Celebrating its 45th year the Evil Dead series is getting a second coming of sorts scaring and scarring an entirely new generation of movie goers. Expanding upon the initial trilogy the Evil Dead Universe has taken on a life of its own outside a cabin in the woods unleashing the Deadites onto new and unsuspecting persons while thankfully keeping that original Evil Dead DNA at its core.
Evil Dead Burn introduces us to the Price family. After a night out ends in a tragic accident, Alice (Souheila Yacoub) begrudgingly joins her grieving in-laws to mourn the passing of her husband Will (George Pullar). Alice has never felt accepted into the family and is even more ostracised after Will’s death feeling the full weight of his parents pain being directed towards her due to their strained relationship. Alice takes some solace in the positive relationship she has with Will’s younger brother Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan). After the funeral service the family retreats to their grand old estate isolated from the local community and in a desperate need of some maintenance to the outside. Unbeknown to the family Joseph has been using his missing grandfather’s research as source material for his own novel he has been working on. His grandfather’s research was centred around the Necronomicon or Book of the Dead and a cult that seemed to worship it.
For those uninitiated into the Evil Dead universe, The Necronomicon Ex-Mortis is a book written in blood and wrapped in human skin, inside it contains unholy incantations and rituals, merely speaking words from the book can unleash the violent and chaotic deadites. Cruel and bloodthirsty demonic entities who will stop at nothing to get what they want and will cause all manner of horrors along the way.
One by one the Price family are afflicted by the deadites, turning them into horrific and ruthless shells of their former selves, performing violent acts upon each other in the search for an item rumoured to have been found by the long missing grandfather.
Director Sebastien Vanicek is at the helm for this installment and brings his own vision and body horror elements, setting Burn apart enough for it to stand on its own while still retaining that Evil Dead core feel. The entire film is shot with a filter giving it a dark, gloomy, almost oppressive feel. From the very opening, Vanicek sets out to unsettle you, exposing us to the deadites straight away and the cruelty that comes with them. The opening puts you on an edge that you never really step back from, even moments of calm are quickly ripped away, violently at times with flashbacks unexpectedly bursting on the screen showing Alice’s marriage as something less than perfect.
Thankfully the Raimi influence can still be felt throughout. His unique style of pushing us to the very brink of what we can take before throwing in a brief moment at least gives us an all be it brief moment to catch our breath before once again kicking us in the guts with a gore fueled moment or one of sheer brutality has you once again running behind your hands, watching through split fingers.
As horror movies go, visually Evil Dead Burn digs into elements available to it to provide us with some of the best looking effects in current cinema. Blood galore and visceral fleshy bits a plenty are combined with some very clean CGI that never looks fake or out of place. As the deadites slowly take over their hosts the change is subtle until they want it known and terrifying once their glowing eyes stare into your soul from the dark.
Once again set predominantly in one location the stately home transforms into a warzone as the deadites work their way through the family. Single room scenes are brilliantly shot, instantly engaging you in the chaos on screen, involuntarily raising your heart rate to match the intensity on screen.
Evil Dead Burn is everything you can expect from an Evil Dead movie and while amazing in its own right, as a long time fan it still feels like it is missing something. For me it is the why? Why are the deadites after this family, what did the grandfather do and what was his true relationship with the cult. Some questions answered but many left open and little easter eggs throughout had me feeling like this could be the bridging second movie in a new trilogy that brings these stand alone anthology type titles completely into the fold and ties them back to releases of the past.
Or maybe that is just me looking for one more groovy outing….
Evil Dead Burn is out this week in cinemas everywhere, if you love horror go and see it somewhere loud with friends and lose yourself in the deadite chaos. It is an intense, visceral and brutal experience not for the faint of heart, but it is also a whole lot of fun.
