After seeing some quality epic filmmaking on Saturday with The Odyssey, I fancied something a bit grubbier and nastier as a palette cleanser. So I went to see EVIL DEAD BURN. The EVIL DEAD franchise is a fun one, though calling it a franchise is probably stretching it a bit – only the first three films are really connected! I quite liked the previous entry – EVIL DEAD RISE – which was gruesome fun, but this new film seemed to get some very mixed reviews from critics, who accused it of being humourless, with no characters you could root for and relentlessly nasty and mean spirited – a proper video nasty,
I’m pleased to say that those critics are wrong. And I think I actually enjoyed this instalment more than any of the other non-Raimi films. It’s a lot funnier than I was expecting – though not comedic in the way evil dead 2 and 3 are. It’s more character-based humour, about the awkwardness of family gatherings and dysfunctional relationships. But when the horror hits – it really doesn’t hold back. It’s chaotic, gruesome and yes – very nasty. But it’s technically brilliant with some ingeniously staged sequences and shots. Extremely well directed by Sébastien Vaniček, you could feel that some real effort that had gone into making this. Despite the truly horrible violence and gore portrayed, I was amazed by how cleverly done some of the shots in this movie are. They almost had a Spielberg or Zemeckis quality to them. There’s a shot using a mirror that reminded me of the amazing one in CONTACT – and that’s just a throwaway shot in this film!
So yeah, if you’re a horror fan and want something intense, violent, gorey with a gruesomely dark sense of humour, EVIL DEAD BURN absolutely hits the spot.
