If you’ve been holding off on watching Sébastien Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn until spooky season arrives, HBO Max has you covered. The physical media release for the latest in the Sam Raimi-spawned horror series dropped earlier this week, but if you hold out a little longer, you can stream it with your subscription starting October 2; it hits HBO linear the next day.
Though some viewers complained Evil Dead Burn was lacking the humor that punctuated other Evil Dead installments, there’s no denying Vaniček delivered a bleak, brutal, and memorably gory take on the familiar Deadite intrusion tale. Souheila Yacoub (Climax, Dune: Part Two) gives a ferocious performance as Alice, whose crumbling marriage to her abusive husband comes to an abrupt end when he dies in a car crash.
Of course, it’s no accident, since it’s caused by one of the possessed characters from Evil Dead Rise. And as you can guess, he’s not really dead. As Alice navigates the awkward funeral and mourning period (isolated house deep in the woods: check!) with her in-laws, we learn the family has some Necronomicon ties that have made them a target for Deadites, which greedily begin swallowing their souls in various gruesome ways.
Though the scene involving a knife-stuffed dishwasher was iconic enough to inspire a (faux) popcorn bucket, Evil Dead Burn is overflowing with all kinds of grim imagery. Probably the only way Vaniček was able to get away with it is because basically the entire movie is filtered in shades of grey and brown—meaning all the gushing blood is a little easier to take, and the flames promised by the title stand out even more.
The rest of the cast includes Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, and Maude Davey, plus a zombie dog that will haunt your nightmares. The movie’s admittedly light on wisecracks and Three Stooges inspiration, but you will spot a Bruce Campbell cameo of sorts if you pay close attention to the home decor.
Evil Dead Burn hits HBO Max on October 2 and HBO linear on October 3.
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