborhood. The film stars Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand and Maude Davey.
After the loss of her husband Will – revealed in a prologue due to encountering a Deadite and being burned alive/possessed – Alice (Yacoub) is invited to grieve with her in-laws: mother Susan (Wright), father Edgar (Shand), brother Joe and his girlfriend Thya (Doohan and Buchanan respectively), and grandmother Polly (Davey). However, over the course of the night, the family starts to get possessed as Deadites one by one, leaving Alice to survive and put a gory end to it.
Now, I may be looking into things way too much, but one of the main underlying themes of the Evil Dead franchise is how to deal with trauma after unimaginable loss. It might be a stretch with the Raimi trilogy since it’s goofier, but there’s still that sense of overcoming impossible odds as Ash triumphs against the Deadites despite his friends and girlfriend’s demises. Again, this theme is more so present in the standalone series that take the horror and story more seriously, as both the 2013 reboot and Evil Dead Rise center around estranged siblings struggling to mend their relationship. Burn takes the theme of trauma and guilt to a whole ‘nother level.
[SPOILERS]
The film has two different ways to explore trauma: through Alice herself and through the Price family. Being part of the New French Extremity, Vaniček seems to excel at portraying metaphors and personal tensions through the goriest of means. Infested itself is a commentary on xenophobia shown through a character’s disdain for the protagonists. In Burn, it’s a similar fashion. Alice is shown to have a strained relationship with her in-laws, who except for Joe and Thya have masked resentment for her. That resentment ranges from passing insinuations at a dinner table to full-on hatred when the family becomes possessed. Alice’s arc stems from breaking away from this frankly destructive and abusive family, and she is indeed successful as the final girl.
Now let’s look at the other side. The family themselves are again, pretty terrible people, using grief in this case of Will’s “death” as a blanketed excuse. It’s not like their flaws are cartoonishly evil – that happens once the Deadites take over – but it’s enough to make them feel like real people, which is kind of where the real terror lies. Susan wants the idea of a perfect family and dismisses all problems with them, especially Will (revealed in very brief flashbacks to have physically abused Alice). Edgar is a toxic masculine head of the family who resents his son Joe for being lesser than Will. Joe is, for lack of a better word, a pussy whose repressed emotions boil up and explode when he kills a Deadite. Polly is this decrepit husk of a person. Thya, who’s not part of the family but is along for the ride nonetheless, pays the price by becoming a Deadite. It really just goes to show that the family’s destructive flaws consume them and becoming Deadites can be seen as symbolism for embracing the worst.
[END OF SPOILERS]
Throughout the course of the franchise, all films are consistently gory, finding new ways to make you squirm in your seat. Burn is certainly no exception. You may never look at a car seat headrest or an open dishwasher the same way again after seeing this. Another more cringeworthy moment is when one of the characters gets a fountain pen stabbed through their ear and tries to get it out…twice. Other visual aspects such as the cinematography and editing are also part of the film’s strong suit. There’s a bunch of fast-paced editing but the film also indulges in letting the gorier scenes linger. The camera often moves to add tension, utilizing handheld and long takes for maximum effect. One of the best shots was shown in the film’s teaser, where Alice crawls through the chaos of the Deadites.
So overall, Burn is yet another fresh and creative addition to the Evil Dead franchise. Oh, and if you do watch this, be sure to look out for the staircase wall in the house. There’s a portrait of a groovy hero up there.
