Another excellent Evil Dead movie, a standalone like “Evil Dead Rise”, but just doesn’t quite hit the spot. This movie is about domestic violence and family expectations, and does a great job of making its point.
Where “Rise” embraces a more gleeful, splatter-heavy style (who doesn’t wince at the cheese grater scene?), “Burn” leans into a harsher, more relentlessly violent kind of gore. Unfortunately, when it does attempt humour, it often comes at the expense of the film’s dramatic tension. Much of the comic relief stems from the erratic outbursts of a character with dementia, reducing a serious condition to a punchline. Rather than adding levity, those moments made me cringe.
Compared to “Rise”, “Burn” places a greater emphasis on the human drama. The Deadites relentlessly exploit her fractured family dynamics and emotional wounds. By contrast, the Deadites in “Rise” are gleefully, almost cartoonishly cruel. It’s more “ha ha, we’ve got your mum” than “ha ha, your husband was an arsehole.”
That’s not to say it’s a bad film. The camerawork is energetic, bordering on dizzying. The performances are strong, though not as good as “Rise”. Overall, it’s a solid entry in the franchise. It doesn’t break much new ground or leave the same lasting impression, but it still delivers plenty of effective scares and made me jump more than a few times.