For more than four decades, the Evil Dead franchise has revelled in pushing the boundaries of horror, blending relentless gore, pitch-black humour and unforgettable Deadite mayhem. But with Evil Dead Burn, director Sébastien Vaniček adds another layer to the carnage, grounding its blood-soaked terror in the raw emotions of a family already splintered by grief before supernatural evil ever takes hold.
Leading that descent are Souheila Yacoub, Hunter Doohan and Luciane Buchanan. As widow Alice, grieving brother Joseph and outsider Thya, the trio find themselves trapped in a secluded family home where loss, resentment and guilt prove just as dangerous as the demonic forces lurking within. Their performances demand as much emotional vulnerability as physical endurance, navigating grief one moment before being drenched in blood the next.
Ahead of the film’s release, our Peter Gray spoke with Yacoub, Doohan and Buchanan about finding the humanity beneath the horror, earning each other’s trust through the franchise’s famously gruelling practical effects, and why Evil Dead Burn may be the nastiest – and most emotionally devastating – entry in the series yet.
One of the things that struck me with the film is that grief is possession for these characters first, and then the deadites are almost secondary. Long before anything supernatural arrives, everyone is carrying guilt or resentment or love that hasn’t found a place to go. I wanted to ask all of you, did that change the way you approached the horror? Were you playing people haunted by demons? Or people already haunted by their own emotions before the evil dead showed up?
Souheila Yacoub: I tried to play the character who’s haunted by her husband, but I really didn’t want it to be that easy. Like a black-and-white situation. I wanted to find a way to play Alice as someone who’s in love with this guy, that it’s possible and it makes sense. That you’re not asking, “Why is she dating that man?” Before the demons and the deadites, I had to deal with a personal, human (issue) that happens in the world.
Hunter Doohan: Yeah, and I think for Joseph, he feels so much shame from the way his family treats him, and coming up with how I think what happened and the backstory. Then it becomes about the only thing that could make it worse is if they were literally trying to kill you (laughs).
Luciane Buchanan: I guess, for me…her introduction is just being so in love with (Joseph) and being really supportive, and then this unfortunate thing happens and she’s just trying to be there for him during his grief. Just be a supporter in that way. And then she does a big 180 later (laughs).
I will say that car sequence…that, to me, is kind of when the film really amps up. Basically, from then on, I was like, “This is disgusting!” These movies ask so much of its actors. The physical and emotional hell you are put through. You’re screaming at one another, you’re covered in blood, probably unrecognisable under prosthetics. Is there a point during filming where you think, “I completely trust these people now?”
Luciane Buchanan: Totally, yeah.
Hunter Doohan: It probably happened way too fast, because you’re just being thrown right into that stuff.
Luciane Buchanan: You just have to turn up for work every day, and you see what’s on the call sheet, what has to get done, and you just do your best. Our producer, Rob Tapert, kind of talked to us individually before we started, because this is the sixth (Evil Dead), right? They’ve done a TV show as well, and he’s like, “I’ve had actors walk into my office and say, ‘I’m done, this is a lot,'”, so he wanted us to please tell him before it got to that point. We’re thinking, “How bad could this be?” But I think anyone who’s been in an Evil Dead movie, we’ve got something, a commonality of an experience that is super unique.
Well, looking at the Evil Dead films up to this point, this one might be the grossest one. Like, this was violent to the point of being offensive!
Hunter Doohan: (Laughs) Everything that comes out of your mouth, it’s like, “Oh, he fucking hated this movie!”
Trust me, it’s high praise.
Luciane Buchanan: High praise, yeah.
Evil Dead Burn is screening in Australian theatres from July 9th, 2026, before opening in the United States on July 10th.
