EVIL DEAD BURN

***

Directed by Sébastien Vaniček.

Starring Souhelia Yacob, Hunter Doohan, Errol Shand.

Horror, US, 110 Minutes, Certificate 18.

Released in Cinemas in the UK on July 9th by StudioCanal UK.

We are at that stage now where there are just about as many straight up nasty EVIL DEAD’s as there are goofy ones, not counting the ASH VS EVIL DEAD TV series. For the fans who miss the slapstick hi-jinks of Bruce Campbell backflipping and poking himself in the eye, ever since Fede Álvarez’s 2013 remake that sense of fun has been long absent. Now we have a sense of sadism that lacks Sam Raimi’s sense of glee in putting his cast of dim heroes and evil Deadites through all sorts of physical mayhem. It is worth remembering though that his original film didn’t get banned on home video over here during the nonsensical early 80’s Video Nasties scare for nothing, with its instances of pencil related ankle injuries and all that stuff with the tree. Taking over the directorial reins from Lee Cronin, French director Sébastien Vaniček pushes the franchise further than ever before in terms of gore and an unrelentingly dark tone but at the same time manages to inject a dark streak of humour into the increasingly grim set of supernatural events we find ourselves subjected to.

Starting off with a callback to EVIL DEAD RISE, that seemingly sets up a new overarching mythos going forward, Vaniček wastes no time in setting his audience on edge before settling into the story proper and introducing us to our new cast/victims. Souhelia Yacob plays Alice, a French woman far from home and stuck in a marriage with her husband Will that is far from happy. After Will meets his maker on the road in an orchestrated accident, Alice is forced into having to deal with her completely unsympathetic in-laws Edgar and Susan after the sparsely attended funeral. Despite the presence of Will’s far more understanding and likable younger brother Joseph and his girlfriend Tina, Alice is stifled in expressing the truth about her abusive husband to her emotionally cold mother in law and increasingly hostile father in law who soon starts to express even more violent traits than his departed son. A small part of this is due to a certain book of the dead that Will and Joseph’s grandfather was researching and the possessive nature of the Deadites. Simmering tensions explode in spectacularly gnarly fashion as the family, and Alice fight for their survival against a seemingly unstoppable force that delights in tearing them apart both literally and figuratively.

With the serious and downbeat tone that comes with this new set of films there is now a specific issue attached to each entry. With the remake it was the spectre of drug addiction while the breakdown of a family unit was very much to the fore in the last film. This time around we are subjected to a slight examination of domestic abuse that sits uneasily alongside the spectacle of supernatural abuse which is projected onto the screen with a loving attention to gory detail in every injury inflicted by the sadistic and malevolent force at the heart of it all. There is a high chance that with the franchise’s focus on making each new film different in its own way that this could be referred to as the New French Extremity entry with all of its copious and inventive blood letting while attempting to be about something real in the way that the flagship films (MARTYRS, L’INTERIEUR) of that movement did so successfully. On the other hand if the film was to dwell on the matter too much it would stray away from why the audience have turned up in the first place, perhaps illustrating the point that such issues may best be examined elsewhere in a series of films where undead, foul mouthed wall crawling demons are summoned by an invocation from an ancient flesh covered book.

That the film draws itself out to a near two hour running time is also a drawback. On one hand there is something about the film's go for broke attitude when it comes to depraved violence but it soon becomes repetitive and quite numbing, especially when it lurches into a drawn out climax. Before then however the film matches its downbeat story with some spectacularly nasty set pieces that are undoubtedly the franchise’s darkest yet. Nearly every single household object that is shown onscreen at some point becomes an instrument of torture or weapon later on. Candle holders, corkscrews and car head rests all get their own memorable moment but special mention must go to the dishwasher. Honestly, when you pack it the way it is done here you are just asking for trouble and you deserve what you get.

Somehow, Vaniček as well as making the bloodiest film yet, has also made the most entertaining one of the new iterations as well. While he stays away from the more cartoonish aspects that made Raimi’s name, Vaniček’s own twisted sense of humour veers its way onscreen marking it out from the one note styling of EVIL DEAD RISE. Something also has to be said for the fact that in amongst all the unrelenting depravity he can take something as simple as a bedsheet and deliver the franchise's spookiest and most chilling imagery yet. 

In a year where SCREAM delivered a completely unsatisfying sequel, this is a bit of a tonic. Fans of both the new and the old should find something in here to be impressed by and perhaps be excited by the prospect of the next instalment EVIL DEAD WRATH, which takes us back to the 1970s, courtesy of director Francis Galluppi. In the meantime make sure you sit all the way through the end credits here for a pretty big clue for where the franchise could be heading even further in the future.

Iain MacLeod