This is what you need to know about EVIL DEAD BURN. It is a masterpiece of its genre. It does not, however, transcend that genre. Not really. If you love the garish gore that is the trademark of this franchise, you will adore it. If dangling entrails and exposed bones, lots of them, don’t work for you, neither will this film. If you are on the fence, though, definitely give it a try. You will be watching parts of it through the laced fingers you’ve put over your eyes to protect them, but you will have experienced a sublimely executed flick that finds horror not just in the titular, demon-possessed creatures known as deadites, but also in the misery of a dysfunctional family and terror of being out of cell phone range during a very tense afternoon and evening.
We dive right in with two pals (and don’t get attached to them) fishing on a cold shoreline. When one wanders off to take a phone call from his significant other, to the chagrin of his buddy, that same buddy does battle with what he assumes will be a monumental catch. It is. But not the kind he imagined. What ensues involves those dangling entrails and exposed bone as the Evil Dead enter the story with everything that their fans expect and for which they cheer. The good news is that the crustaceans that the buddies were also catching get away and, one hopes, go on to lead long, happy, and productive lives.
Back to the humans, in particular the family that is so very dysfunctional and the tense afternoon and evening that they will spend after the funeral service for the older, and favorite, son, Will (George Pullar). He is survived by his French wife, Alice (Souheila Yacoub), whose last conversation with her husband was a marriage-ending argument before he met his fiery demise in a car crash. Brother-in-law Joe (Hunter Doohan), an unassuming young man with issues about finishing his novel and pleasing his parents, and his girlfriend, Thya (Greta van den Brink) who has made Joe promise that they will never marry, do their best to comfort her and shield her from the worst sniping from passive-aggressive mother Susan (Tandi Wright) and dour, dyspeptic father Edgar (Erroll Shand). They never liked Alice and can find little reason to pretend otherwise now. As for Grandma (Maude Davey), her wheelchair-bound dementia is excellent, but not exclusive, fodder for the humor that erupts when it is least expected but most needed.
What they don’t know is that Will didn’t die right away. Instead, he was hexed by a severed head that gleefully intoned the spell that killed him and then reanimated his corpse with one of the ci-mentioned demons. And here we have that guilty pleasure of knowing more than the characters do at the beginning, and watch their incredulity turn to fear as they come to understand what the enemy really is. Forget slow zombies, these deadites are swift, strong, and they don’t destroy just by rending flesh. They also go for the psychological kill that more than once elicits a grisly reaction as long suppressed and righteous rage explodes in daunting displays that bring with it the satisfaction of rough justice and the queasiness of, there’s no other way to put it, overkill.
This is far more than mere slasher madness. Sure, blood spills, and sometimes gushes, but the filmmaking is refined. We don’t see what climbs out of the coffin, we see the reaction to it by a witness as blood (did I mention there’s a LOT of blood) splatters everywhere. We see a ladder slowly, silently disappear, and knowing what that means is just as chilling as what follows.
Masterful performances and direction from director/co-writer Sébastien Vanicek that to elegantly puts its audience through the wringer. The foreshadowing is precise and squirm-inducing as the camera lingers on the way a hand toys with a corkscrew, and a sheet becomes far more menacing than anything that could be lurking beneath it. Artful, thoughtful editing juxtaposes carnage with cuisine, and keeps us aware of the MacGuffin, once it joins the action, that everyone is desperate to possess. The final battle is epic, with effects that serve the story instead of showing off, including discovering just how many times a deadite can be shot in the head and still keep producing mayhem.
EVIL DEAD BURN is deliciously subversive, with its clever and merciless metaphors for those who seek subtext, and its catharsis of the family dinner from hell for those just out for a, ahem, bloody good time. And leave us not forget the liberating permission to believe that not all families deserve to come first. There’s also a deft shout-out to Vanicek’s previous film, INFESTED, and for those with sharp eyes, a nod to the lynchpin of the franchise, Bruce Campbell. N.B. There are two credit sequences, one mid and one post and both worth the wait.
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