Evil Dead Burn Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Evil Dead Burn Blu-ray Movie Review

Goddamn, even the dog isn't safe.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III September 25, 2026

I'm not always one to boil a whole film down to one word, but the best way to describe Sébastien Vaniček's Evil Dead Burn is "miserable". This describes its overall tone and atmosphere, of course, due to the unrelentingly brutal way that it treats its characters and audience. But that word also typically indicates a certain amount of inadequacy, and in this regard it fits the bill too: simply put, Burn feels like the least worthwhile Evil Dead movie to date and a noticeable step backwards from the somewhat uneven but at least memorable Evil Dead Rise. Points can be awarded for its admittedly impressive practical effects and several performances, but Burn ultimately feels like a punishment, a dismal and grim marathon of horror porn with occasional ED lore hastily thrown in as window dressing.

After another violent and loosely-connected opening sequence set at a lake, Evil Dead Burn opens with an awkward birthday gathering for Joseph Price (Hunter Doohan), who's at a club with his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan), his older brother William (George Pullar), and William's wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub). Alcohol and long-brewing resentment end the party early and William, who has shown signs of abuse towards Alice, speeds away through the night while still intoxicated. He totals his SUV after running into a possessed woman first introduced at the lake, and they both survive the crash... until he's burned alive and consumed by the same evil spirit that invaded her body.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for Evil Dead Burn's marathon of misery, of course. William's funeral is even more depressing than usual since the Price family -- which also includes mother Susan (Tandi Wright), father Edgar (Erroll Shand), and ailing grandma Polly (Maude Davey) -- isn't very warm and welcoming towards widow Alice, who has no happy stories to share and shows up in a sweatshirt and sneakers. During Edgar's last goodbyes with William before his cremation, he's confronted by the same demonic force that transferred the curse to William after his accident and now seems to be its reluctant new host. Unaware of the incident, the grieving family heads back to Joseph's farmhouse, which has been in the family for generations and is now in a serious state of disrepair.

Almost immediately, the creep factor increases sharply due to Edgar's increasingly violent, unpredictable behavior and, before long, the family realizes that there's something deeper than grief and trauma taking over the house. It never felt like a cozy home but is now a claustrophobic trap whose remote location has cut them off from help while violence and chaos quickly consume everything -- and everyone -- under its roof. On top of all this, Alice must confront the painful history of her marriage and her complicated place within the Price family, which clearly has a history of mental illness, emotional abuse, and serious anger management issues. From here on out, Burn devolves further into a marathon of grisly violence that's played almost completely straight, while a handful of lore elements lightly link it to previous entries in the Evil Dead franchise that, to be completely honest, feel more obligatory than organic.

All of this might play more smoothly if handled with care, but director/co-writer Sébastien Vaniček instead injects Evil Dead Burn with an endless string of horrifically brutal confrontations that border on obscene. (Someone even forgot to tell him the #1 rule of American cinema: don't hurt the dog.) Simply put, the level of violence and misery inflicted upon Burn's characters rivals that of Michael Haneke's Funny Games (which is a satire) and even Gaspar Noe's Irreversible, including an homage reminiscent of the latter's notorious "fire extinguisher" scene that was apparently trimmed slightly to avoid an NC-17 rating. While buckets of blood and guts are practically par for the course in most Evil Dead movies, there's usually a warmer element to balance it out and that's totally missing here, as is the refreshing location change of Evil Dead Rise. But with its few new ideas and only a three-year gap since that last film (the shortest amount of time between Evil Dead entries, at least until Wrath arrives in 2028), the unpleasant aimlessness of Burn now also brings with it a threat of franchise fatigue due to its threadbare story and unmemorable characters.

While I obviously didn't like this one and have no serious plans to revisit it soon (unlike our own Brian Orndorf, who awarded it a much warmer 8/10 in his theatrical review), I can at least award it a few courtesy points for outstanding practical effects and a few standout performances, including Tandi Wright as unhinged matriarch Susan and especially Maude Davey as grandma Polly. Sadly, almost everything about Burn feels like a mild to severe disappointment, and one that barely even outpaces Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin's abysmal The Mummy. Nonetheless, Warner Bros. has brought it to 4K and Blu-ray in separate editions as well as a Limited Edition Steelbook combo pack, all of which feature proportionately strong A/V merits but only a trio of surface-level bonus features.

Evil Dead Burn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As usual, refer to my recent review of the separate 4K edition for general details about the film's visual aesthetic, which for the most part is as bleak and colorless as its subject matter. That didn't stop the UHD from delivering a solid 2160p presentation and the Blu-ray's 1080p/SDR downscale is similarly up to the challenge, offering a very decent alternative that still features great image detail in optimal lighting conditions as well as good color representation. As seen in these direct-from-disc screenshots, Evil Dead Burn is exceedingly dark and, while it does a commendable job with black levels and contrast within format limitations, there are several occasions where details are a bit more obscured by shadows -- or at least ambiguity -- but it's not especially troublesome. As with the 4K edition, encoding is also very good and there are almost no signs of banding or other compression artifacts, as there's barely two hours of HD content on this 50GB which is more than enough. The UHD clearly wins in a shootout, but this Blu-ray looks pretty damn good too.

Evil Dead Burn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos track (as well as the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mixdown, if that's closer to your setup) likewise gets the job done, and perhaps even better given the Evil Dead Burn's heavy reliance on jump scares, physical violence, and other facets of a film fueled by supernatural terror. This is an occasionally room-filling and extremely active presentation but one separate by equally long stretches of quiet or low-level activity, yet viewers will soon be trained to stay on edge for whatever nightmarish surprise lies just around the corner. Dialogue is clean and clear, of course, and there's also plenty of room for the original score by French composing duo Double Danger, who previously worked with Sébastien Vaniček on his directing debut, 2023's Infested. Overall, it delivers exactly what you'd expect from a film of this type.

Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are included during the main feature and all extras listed below.

Evil Dead Burn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork. A Digital Copy redemption code is included, as are a trio of short and mostly inconsequential bonus features.

• Evil Dead: Blazing the Trail (5:35) - A short EPK-style featurette with comments from director/co-writer Sébastien Vaniček, producer Rob Tapert, and a few key cast members paired with scenes from the set.

• The Hot Shot: Evil Dead Burn's One-Shot Sequence (5:23) - This like-minded piece details an unbroken five-minute sequence during the second act where Edgar faces off with various members of his family.

• The One's Gonna Burn (5:03) - The lightweight extras conclude with another surface-level featurette, this one focusing on costumes and makeup including the film's admittedly impressive variety of practical effects.

Evil Dead Burn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Circling back to by opening statement, "miserable" also apparently means "deserving to be hated" (something I wasn't aware of until now), but I don't know if I'd go that far when describing Sébastien Vaniček's Evil Dead Burn. Yet it's safe so say that this film and the brutal treatment of its characters were at least one reason why it didn't connect with most audiences, as it did less than half the business of Evil Dead Rise, and I damn sure wouldn't blame anyone for checking out early or waiting for reviews on the next film before seeing it. By most metrics (including mine), that spells trouble for a franchise that's managed to have an incredibly long lifespan considering its extremely modest origins. Regardless, those who enjoyed Evil Dead Burn will at least appreciate the supportive A/V merits of Warner Bros.' separate 4K and Blu-ray editions, although the extras leave a lot to be desired. Whether or not Arrow will step up later for a more fully-loaded import remains to be seen... but until then, this one's recommended to established fans only.