From the (Sub) stacks: 'Evil Dead Burn' Review
Another movie, another reason to lament a franchise not getting its due. Perhaps in the future I will get appropriately jaded, but for now, I mourn.
The funny thing is, Evil Dead Burn is the best thing to happen to the Evil Dead movie series in years (leaving the TV series to another unfairly cancelled discussion entirely). Unlike the overly serious, blood-drenched Evil Dead Rise, there’s no foregone conclusion as to who will make it out. Stick a pregnant woman and a little kid among the would-be victims, and it’s pretty easy to guess.
But Evil Dead Burn will not only keep you guessing as to who the survivor will be, it also brings back some of that devilish humor the franchise was known for, along with the required blood and mayhem. And it’s also one of its most refreshingly subversive entries. True, it doesn’t compare to the original movies and protagonist Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), who was both a paragon of all-American masculinity and a parody of it, but this latest splatterfest does set it sights on a no less sacred concept, one that the culture upholds with the devotion and rigidity of the most devout evangelical: The Family.
