'Evil Dead Burns' Out on Endless Shock Value
What starts as a roller coaster quickly loses track of its wheels, sending the ride straight to the pavement. There are Evil Dead fans out there. As someone who’s moderate about the franchise, I wonder whether people like the darker, less comedic take on the original Sam Raimi material. The first picture from 1981 is not a comedy. Yet the second and third ones veer more towards it. When it’s funny, it works best. Evil Dead Burn thrusts shocking violence at the audience in a way that doesn’t have the same appeal as Bruce Campbell killing bad guys with groovy style. Simply put, Evil Dead Burn is almost lifeless.
If the Book of the Dead weren’t in this picture, Evil Dead Burn wouldn’t be distinguishable from any other blood-splatter picture. There’s a charm even to the ’81 flick despite its playing everything straight. It’s horror, yet subtly (or unsubtly) it’s goofy. There’s a kind spirit to its gory material. Aside from a running joke that’s linked to a McGuffin and Grandma, everything is played too straight in Burn. There’s a fun movie that's trying to break out but’s stuck because a creative team is envisioning the wrong tone.
The picture opens with minimal exposition that could have been fleshed out to make the middle act hit much harder. It then cuts to an elongated murder scene with the ghost lady in a nightgown trope. Then, it transitions to one of the best sound bridges put in a recent film, mixing a car collision with a close-up of a woman twerking. Somehow it works. We're then introduced to the soon-to-be husband who DUIs his way to destiny. After William's (George Pullar's) death, the family becomes something terrifying. In a house full of Americans, it's Thya (Luciane Buchanan), the Frenchman, who's the most sensible. With the acceptance of the deceased's younger brother, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), the Price family has serious mental issues.
When all the zany Raimi material resurfaces, the movie cranks the gore to 11. But it's not earned. Do we need to see one character's head smashed on camera? Or a dog being stabbed? The picture offers a commentary on how grief can destroy a family. Unfortunately, the Evil Dead is not the type of material to tackle such heavy material. It has almost the same nuance as Glenn's head getting caved in by Negan on The Walking Dead. At a certain point, death becomes a cheap plot device to further the narrative. A better film would focus on why certain family members resent each other. Aside from being a father and working class man, why is Edgar Price so angry at everyone? Sure, you could say that the evil dead spirits resurface buried words to be spoken aloud. But where do those words come from? Without any backstory, Edgar comes off as a stereotypical hateful hillbilly. There's a human there, yet we see hardly anything.
Evil Dead Burn is a drag to hell in repetition. Horror movies are loaded with filler. Obviously, it was director Sébastien Vanicek'sgoal to cut the boring stuff. Sadly, that backfired. EDB reminds us why dull exposition is necessary. If you're smart enough to write a movie with an engaging story that draws the audience to the characters rather than marking time until everyone dies, you've made a good film. Otherwise, here's yet another one that had some good ideas but tragically fell to familiarity.
Don't let a live audience's screams fool you. Instinctually, reactions to every orifice of the body being penetrated with a sharp object will elicit a verbal response. Yet that doesn't represent the quality of the movie. The optimism and fun that were once prevalent in the Evil Dead have been replaced with dreadful cynicism. Is Edgar Price the way Sébastien Vanicek views American culture? If so, I can't blame him. Still, it doesn't fit within the narrative of characters we're supposed to not care for but understand. The film is loaded with family problems that end the way you could imagine.
The picture is a Frenchman's allegory on the downfall of American civilization. The protagonist is a French girl who has to survive a bloodthirsty American family. That concept could work, yet it's done haphazardly because it's tied to popular material. The film is shocking but not in an entertaining way. Its violence is relentless to the point of early exhaustion. Rather than being enthralled, you'll likely be tempted to check the time. Don't do that. The theater is dark for a reason. If only Evil Dead Burn were less dark, or existed outside of this monsterverse, it could resonate. Otherwise, it's better to leave this zombie of a franchise dead for good.
