Of the six films in the Evil Dead franchise, I’ve seen two in theaters. This newest one, and Army of Darkness in 1992. I found the original trilogy campy, but enjoyable. I’ve found this newer trilogy to be much of the same (with bigger budgets and more believable gore). That was until today.
Let’s see what the fine folks at Wikipedia have to say about this film:
Evil Dead Burn is a 2026 American supernatural horror film directed and co-written by Sébastien Vaniček, and produced by Rob Tapert and series creator Sam Raimi. It serves as a sequel to Evil Dead Rise (2023) and the sixth installment in the Evil Dead film series. The film stars Souheila Yacoub as a young woman who seeks solace with her in-laws following the death of her husband, as the family comes together in a secluded house. The gathering becomes a “family reunion from hell” as members gradually turn into Deadites. It also stars Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, and Maude Davey in supporting roles.
A sixth Evil Dead film was announced in February 2024, with Vaniček hired to direct a script he co-wrote with Florent Bernard, while Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert were producers, with Ghost House Pictures producing the project. In December 2024, Vaniček revealed the title to be Evil Dead Burn along with a release scheduled tentatively for 2026. Casting began in May 2025, while filming began in July and concluded in October that same year in New Zealand.
Evil Dead Burn was theatrically released in France on July 8, 2026, followed by the United States on July 10, by Warner Bros. Pictures in North American territories, and by Sony Pictures Releasing through its Screen Gems banner internationally. The film received mixed reviews from critics, and has grossed $28.2 million worldwide on a budget of $20 million.
The Rev-iew…
My, how the theatrical experience has changed since last I graced a theater with my presence during an entry into the Evil Dead franchise. The originals were corny, low-budget masterpieces who’ll forever sit atop the Bruce Campbell throne of Kingliness. These new ones? Minimal humor, unless you’re like me, and still laugh whenever Gage’s shoe goes bouncing down the road in Pet Sematary. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some laughs in these new ones, but they’re all those uncomfortable laughs. The kind when you look around afterward to see if anyone is calling the police. Also, I was more of a soda and popcorn guy in 1992. 2026 Fried Pickles and black coffee.
Thank you for another wonderful filmgoing experience, Alamo Drafthouse. You’re finally getting the hang of this!
Firstly, if you suffer from Thalassophobia (as I do), the opening sequence is going to tickle your tummy a time or two. Beyond that, we’re introduced to a new/old family who has a bit of a secret. (* I’m not one of those Evil Dead fans who can tell you all the details and back stories of each character, and pays tons of money to have Bruce Campbell breathe on them at cons. I enjoy horror in general, but I have a soft sport for the works of Sam Raimi, whether he’s directing or producing. I sold books at a con down the row from Campbell once, and I wasn’t personally a supporter of how he appeared to treat his fanbase…but I digress.)
At the start of the film, I wasn’t a huge fan or our protagonists/antagonists (depending on which portion of the film you’re watching; things happen) because the writer insisted on using a character trope which sickens me: the writer who can’t finish the book. I guess it’s fine in a pinch of you have a deadline, but it’s not necessarily a feeling the majority of your audience can relate. In the end, isn’t that what brings us to the movies in the first place? Relatability to extraordinary things? It’s also been used entirely too often in horror over the last decade. I know a couple dozen REAL independent horror authors who face this dilemma with every project, and their character depth is far beyond “failed author”. Kristopher Triana sh*ts bigger than you.
I must give credit where credit is due, though. This isn’t a retread of any of the others. Let’s be honest; three of the films in this franchise are the exact same film, they’re just done masterfully, and we don’t seem to care. The 2013 entry is one of the few horror remakes I’ll suggest to anyone seeking a bit of cringy body horror. This particular movie doesn’t just deal with one antagonist; there’s several. In addition, the location of these shenanigans take place in a dilapidated mansion (Think Resident Evil VII videogame). We get some space to play with rather than a stuffy, old cabin or a crappy apartment.
It sets the tone early on by taking the audience to brutal places before the title card is even presented. I knew absolutely nothing about the director, but I swore I picked up on a few nods (if only accidentally) to a couple of the classics such as Hellraiser and Phantasm. It was clever enough to not rely on jump scares and gore to get the message across, but we still get our share of both.
IMO, “family” IS horror. There’s none deeper.
Unlike Evil Dead Rise, Burn is intense, incredibly diverse, and even gives us a bit of a reversal when it comes to the villain. In the originals, it was always Ash’s love interest who pays the price. In the remake and sequel: a sister and a mother. This time, the Deadites get passed around the whole family and beyond. Of the new trilogy, this one is by far the best. You’re going to love Grandma.
One of my only arguments was the overuse of teases and foreshadowing. For example, when you knew something bad was about to happen to someone, and the film teases a few deadly outcomes by focusing the camera on various potential weapons. I noticed this more than a few times, and I felt it belonged in a Final Destination film instead of Evil Dead. To make up for this, the director pulls off a few jaw-dropping continuous, extended shot-action sequences unlike anything I’ve seen lately. You know me; I see most all of ’em.
This doesn’t top Obsession as my favorite horror film of the year, but it comes close. It’s a different kind of horror when compared to that, and I don’t believe it’s fair. This is franchise horror with a reputation to uphold. Verdict: It held.
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To most, 1865 was an eye-opening year. The American Civil War was officially over and the soldiers fortunate enough to survive the bloody conflict returned home to collect the pieces of their former lives. To young Arizonan, Robert Jack, the fateful desert homecoming marked the end to all he once knew. Forgiveness is overrated. Death is final. Revenge, however, dances between the fine lines of mortality and eternity. Love always finds a way.
“Reading Jim Walker and the Redemption Hymn is equal parts quirky fun and riveting action. Cloud’s confident, entertaining voice draws the reader in like an old radio western: the perfect bite-sized story with a main character you’re ready to follow through every adventure he finds himself on. So, tune in next time…”
– Megan Stockton, author of Lovely, Dark & Deep
The history books would read that Jim Walker was brutally executed after the Battle of Goliad, but a few promises in the right ear blurred the contrast between blood and ink. Now an aging bounty hunter on the verge of retirement, his services are requested in the Northern Arizona Territory to solve the terrifying mystery of the Verde River Massacre. With guns from a local Deputy, courage from a saloon proprietor, and a deathbed confession from an all-too-familiar Medicine Woman, Jim sets off on what could be his final adventure. Will he lay the ghosts of his past to rest once and for all, or is he simply whistling his Redemption Hymn?
“Someone call DC and tell them this is how you write a female hero character!” – Lisa Lee Tone, Bibliophelia Templum
Angel Burns is a young firefighter with a shrouded history. During a routine night at work, she stumbles upon a demonic ceremony that brings her memories out of hiding – as well as her repressed supernatural powers. Angel soon learns her life was intended for things greater than extinguishing fires for mortals. Now on the payroll of the Vatican, Angel embarks upon an epic quest to protect the Gutenberg Bibles from evil. If successful, she will secure peace for generations. If she fails, the power of the ancient books will bestow an eternity of darkness upon all humanity!
Toby Liberman is nearing the end of his rope. After a fateful confrontation with his wife’s lover, he is chased into the woods only to be discovered by an unidentifiable creature. He is attacked and rendered unconscious. Upon waking at the scene of a gruesome triple homicide, Toby is arrested as the sole suspect and thrown into a jail cell with a strange man that knows way too much about his predicament. The stranger reveals to Toby that he now possesses the curse of the werewolf. Using his new-found strength to flee his captors, Toby begins to discover that things are not what they seem in the sleepy town of Twin Oaks, TX. Now hunted by law enforcement, as well as the town’s gun toting civilians, Toby seeks vengeance against his false accusers and embarks upon a quest to clear his name once and for all.
A Curse Beyond Comprehension. A Power Beyond Belief. A Girl Far From Home. Katie Liberman is your typical eighteen-year-old college student…or at least that’s what her family thinks. Picking up five years after the events of A Taste of Home, Katie has dropped out of school and embarked upon a dangerous quest to find Kurt Jimmerson, the New York City attorney responsible for her family’s werewolf curse. Unknown to her, the attorney’s grip on the ‘City That Never Sleeps’ is tighter than imagined and she’ll need any and all help available to be victorious. But… where do you find friends when you’re Far From Home?
Twin Oaks, Texas is at war! Taking place immediately after the Far From Home events in New York City, Katie Liberman has returned to rescue her birthplace from the clutches of her nemesis. As the paranormal battle of North vs. South rages in the shadows, the tiny town must decide to fight against the odds or become one with the darkness. Blood will be shed and only one will survive as the final battle of the Home Series concludes.
I know this is the part where I’m supposed to talk about the book, but I feel as though the synopsis needs its own preface to truly understand. 2023 was quite an eye-opening year! I began it by living my dream as a vintage steam locomotive fireman, but that dream was soon squashed thanks to my writing career. It won’t matter that you wrote your extreme horror offerings years ago and under a pen name. Also, it won’t matter that your publisher and author friends from days gone by express pleasantries and kind, nurturing words to your face, because they’ll clique-up and talk trash the minute you turn your back. F**k the biz, create. Create for art, not clicks. Click for love, not hate. Those are words true artists should have no issues living by, yet most seem to hide behind their keyboard shields, flinging ill-thought words of destruction toward once-trusted ears. Don’t pour something into everything; pour everything into something. Do it all by yourself if necessary. With any luck, 2024 will be the year of The Reverend. I’m not exactly sure what that means yet, but we’ll find out together. Anyway, here are a few short stories and poems I wrote as C. Derick Miller in 2023. I stole them from myself. Fair and square. Enjoy.
Poetry has always come naturally to me. Whether it is an expression of emotion toward someone I care about, or a display of humor pointed in the direction of those I loathe, it is my true outlet. Several of these works were written in a passenger seat while exploring the highways of the United States and somehow managed to survive “The Great Ex-Wife/Ex-Girlfriend Poetry Purge” of 2019. Others were penned during COVID-19 quarantine. Although it may not be the most epic poetry collection you’ve ever read, it all contains bits of blood and soul. You will feel something. Guaranteed.
“This profound collection of horror brings classic monsters into new light in the modern day” – B.L. Blankenship, God Walks The Dark Hills series.
The modern world is a crazy place. Worrying about childish politicians, empty grocery store shelves, and our pending membership to the “global disease of the week” club, it leaves very little time for the average reader to finish an entire novel. This is where Six from Five Seven: Short Stories from a Short Man comes in clutch! A story per day to keep the impending apocalypse away, with a single day left over to contemplate why you purchased this book in the first place. That sounds like an entertaining week when compared to the one you were destined to have regardless. What do a cursed husband, a privileged brat, a curious prostitute, a repressed savior, a vengeful son, and two hell-bound soldiers have in common? Their stories lie within the pages of this collection and invite you to tag along on their journeys of fate, redemption, and demise. When finished, you, dear reader, can hide this book inside your basement with the rest of those important documents you wished you’d never taken home. The FBI won’t be happy, but at least they’ll know you’re a cool person for owning a copy while conducting the raid. That must count for something, right? Let’s hope the judge thinks so!
Also, there’s a few other things not listed here that are floating around out there. Best of luck with the hunt.
Current Projects
Rev. Dare Cloud
Reverend · adjective. worthy of adoration or reverence. synonyms: sublime · sacred.
is a Dallas author, musician, and gonzo journalist. Some of his works include the controversial splatter-western Starving Zoe (written as C. Derick Miller), the Taste of Home trilogy, and the ongoing Jim Walker series. His literary crushes are (of course) Hunter S. Thompson, J.D. Salinger, and Kevin Smith. Preach truths, toke jokes, and shoplift Amazon.
“You’ve got to press it on you You’ve just been thinking That’s what you do, baby Hold it down, Dare!” – Gorillaz
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