I did something kind of weird a few weeks ago. I ventured out to a movie theater. These are places where you purchase a ticket to watch a newly released movie projected onto a big screen. You can buy popcorn or other snacks and sit in a big comfy chair. I think I bought a box of Buncha Crunch. Still, movie tickets aren’t cheap and while this theater chain promised me uninterrupted escapism, I experienced around two hours of misery. That’s because I bought a ticket for 2026’s Evil Dead Burn from director Sébastien Vaniček. 

Our movie begins with a couple of guys fishing in a lake. One guy goes off to take a phone call or a leak (I don’t remember), the other guy continues to fish. I remember dozens of fishing lines launching from the water itself, catching the poor fisherman. This is all being orchestrated by Jess (Greta Van Den Brink), the demon possessed young woman from Evil Dead Rise. When the other fisherman comes back, he tries to rescue his friend, but his speed boat capsizes. Jess then uses her preternatural powers to boil the fisherman alive. She then leaves the lake to find other victims. 

Her first victim is Will (George Pullar), a club owner who had recently got into a fight with his wife, Alice (Souheila Yacoub). She steps out in front of him as he’s speeding along in a drunken rage. After his car flips over, Jess forces his car to catch on fire, roasting Will alive. This is done in an effort to turn Will into a Deadite so he can look for the one weapon that can send the Kandarian demons back to hell, a weapon his grandfather hid in the family estate. The Book of the Dead makes no appearance in this movie, but you get some notes scrawled in the grandfather’s journal about demons and wise men. 

Much of the criticism online for Evil Dead Burn revolves around the opinion that the movie is “mean spirited.” To be fair, I think you could label most modern horror as mean spirited. Unlikable characters will still have horrible things happen to them, things you wouldn’t wish would happen to your worst enemy. Evil Dead Burn falls into this category. We’re introduced to Will’s family, the Price family, a collection of miserable individuals, but to be fair, they’re attending the funeral of a cherished member of their family. Alice shows up to the funeral in a hoodie, but she doesn’t cherish her late husband so much as he was abusive. 

To be fair, Will’s brother, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), isn’t so miserable, but he’s a coward so that’s our reason to loathe him. Much like the other Evil Dead films, the family gets possessed one by one by demonic forces, but it takes some time for the family to figure out what’s going on. After all, people express their grief in different ways. Take Edgar (Erroll Shand), Will’s dad, for example. Sure, we in the audience figure he’s possessed, but when he repeatedly stabs the family dog in the eye, the family may chalk it up to him having a nervous breakdown triggered by the death of his son. You have been warned. 

Did I mention this little funeral after party takes place in a decrepit mansion tucked way out in the woods? It’s not such a far cry from having an isolated cabin tucked away in the woods. It’s the same setting all over again. 

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443,episode 444, episode 450,episode 477, episode 491, episode 492,episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643,episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.