There are a few things that every longtime fan expects of an Evil Dead movie. First and foremost, it should be gory. The blood should flow in copious amounts and in increasingly creative ways. The movie should also be a little bit gross. Evil Dead is not for the squeamish. Finally, it should be creepy and exciting, with a little humor thrown in for good measure. By those metrics, Evil Dead Burn is a resounding success. As the sixth movie in the franchise, not even counting the television show, it is a little disappointing that it’s kind of just another Evil Dead movie. I wanted something more. Still, it’s hard to complain about a film being exactly what it’s trying to be. 

As per usual in this franchise, the story follows a group of people who unwittingly awaken ancient demonic spirits, called Deadites, that possess people and turn them into bloodthirsty, undead monsters. The victims this time are the Price family and their spouses. One of the Price sons, Joseph (Hunter Doohan) discovers a knife that his grandfather believed could kill Deadites, which prompts the demons to attack the family and pick them off one by one in search of the weapon.

The kills are the absolute highlight of the film. Director Sébastien Vanicek wrings every last ounce of blood he can out of the characters, and I marveled several times at the sheer creativity of the violence. It’s also relentless. Between the near constant action sequences and the brilliant, tight camera work, neither the characters nor the audience get much of a chance to relax. This easily feels like the most action-packed movie in the series.

The effects are also excellent, and many of them are very obviously practical rather than CGI. I appreciate that, and I think it gives the film a sense of realness that makes the blood and gore even more jarring. In particular, the prosthetics and makeup on the Deadites have never looked better.

Where the movie falters a bit is in the script itself. While I give Vanicek and his co-writer Florent Bernard full credit for not having a character read from a cursed book to summon the monsters, like in every previous Evil Dead movie, that’s really where the originality stops. Our protagonists once again find themselves in a single location, hiding from and then fighting off Deadites that methodically take their bodies one at a time, until only one person is left. It’s a tried-and-true formula that I think the franchise needs to break away from a bit. The most interesting element of the setup in this one is that the characters are a dysfunctional family rather than a group of friends. However, even that was done already, and better, in Evil Dead Rise.

The characters themselves are extremely forgettable. Joseph and his sister-in-law Alice (Souheila Yacoub) serve as the main protagonists and are the closest anyone in the film gets to being interesting. That might just be because they get the most screen time. Everybody else has about two personality traits and seems incapable of deviating from their programming even when people start dying around them. Ironically, they are all way more fun as Deadites than people.

Despite some real potential, Evil Dead Burn is honestly not much more than a solid Evil Dead movie. That’s fine, it doesn’t seem to want to be more than that, and it’s still a ton of fun to watch. If you have the stomach for the over-the-top gore and bloodshed, you’ll have a blast with this one. I’m disappointed that it did nothing to move the franchise forward or give it any depth, but I can’t be mad at it. Maybe the next one will bring the series to new heights. Until then, Evil Dead Burn does a fine job of just stoking the flames.