Evil Dead Burn (2026) Movie Review: The Franchise’s Nastiest, Most Vicious Entry Yet
Director: Sébastien Vaniček | Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, Maude Davey, Alain Chabat | Genre: Horror | Runtime: 2h 0m | Rating: R | Release Date: July 10, 2026 | Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures / New Line Cinema / Ghost House Pictures
Plot Overview
Evil Dead Burn is the sixth entry in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise (the third since the 2013 reboot) and the first to be directed by French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček, best known for the killer-spider horror Infested. After the sudden, fiery death of her hot-tempered husband Will, a woman named Alice seeks comfort with her in-laws at their secluded family home — only to watch them turn into Deadites one by one as an old family curse resurfaces. What begins as a story about grief and unresolved family resentment quickly spirals into an all-out fight for survival, as Alice discovers that surviving her husband’s abuse may have only been the first battle.
Performances
Souheila Yacoub (Climax, Dune: Part Two) anchors the film as Alice, and critics have singled her out as the film’s strongest asset — her performance carries both the emotional weight of a woman confronting past abuse and the full physical demands of a Deadite-siege horror movie. Tandi Wright plays the mother-in-law Susan with a feral, xenophobic hostility that critics found unexpectedly layered rather than one-note, while Erroll Shand (as father-in-law Edgar) and Maude Davey (as a dementia-afflicted grandmother turned raging Deadite) both earned praise for committing fully to the franchise’s trademark blend of body horror and dark humor. Hunter Doohan rounds out the cast as the beaten-down son caught between his family and Alice.
Critical Reception
Evil Dead Burn has been one of the best-reviewed entries in the franchise’s history, with critics broadly agreeing that it’s also the most disturbing and mean-spirited installment yet. Variety’s chief critic noted that the trademark gonzo comedy of earlier Evil Dead films is largely gone here, replaced by something closer to a grim family drama soaked in relentless gore. Multiple reviewers highlighted the film’s thematic ambition — using the Deadite-possession premise as a vehicle to explore domestic abuse and inherited family trauma, with the “possessed” versions of characters saying the cruel things they’d normally only think. That approach drew comparisons to The Invisible Man (2020) for how effectively it merges genre thrills with a grounded emotional core.
The technical filmmaking has drawn some of the strongest praise: a single unbroken shot of Alice crawling through chaos was called a genuine highlight, and the film’s kinetic, upside-down, wall-crawling camera work earned comparisons to the franchise’s most inventive visual moments. Where reviews diverge is on pacing and plot logic — several critics noted that some characters make baffling decisions purely to keep the plot moving, and that the film’s need to tie back into franchise lore (including a reworked mythology around the anti-Deadite dagger, and a mid-credits cameo) occasionally disrupts its momentum. Even so, the consensus lands solidly positive: this is a bold, brutal, well-crafted entry that pushes the series’ violence to a new extreme while giving it something real to say.
Our Verdict
Evil Dead Burn earns its place as one of the strongest entries since the 2013 reboot — inventive, vicious, and surprisingly thoughtful about grief and abuse underneath all the gore. It won’t win back fans who miss the series’ earlier sense of dark comedy, and the connective tissue to franchise lore feels more obligatory than essential. But as a pure horror experience — visceral, well-shot, and unrelenting for two hours — it delivers exactly what a new Evil Dead film should.
Rating: 4/5 — Punishing, inventive, and among the best of the franchise’s modern era.
Where to Watch Evil Dead Burn — OTT Status
Evil Dead Burn releases exclusively in theatres on July 10, 2026. As of this writing, no streaming or digital release date has been announced — as a Warner Bros. theatrical release, it will almost certainly follow the studio’s usual pattern of a theatrical window before arriving on HBO Max (Warner’s home platform) sometime in the following months. We’ll update this section with a confirmed date and link as soon as one is officially announced.
For now, the only way to watch it is in a movie theatre — which, frankly, is the way this one is meant to be seen anyway.
Quick Facts
- Franchise position: 6th film overall, 3rd since the 2013 reboot (following Evil Dead (2013) and Evil Dead Rise (2023))
- Director’s previous film: Infested (2023), a French killer-spider horror film available on Shudder
- Producers: Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, with Bruce Campbell and Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin as executive producers
- Next up: Evil Dead Wrath, already confirmed for a 2028 release
