Parents' Guide to Evil Dead Burn

French director Sébastien Vaniček offers more of the kind of unrelenting, horrific gore this franchise has come to be known for, but he also brings stylish, inventive filmmaking and potent themes. Vaniček (Infested) begins Evil Dead Burn with a prologue in which two men come across a submerged deadite while fishing. The scene includes continued phone calls from one man's girlfriend and teasing and mocking from the other man, setting up the movie's themes of domestic violence and lack of communication or understanding between partners. Indeed, William is abusive toward Alice, as hinted in the way that he treats her physically, calls her names, takes offense at her actions, and blames her for his own. It's easy to see how this poison has been passed down through the Price family, led by a patriarch who did the initial research into the Book of the Dead. (Joseph, in particular, is shown to be a coward, likely a reaction against the rest of the family's violent tendencies.)

As for the movie's horror elements, they don't disappoint. Vaniček's camera continuously finds interesting or shocking angles from which to film the chaos, including one amazing shot that follows Alice as she crawls, panicked, from room to room, while furniture and bodies go flying and crashing all around her. There are even a few moments of humor, which Sam Raimi's original trilogy had in spades. The movie does get a bit long in the tooth as the climax drags on (not to mention several credits and post-credits "buttons"), and some of the most intense moments may likely cross a line with some viewers. But even seasoned horror fans will leave Evil Dead Burn knowing that they've really seen something.