This week on Friday Night Frightfest, our ultimate Evil Dead retrospective series reaches its devastating, blood-soaked climax! After surviving the cabin in the woods and journeying back to the Middle Ages, we are bringing the Necronomicon into modern, inhabited spaces. We’re pairing Lee Cronin’s terrifying high-rise nightmare, Evil Dead Rise (2023), with the franchise’s newest installment that took the summer by storm, Sébastien Vaniček’s brutal Evil Dead Burn (2026). Lock the doors, stay away from the elevator, and whatever you do, don’t trust your family.
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Directed by Lee Cronin, Evil Dead Rise dragged the franchise kicking and screaming out of the woods and into a condemned, decaying Los Angeles apartment building. The story follows guitar tech Beth (Lily Sullivan), who visits her estranged older sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and Ellie’s three kids. When an earthquake exposes a hidden vault in the building’s basement, they uncover a vinyl-record variant of the Naturom Demonto. Once played, the malevolent force possesses Ellie, transforming a loving mother into a terrifying, sadistic Deadite matriarch. Packed with horrific, wince-inducing set pieces—from cheese-grater violence to an elevator full of blood and a nightmare “Marauder” amalgam monster—Cronin delivered a claustrophobic, family-centric slasher that breathed terrifying new life into the brand.
Evil Dead Burn (2026)
Picking up the baton three years later, French director Sébastien Vaniček (Infested) brought a mean-spirited, New French Extremity edge to the saga with Evil Dead Burn (2026). Moving the terror to a secluded rural estate, the film follows Alice (Souheila Yacoub), a grieving widow seeking comfort with her late husband’s estranged family after his sudden death. When the ancient curse takes hold, her in-laws transform one by one into grotesque, fear-devouring Deadites—turning a tense family wake into a literal reunion from hell. Channeling a brutal, unrelenting pace, Vaniček trades campy quips for sheer, visceral intensity, showcasing some of the most wince-inducing practical kills and body horror the series has ever seen.
Join us as we close out our Evil Dead series by dissecting how modern directors have successfully expanded the lore without Sam Raimi behind the camera. We’ll discuss how Rise weaponized maternal terror in a tight city apartment, versus how Burn brought a bleak, explosive aggression to the “toxic family” dynamic.
Spoilers start around 7:05.