{"id":1896,"date":"2026-07-08T21:18:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2026-07-08T21:18:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:18:22","slug":"hotly-anticipated-horror-sequel-never-quite-catches-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1896","title":{"rendered":"hotly anticipated horror sequel never quite catches fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong class=\"dropcap big-read-dropcap\">I<\/strong>t\u2019s awesome when a long-running horror franchise delivers a late entry so impressive it reminds you why you cared in the first place. The <em>Evil Dead<\/em> films have mostly delivered the gory goods since the first one crept out of the woods and onto big screens in 1981, but you\u2019d never expect the fifth in the series, more than 40 years later, to impress. Yet <em>Evil Dead Rise<\/em> from 2023 was an all-timer: a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/film-reviews\/evil-dead-rise-review-horror-bruce-campbell-3433265\">five-star masterclass<\/a> of blood-letting brilliance. Follow-up <em>Evil Dead Burn<\/em>, then, is hotly anticipated \u2013 no pun intended.<\/p>\n<p>Starting reasonably enough with a doomed fishing trip (and two mates who clearly regret setting out on a lake of deathly undercurrents), the action is well-paced and packed with peril. Director S\u00e9bastien Vani\u010dek proved he could mount a fierce fright scene with his debut feature, 2023\u2019s <em>Infected<\/em>, and looks to step up a gear here \u2013 once again, he shares screenwriting credits with Florent Bernard. We\u2019re thrown into a blazing row at a restaurant that ends in a brutal and deadly car accident for Will (George Pullar), placing the focus on his widow, Alice (Souheila Yacoub from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/film-reviews\/dune-part-2-review-3593580\"><em>Dune: Part Two<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>After navigating Will\u2019s funeral, which is distractingly though amusingly soundtracked by the incessant thud of adjacent building works, Alice finds herself stuck with the in-laws at Will\u2019s family home. They\u2019re not huge fans of Alice\u2019s, at least partly blaming her for his untimely demise. Mum Susan (Tandi Wright from Ti West\u2019s brilliant arthouse horror <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/reviews\/film-reviews\/pearl-review-mia-goth-horror-3414788\"><em>Pearl<\/em><\/a>) is the archetypal difficult mother-in-law, while gran Polly (Maude Davey) provides much of the comic relief on her stairlift journeys. Erroll Shand as Will\u2019s dad, Edgar, proves particularly ferocious. As we\u2019ve come to expect from the <em>Evil Dead<\/em> films, he \u2013 and others \u2013 become possessed by the spirits arising from the Book of the Dead, which has been recklessly stashed away in the house by a relative.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Evil Dead Burn | Official Trailer\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TnHby2cxJzs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All the ingredients for a ripping horror yarn are in place. Much like in <em>Evil Dead Rise<\/em>, we have a family at loggerheads, a single location ripe for claustrophobic frights and savage kills, and the now almost customary smart and savvy young woman trying to navigate trauma and increasingly spooky goings-on. But somehow, it never quite catches fire \u2013 even though flames provide much of the strongest on-screen imagery.<\/p>\n<p><em>Evil Dead Burn<\/em> isn\u2019t a bad entry in the series by any stretch, but fundamentally it just isn\u2019t scary enough. And aside from a small smattering of impalings and sliced fingers, it isn\u2019t particularly brutal either. Where <em>Rise<\/em> went full-on gory with cheese graters and so forth, Burn regrettably pulls its punches. Yes, there\u2019s some solid mutilating with a garden strimmer, but even this feels like a slightly lame callback to the franchise\u2019s trademark chainsaw fun. Admittedly, even a not-quite-prime <em>Evil Dead<\/em> entry is entertaining enough, especially taken in isolation. But as a follow-up to a five-star horror riot, this film is slightly disappointing.<\/p>\n<div class=\"game-review-verdict\">\n<h2>Details<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Director:<\/strong> S\u00e9bastien Vani\u010dek<\/li>\n<li><strong>Starring:<\/strong> Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan<\/li>\n<li><strong>Release date:<\/strong> July 10 (in UK cinemas)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('consent', 'revoke');\n  fbq('init', '370979561341328');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s awesome when a long-running horror franchise delivers a late entry so impressive it reminds you why you cared in the first place. The Evil Dead films have mostly delivered the gory goods since the first one crept out of the woods and onto big screens in 1981, but you\u2019d never expect the fifth in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Evil_Dead_Burn.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}