Evil Dead Burn (2026)

Evil Dead Burn (2026) Review 🩸💀

“Family reunions are awkward… this one just happened to involve Deadites, lawnmowers, and one abusive ex-husband who seriously didn’t know when to stay dead.”

Let’s Start By Showing Y’all the Trailers Shall We?

No im sorry, Lee Cronin couldn’t return to the Evil Dead Franchise, he was to busy making his own Exorcist movie wearing The Mummy brand as a name!

⚠️ Content Warning ⚠️

Before we begin, I want to give everyone a quick heads-up.

Evil Dead Burn is an extremely graphic horror film and is not for the squeamish. It contains intense scenes of gore, graphic violence, body horror, dismemberment, disturbing imagery, strong language, and frightening supernatural content throughout.

It also contains scenes of animal abuse and violence involving a dog, which some viewers may find especially upsetting.

If you’re sensitive to extreme gore, body horror, or animal cruelty, this is definitely something to keep in mind before watching the film.

Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

After the death of her abusive husband, Alice reluctantly returns to his family’s home for his memorial service, hoping to finally close one of the worst chapters of her life. Instead, an ancient evil begins infecting the household one by one, turning a grieving family into a house full of Deadites.

Continuing the darker direction established by Evil Dead (2013) and Evil Dead Rise, Evil Dead Burn delivers exactly what you’d expect from a modern Evil Dead movie: gallons of blood, grotesque practical effects, creative kills, disturbing imagery, and just enough twisted humor to remind you this franchise has never completely abandoned its roots.

While I don’t think this one reaches the heights of Evil Dead Rise, I still walked away having a really good time.

Character Rundown

Alice

Alice absolutely carries this movie.

Right from the beginning you understand why you’re rooting for her. She’s trapped in the aftermath of an abusive marriage, she’s trying to rebuild her life, she’s trying to quit smoking, and she’s forced back into the very family she’d rather leave behind forever.

Unlike a lot of horror protagonists, she actually feels competent. She adapts, she fights back, she improvises, and every injury she suffers makes surviving feel earned instead of convenient.

By the time the credits rolled, I honestly felt she deserved every bit of her victory.

Will

Let’s just get this out of the way…

Will is a terrible husband.

He’s controlling, manipulative, verbally abusive and spends what little time he has alive proving exactly why Alice wanted out of that relationship.

Ironically, I actually found him far more interesting after becoming a Deadite than I ever did while he was alive.

Edgar

Edgar is unsettling before the supernatural stuff even starts.

He constantly feels like somebody who’s barely holding himself together mentally.

Once possession takes over…

Yeah…

He becomes nightmare fuel.

Susan

Susan spends most of the movie pretending her family was perfect even though it’s painfully obvious they weren’t.

She becomes far more entertaining once she’s possessed.

Joseph

Probably the most sympathetic member of the family.

He spends almost the entire movie trying to help people before eventually becoming another victim himself.

Polly

Grandma somehow manages to be hilarious and disturbing at exactly the same time.

Her dementia creates several moments that are unintentionally funny before the Deadites fully take over.

Pacing / Episode Flow

For the most part, the pacing is excellent.

The movie wastes very little time before everything starts spiraling into complete chaos.

Every few minutes somebody else is either getting possessed, horribly injured, or another brutal fight is breaking out.

The only section that didn’t completely work for me was the ending.

Without spoiling anything…

There came a point where I genuinely thought the movie had naturally reached its conclusion.

Then…

It kept going.

I understand why narratively.

But my first reaction was honestly,

“Wait… we’re still doing this?”

Pros

– Alice is an excellent protagonist.
– Fantastic practical gore.
– Great Deadite makeup.
– Several memorable kills.
– Excellent atmosphere.
– Strong opening.
– Some genuinely creepy sequences.
– Creative use of everyday household objects as weapons.
– Plenty of twisted Evil Dead humor.
– Fantastic visual effects.
– Great connections to Evil Dead Rise.
– One of the coolest chimney sequences I’ve seen in a horror movie.

Cons

– I still prefer Evil Dead Rise.
– Didn’t have me gripping my seat nearly as much.
– Edgar wasn’t nearly as memorable as Ellie from Rise.
– The possessed dog immediately reminded me of Resident Evil’s Cerberus.
– The final confrontation felt slightly like a video game boss fight.
– The magical dagger could’ve used a little more explanation.

Final Thoughts

Overall…

I had a blast.

Do I think this is better than Evil Dead Rise?

No.

Rise genuinely had me and my friend Keegan holding onto each other in the theater because of how relentlessly intense it was. I preferred the apartment setting, I thought Ellie was the stronger central Deadite, and I simply found that movie scarier.

And then there’s Evil Dead (2013).

Let’s be honest…

That movie still sits comfortably on its own throne when it comes to pure brutality.

Burn is absolutely gory…

Rise is absolutely gory…

Neither of them reach the complete insanity that 2013 managed.

Still…

Burn succeeds because it remembers why people love Evil Dead.

Creative violence.

Disgusting practical effects.

Memorable Deadites.

Dark humor.

A protagonist worth cheering for.

Even with a couple pacing issues, I still had a great time and would happily watch it again.

Rating

8/10

⚠️ Spoiler Warning ⚠️

Everything below contains major spoilers.

Spoilers

First off…

Will absolutely sucked.

By the time the wedding photographs started burning I actually found myself thinking,

“Honestly… just let them burn.”

Alice completely owns the second half of this movie.

Some of my favorite moments include:

– Edgar murdering the family dog with a fork.
– Deadite Alex returning to attack everyone.
– Joseph somehow surviving getting launched into an open dishwasher.
– Deadite Thya drinking melted candle wax.
– Alice tying Polly’s prosthetic leg to the stair lift.
– Susan trying to kill Alice with a lawnmower.
– Alice shredding Susan inside the chimney while blood pours down before Susan’s decapitated head falls out the bottom.

That chimney sequence alone was worth the price of admission.

I also loved the knife fake-out.

Alice finds this huge demonic-looking blade that looks like it should absolutely be the legendary dagger.

She stabs Joseph.

He basically laughs and goes,

“Nope.”

The real magical knife ends up being this rough wooden blade that looks like somebody carved it with a pocket knife and scratched an incantation into it.

That genuinely made me laugh.

Then comes the part where I honestly thought the movie should’ve ended.

The house is burning.

Alice escapes.

Everyone’s dead.

Roll credits…

Right?

Nope.

Out walks Burned Will looking like somebody mixed together Darth Vader, Vecna and one of the Inferi from Harry Potter.

The design?

Fantastic.

My first reaction?

“Seriously Will… what are you doing here?”

The construction site finale was entertaining even if it did feel a little like the game suddenly announced,

FINAL BOSS

Alice even avoids the obvious chainsaw cliché.

Instead she drops a jackhammer onto him before finally stabbing him with the real dagger.

Then comes my favorite moment in the entire movie.

Will briefly turns back into normal.

Looks at Alice.

“I love you.”

She gently places both hands on his face.

I honestly thought they were about to ruin the ending with some forgiveness speech.

Instead she simply smiles and says,

“You’re gonna have to do better than that.”

🤣🤣🤣

Perfect.

She then digs her fingers into his eyes, tears his face apart, and watches him crumble into ash.

Then comes the ending.

Alice crawls onto the freeway.

An ambulance arrives.

A medic asks,

“Who did this to you?”

Alice simply replies,

“My ex-husband.”

Honestly…

She’s not wrong.

It’s technically the truth.

Then she asks for a cigarette.

Normally I’d never encourage smoking.

But after surviving everything she just survived…

Yeah…

I think she’s earned one.

Earlier in the movie she’s shown trying to quit smoking by putting the cigarette pack back down before the memorial, making this ending even sadder because you realize the nightmare completely broke her resolve.

The mid-credit scene didn’t surprise me because I noticed Polly never actually died in the burning house.

She’s crawling down the road after losing both of her legs.

A woman stops and asks if she needs help.

Polly quietly replies,

“Yes… he cut off both my legs.”

The woman walks over.

Then Polly smiles and says,

“But your legs will do.”

Cue Deadite screech.

Cut to black.

Now…

The final post-credit scene.

That one actually got me.

We return to the morgue.

Kassie from Evil Dead Rise is there.

Then Ellie suddenly appears.

Snaps Kassie’s neck.

Looks at her and says,

“That’s right darling… Mommy’s home.”

That is one ruthless way to end a movie.

It completely destroys any idea that surviving a previous Evil Dead movie guarantees you’re safe in the next one.

Overall…

Another fantastic modern Evil Dead movie.

Not quite on the level of Evil Dead Rise for me…

But still one bloody good time.