The Deadites are back. And they are completely splitting the room.
Ahead of its wide theatrical release on Friday, July 10, Warner Bros. Pictures’ Evil Dead Burn currently sits at an 80% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 56 critical reviews. The highly anticipated horror standalone initially debuted to a franchise-high 94% approval rating from its first 32 critics before settling into its current score as more aggregate data rolled in.
Directed and co-written by Sébastien Vaniček, the film centers on a widow named Alice, played by Souheila Yacoub. She finds herself trapped in a remote home alongside her in-laws, who rapidly transform into monsters in the immediate aftermath of her husband’s death. Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Tandi Wright, and Erroll Shand round out the ensemble cast.
But the slight drop in the aggregate score isn’t about the acting. It is entirely about the blood.
Reviewers are sharply divided over Vaniček’s heavy reliance on the “New French Extremity” subgenre. William Bibbiani of The Wrap praised the unapologetic brutality, calling it the “evilest” film in the franchise’s history. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter echoed that sentiment, celebrating the movie’s extreme bloodshed.
Other critics rejected the approach entirely. Nerdist heavily penalized the film for lacking genuine scares, describing it as a “gruesome and unforgiving technical exercise in mindless carnage.” MovieWeb similarly dismissed it as a “gore-soaked disappointment.”
Despite the polarized reactions to the violence, the film is tracking just behind 2023’s critically acclaimed entry. Here is how the major theatrical releases currently stack up on the aggregator platform:
- Evil Dead II (1987): 88%
- Evil Dead Rise (2023): 85%
- Evil Dead Burn (2026): 80%
- Evil Dead (2013): 64%
The success of this entry effectively cements the studio’s new anthology-style momentum for the intellectual property. Warner Bros. is already moving forward with the next standalone chapter. Directed by Francis Galluppi and set in 1972, a prequel titled Evil Dead Wrath is officially slated for an April 2028 release.