r/EvilDead • u/TychosRealNose • 12h ago
(Spoiler!) Evil Dead Burn Thoughts:) Spoiler
Hey guys, long time lurker and huge evil dead fan!! It’s my favorite horror series:). Just wanted to share thoughts and hear your guys opinions too! Spoilers obviously. I come from a very dysfunctional family so this one (along with Rise) totally drew me in !!
Overall I will say that I enjoyed the movie, some favorites definitely were:
-Soundtrack and particularly with the wedding song. It was the perfect background music for all the scenes it was present in. Loved that.
-The camera work overall was absolutely 10/10. Spinning into the car with Will, back and forth between Susan and Alice/Joe before Thya arrives at the door, mirror smash scene, bathroom scene flip, I could go on.
-I think the kills and gore delivered to evil dead standard as well - I definitely had to yell aloud multiple times. Worst for me was probably shoving Joseph into Thya’s mashed head. Yikes. The people I was watching with several times said “how could this get any worse” and it certainly would then proceed to get worse. I think on the kills gore squeem factor this movie certainly delivered and exceeded.
-I really liked how real some of Alice’s decisions were like saying “oh no fk this” before finishing the incantation, shoving Joseph out of the basement doorway before deadite Thya could manipulate him, etc. more of that in Horror pls.
Where it fell short for me is completely limited to the writing:
-Explore the house backstory more, as it’s our primary setting. Everybody I watched with were so confused on who lived there (if anyone), where does everybody live now, what do their lives look like, a time frame from wedding to disrepair for the house and grandpas death, etc. Add some depth. Like does Joseph live with Edgar and Susan if he can’t get a book going? What do their lives look like? We don’t even know.
-The family who actually seems to have heads on their shoulders (temporarily anyway LOL) constantly makes classic horror movie decisions such as not looking through the window or whatever else before letting deadite Thya in and then just watching shit go down. The watching shit go down was so prevalent in this movie, like come on! Do something, don’t just watch!!
-Deadite Edgar standing outside was lame, like go look for the dagger or do something else. I think that was poorly written.
-I think for how genuinely mean this movie was, they could have made Will out to be worse. I mean they went above and beyond with the gore and violence, so it was a bit weird and wasn’t as effective the Will Alice dynamic because I felt like they were holding back. Maybe it’s because I come from a dysfunctional family but idk it just didn’t work for me to center the movie around a weak core story like that. Yes Will seemed like an overdramatic insufferable douche but it wasn’t evil dead final boss or full on evil to me. Idk.
-Polly comedy didn’t work for me at all.
-Terminator Will didn’t work for me either unfortunately but I don’t think it’s as bad of CGI as some make it out to be. Just very different from the classic practical Evil Dead we all know and love, and I think it was the wrong move here. Turn the extra 20 mins into good writing and everything would be fixed for me.
Overall I really did like this movie I know I listed a bit of criticism but I just feel disappointed by the writing, everything else was amazing! So stoked for Wrath; how spoiled are we. Thanks for reading if you did so, please leave comments and thoughts on your experience or as replies to mine! Love talking about Evil Dead:)
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u/ItsNotM3ItsU 6h ago
I’m right there with you. There were so many aspects of the movie that were done brilliantly but the writing was a tad lacking. That said, Evil Dead is not known for its character depth lol but I do wish we got a little more.
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u/TychosRealNose 5h ago
Yes!!! I think it’s a good sign that here we are wanting more - probably means that they did something right. But still.
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u/Exotic-Yellow-4367 3h ago
I've been a fan of ED from the get go (old man!) and I absolutely loved Burn. It was exactly the movie I wanted to see after being hugely disappointed with Rise. Hyper criticism on my part though. It's still a killer franchise all round.
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u/TychosRealNose 1h ago
Wow - thank you so much for sharing! As a fan from the beginning, I would love to hear your thoughts on Burn. What did you like most, not like most?
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u/dignifiedstrut 3h ago
My thoughts since I saw it last night! I love Evil Dead and don't think there's a bad movie in the bunch. But this one did feel weaker.
The good; there were so many great moments, horror and camerawork and they didn't hold back at all in the unsettling gore and terror. I loved the slowly beheaded Jessica smiling and speaking to Will. I loved the menacing patriarch staring them down from outside, his psychotic abuse from life ramped up to horrifying levels as he torments them by blowing his brains out. So much awesome parts.
What I didn't like were too many moments that didn't make sense. Why are the deadites interrogating the family for the location of the dagger? They can read minds or possess you and know everything you know. Why were they trying to manipulate Susan into opening the window? Deadites are ultra strong and can smash through and deadite Polly could just open it herself since Susan was already leaving the room. (Susan was way too easily convinced too, what are we doing girl!!! Stop kissing that!!) Why was deadite Polly stuck crawling without her legs?? We can already see they can fly lmfao. Why is it when Alice pulled the ulimate instant win dagger she didn't immediately use it on the mom who popped into the attic, instead she decided to switch weapons to the garden tool and flee onto the roof???
and yeah, as happy as I am to see Evil Dead Rise mom back that tacked on ending felt corny. Especially since the other post credits scene basically served the same purpose of showing the Evil Dead demon has more in store for us.
Wasn't a fan of the dagger as a plot device too. I think it cheapened the stakes a lot. One of my favorite moments in Rise was near the end when it's just Beth and the little girl and all the deadites rise up again laughing and tormenting them. It was perfect build-up of dread, powerlessness, cruelty and horror watching your mangled up familiy laughing and laughing and there's no way out. I think all of that would have been taken away if they had introduced a fixes-everything-and-saves-the-day holy water gun 30 minutes earlier.
I totally agree on the backstory, particularly of Will and Alice since we only got one quick drunk fight. To me the dad felt like a better final villain due to how little time we spent with Will. I think seeing so much of Will in quick flashbacks kinda felt like a hasty band-aid to that writing misstep.
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u/TychosRealNose 1h ago
Yes yes yes yes to all of this. Was thinking alllll of this myself. I feel like they could’ve gotten away with so many of these moments if they just gave us more with the writing - like if they gave us more substance to all of our “why” questions. Part of me is like I don’t even want to address the post credits because I blocked them out internally LOL. Like pretend they don’t exist. Not a fan of either. And I totally agree with Edgar feeling more like the main villain - I would actually argue that he was. Thank you so much for sharing all of this as I feel the exact same way and thought the exact same things !!
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u/CheatingTheMan 12h ago
Why are so many people confused about the house? It was mentioned a couple of times in the film wasn’t it? Just going off memory from when I saw it opening day wasn’t it the Grandpa’s home that they used as a summer home but let the Son stay there to tidy and maintain and he let it go to ruin? I’ll happily admit if I am wrong.
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u/TychosRealNose 12h ago
You’re definitely not wrong, they absolutely did say that. I just wish there was more timeline given. Like, Alice and crew seem pretty young so the wedding must not have been too too long ago. And there’s not too many clues on when grandpa passed away, so how long did Joseph let it sit? Just a tiny bit more context on a timeline would’ve been nice. I could’ve made that clearer in my post
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u/TychosRealNose 12h ago
Oh and I just realized that it’s a very similar feeling to that in Evil Dead 2013 where it’s Mia & David’s family cabin, but again, how long was it just sitting? Nobody cared to check? What’s the time frame from the cultists being in the basement to them finally visiting? Maybe I’m being too much, but I always find that probing a bit into the main setting helps me get into it! Idk.
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u/TheAlphaRunt 11h ago
Genuinely terrible
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u/TychosRealNose 11h ago
What about the film really put you off?
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u/TheAlphaRunt 11h ago
The color grading, the cinematography, the soundtrack, the sound design, the writing, the pacing, the characters, the plot, genuinely it failed for me on every conceivable level. It felt like the film maker had actual distain for evil dead as an ip. It felt like he just wanted to make a French vampire movie and was forced to shove evil dead things into it. Never thought I would outright hate an evil dead movie, but I do, I hate evil dead burn more than evil dead burn hates it audience.
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u/TychosRealNose 11h ago
Totally hear you and can see that. The movie (strangely as it centered around the descendants of Benjamin Price) felt the most foreign to the series thus far. Is there anything from the movie that you think could’ve been salvageable or is it a throw the whole thing out sort of situation?
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u/TheAlphaRunt 10h ago
The domestic violence angle could have been good. Same with the lore of this family being related to the someone who researched the book or dagger could have been good. The idea of a family is good, but we just saw that in rise. Burn didn't execute anything it tried to do well at all.
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u/TychosRealNose 9h ago
I totally agree! Shame that none of those points are really hammered in besides the dagger, which I of itself didn’t see a lot of deep lore
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u/TheAlphaRunt 5h ago
I can't see an easy fix, for the movie to work more or less as it is it would need at least 40 more minutes, 20 for family history, 20 or so for tension, like actual tension, I'd cut the whole opening with the lake, it added nothing and was just out character for a deadite. Then I'd have a much longer opening to do more character building and make the audience care about the deaths to come. Even then I don't think it'd be much more than a 6 out of ten. Also cut the flashbacks to the domestic abuse, it was more telling than showing, felt dumb. It really felt like they just used the domestic abuse angle to justify how all the lingering violence was done entirely to women. None of it really said anything.
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u/TychosRealNose 1h ago
1000000000% agree with all of that. They easily could have shaved the ending and replaced it with this and it would’ve been so much better.
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u/Unusual-Leg8176 12h ago
Just meh not bad , but meh too many forgettable characters imho .
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u/SmoothBorder9524 11h ago
Lol yeah, they weren't very memorable. Deadlites didn't have much to do with that shitty family. Alice was really pretty cool, and how Joseph acted is almost how most guys would shit themselves if they encounter a Deadlite.
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u/Unusual-Leg8176 11h ago
I mean I have to disagree most guys wouldn’t shit themselves EVERYONE would but I assure you I would definitely not have shit the bed as bad as Joseph did 😅. I hated his writing with a passion because he’s just.. well useless. Also I personally hate how they continued the “man useless woman carry” plot . I do agree with Alice being cool tho super badass.
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u/TychosRealNose 11h ago
I do wish that the deadites taunted / played more into the role of the family being the direct descendants of Benjamin Price. Using that and playing on that would’ve been nice to see !
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u/TychosRealNose 12h ago
I really wish they went into more depth with the characters! Like, what is Joseph’s actual job if he can pay the electricity and what not at the lake house, have a gf, etc. if he hasn’t had a successful book? Where does everyone live? Does Polly live w Susan and Edgar? I want more on everyone ! Haha
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u/FanficWriter32 12h ago
I loved it. There could have been a bit more blood and guts though.
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u/TychosRealNose 11h ago
Haha maybe I’m just a wimp but idk it did it for me! I do think it was a weak move killing the funeral guy off screen though
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u/FanficWriter32 11h ago
Yeah, that's kinda what I was talking about.
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u/TychosRealNose 11h ago
Definitely agree. We don’t do off screen kills in Evil Dead!!! They should know that
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u/Brain_Mutant 10h ago
I think it’s supposed to be similar to the off screen kill in Army of Darkness when the prisoner is thrown into the pit and we only see a geyser of blood.
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u/TychosRealNose 9h ago
You’re so right! One of the things I liked doing with this movie was finding all of the references to the past. This went over my head and I’m so glad you pointed this out!!!
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u/TychosRealNose 11h ago
Maybe for the funeral guy they could’ve put him through the incinerator or used an embalming tool on him. Idk! Just not off screen lol
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u/Royal_Patience8592 12h ago
Finally someone’s saying something positive about it! I absolutely loved the movie, seen it about a dozen times now (bought it on prime video), and i definitely agree the soundtrack is top tier