BY ADAM BLANCHARD
The sixth installment in the “Evil Dead” franchise, “Evil Dead Burn” sticks to its bloody roots. Directed by Sébastien Vaniček, the “Evil Dead Burn” cast is full of actors I’ve never heard of, so take that as you will.
Our main character is Alice Price, played by Souheila Yacoub. The movie starts with Alice and her husband William Price, played by George Pullar, arguing outside of a club. Will drives away drunk and swerves out of the way of an old lady standing in the middle of the road, causing him to flip his car and die. Alice attends her husband’s funeral alongside her in-laws, who seem to have it out for her.
Going into this movie, I knew nothing about the “Evil Dead” franchise, but I had high expectations nonetheless. The movie had a slow start that felt natural. About a quarter into the movie, the pace picks up and gets into the gory moments that I had seen in the trailer. While the effects are amazing on their own, they don’t carry any weight.
The kills are back to back, keeping the audience either on the edge of their seats or constantly wincing at the displays of violence. Despite this, some of the ways characters died made me think the Price family had a tradition of lobotomizing themselves. Like sure, let’s trust the person who was trying to kill us five minutes ago, what could go wrong?
The movie tries to carry a message of psychological abuse and domestic violence, apparent through the relationship between Alice and the Price family. I felt that it fell short in delivering anything meaningful. We get these moments where Alice feels pressured by her in-laws and her husband to fit into a certain mold, but they’re quickly brushed off for some goofy one-liner.
Overall, “Evil Dead Burn” is a fun watch if you’re into crazy slasher horror movies filled to the brim with gore that serves no purpose besides shock value. It’s a good movie to turn your brain off to and enjoy some popcorn. Don’t worry about having to watch the five previous movies to get what’s going on in this one, they wouldn’t help much anyhow.
