The sixth instalment in Sam Raimi’s hugely profitable horror series, Evil Dead Burn sees a young widow (Souheila Yacoub) travel to a remote house with her grieving in-laws, only for them to transform into rampaging demonic Deadites.

Directed and co-written by Sebastien Vanicek, following the success of his French-language debut Infested (2023), Evil Dead Burn introduces a crop of new, mostly loathsome characters with no obvious connection to Ash (immortalised across the original trilogy by Bruce Campbell), the protagonists from the 2013 reboot, or 2023’s hugely entertaining Evil Dead Rise.

That said, the secluded setting, frenetic camerawork, buckets of gore and cohort of gleefully gurning demons help retain the anarchic tone of Raimi’s 1981 original, while a mysterious tome known as the Book of the Dead remains the source of the malevolent forces at work. Otherwise, Vanicek’s take stands apart on its own mangled and bloodied feet.

Read my full South China Morning Post review here