Evil Dead Burn brings the long-running horror franchise back with another vicious battle against the Deadites, trading much of the dark comedy of Sam Raimi’s original films for an increasingly grim and violent story about family, grief and survival.
Directed by French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček and co-written with Florent Bernard, the 2026 film stars Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan and Luciane Buchanan. It is the sixth feature-length entry in the Evil Dead franchise and is produced by franchise creator Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert.
At the centre of the story is Alice, a grieving widow who travels to the isolated home of her late husband’s family. What should be a difficult family gathering quickly becomes a nightmare when the Necronomicon unleashes the Deadites, turning members of the family against one another.
The setup allows Evil Dead Burn to combine two kinds of horror: the supernatural threat outside the characters and the dysfunctional family tensions already inside the house.
Gore takes centre stage
There is little doubt about what Evil Dead Burn wants its audience to experience.
The film is extremely violent, filled with dismemberment, blood, grotesque transformations and elaborate practical effects. Vaniček clearly embraces the extreme-horror tradition, creating sequences designed to make audiences wince rather than simply frighten them.
Several critics have praised the film’s inventive set pieces and its willingness to push the franchise’s violence further. Rotten Tomatoes’ critics consensus describes it as one of the series’ nastiest entries, while Screen International highlights its “inventively schlocky setpieces.”
For hardcore horror fans, that commitment to practical-looking carnage is arguably the film’s biggest attraction.
Souheila Yacoub gives the film its heart
Amid all the bloodshed, Souheila Yacoub provides the movie with an emotional centre.
Her performance as Alice gives the character vulnerability without making her a passive victim. She is grieving, isolated and surrounded by people with whom she has a complicated relationship, yet she gradually becomes the person most capable of fighting back.
Screen International specifically praised Yacoub’s central performance, while other reviews have similarly singled her out as one of the film’s strongest elements.
Her performance is particularly important because the movie’s story is less interested in the playful heroism associated with Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams and more focused on survival.
A darker Evil Dead
One of the biggest changes is the tone.
The original Evil Dead films mixed horror with outrageous humour, particularly Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Evil Dead Burn, however, is much more serious and unpleasant.
Variety describes it as a film in which the series’ traditional “gonzo comedy” has largely disappeared, leaving behind a much darker story of family conflict and demonic violence.
That decision will divide audiences.
Those looking for inventive gore and relentless brutality will likely appreciate the change. But fans who consider the franchise’s humour an essential part of its identity may find the film exhausting.
RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico was particularly critical of the movie’s relentless cruelty, arguing that its violence sometimes overwhelms its characters and storytelling.
Where the movie falls short
The biggest weakness is the screenplay.
The basic family conflict is promising, but some characters feel underdeveloped, while the relentless succession of violent set pieces occasionally makes the story feel secondary.
Screen International similarly described the movie as having plenty of gore but comparatively little substance.
The visual style has also received criticism. RogerEbert.com’s review points to a washed-out colour palette, uneven editing, an ineffective score and questionable visual effects in the third act.
These problems prevent the movie from reaching the level of the franchise’s strongest entries.
Verdict
Evil Dead Burn is not the funniest or most inventive Evil Dead movie, but it is certainly one of the most brutal.
The film succeeds when Vaniček unleashes the Deadites and allows his imagination to run wild. The gore effects are frequently spectacular, the action is energetic and Yacoub delivers a strong performance as a woman fighting to survive an increasingly horrific situation.
Its weakness is that the violence sometimes becomes the entire point. Without the distinctive humour and sharper storytelling that made earlier Evil Dead films memorable, some of the brutality begins to feel repetitive.
