Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema are planning to give the next installment in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead Burn, a theatrical release on July 10th. Recently, the Motion Picture Association gave the film an R rating for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and language – and producer Rob Tapert says this may be the least bloody but most brutal entry in the franchise.
In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE) in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. Last year, they proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise.
New Line Cinema and Sony Pictures are co-financing the film, which Vaniček is directing from a screenplay he wrote with Florent Bernard. Sony will distribute internationally, with Canal Plus distributing in the UK and Metropolitan distributing in France.
Vaniček has said that he has complete creative control on his Evil Dead movie, and has given it a French twist. Here’s the synopsis: Evil Dead Burn unleashes the franchise’s most savage and terrifying ride to date, blazing onto big screens with an all-new chapter of carnage and demonic mayhem. After the loss of her husband, a woman seeks solace with her in-laws in their secluded family home. As one by one they are transformed into Deadites—turning the gathering into a family reunion from hell—she comes to discover that the vows she took in life… live on even in death.
Sam Raimi made his feature directorial debut with the original The Evil Dead, which introduced Campbell as iconic hero Ash Williams. Ash returned for Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series, with Raimi directing the films and the first episode of the show. After seeing a short film directed by Fede Alvarez, the Evil Dead rights holders gave him the chance to make his feature directorial debut with the Ash-less 2013 Evil Dead. Then Lee Cronin was hired to make the Ash-less Evil Dead Rise based on the strength of his own feature debut, the 2019 film The Hole in the Ground. So Sébastien Vaniček being hired to make the next Evil Dead movie right after entering the feature world with Vermin / Infested is very on brand for this franchise.
Vaniček’s Evil Dead Burn isn’t the only Evil Dead movie on the way. Two months after he was hired to make his movie, the rights holders also hired Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, to write and direct his own Evil Dead flick, which is called Evil Dead Wrath. An animated series follow-up to Ash vs. Evil Dead is also in the works.
Dune: Part Two‘s Souheila Yacoub, a Swiss former rhythmic gymnast who won the Miss Suisse Romande beauty pageant before getting her acting career started, plays heroine Alice and is joined in the cast by Hunter Doohan (Your Honor), Luciane Buchanan (The Night Agent), and Tandi Wright (Pearl).
While speaking at Michigan State University, Tapert said (with thanks to Dread Central for the transcription), “It’s the story of a French woman in a bad marriage in America, and… what we will discover along the ride – was probably an abusive husband, whose family did not believe her – and so they were basically the in-laws from hell.
On a more technical level, it sits on the edge of the Evil Dead universe. I’ll say that because Sébastien felt that he was given the green light by Sam [Raimi] and myself to make something totally different in the Evil Dead universe, which he did. It looks and feels different, and he is a very strong filmmaker, and it probably has the least amount of blood, but the most amount of brutality, and I would call it Serbian energy by any other name that comes through, so it’s really, really strong.
There’s really great performances in it, and it is not tongue-in-cheek. There are some solid laughs, though. There’s some good laughs in it, but it has no vestiges of the tone of Evil Dead II. I would say that Evil Dead Rise still had a little bit of the Irish wink and nod from that director.“
What do you think of the possibility that Evil Dead Burn has the least blood but the most brutality in the franchise? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.
Vaniček recently confirmed that he had to cut a scene from the film to secure its R rating, and he looks forward to a “way more violent” director’s cut being released on home video.