While previously a trilogy that began in 1981 and ended in 1992, Evil Dead has now turned into a modern franchise, adding three more movies since 2013. Now, Evil Dead Burn has just hit theaters, three years after Evil Dead Rise.
Evil Dead Burn seems like a good counter to the live-action Moana movie this weekend, and lord knows horror films are killing it at the box office this year between Obsession and Backrooms. But is it good? Well, a hundred critic reviews are in to form a Rotten Tomatoes score, and we can now compare it to the rest of the series:
- Evil Dead II (1987) – 88% critic score, 89% audience score
- The Evil Dead (1981) – 85% critic score, 84% audience score
- Evil Dead Rise (2023) – 85% critic score, 76% audience score
- Evil Dead Burn (2026) – 73% critic score, N/A audience score
- Army of Darkness (1992) – 68% critic score, 87% audience score
- Evil Dead (2013) – 64% critic score, 64% audience score
Evil Dead Burn
Rotten Tomatoes
So, in the bottom half, but as you can see, there has not been a “rotten” reviewed Evil Dead franchise movie yet on either the critic or audience side, which does not happen for horror series. Most don’t run that long in the first place, and ones that do often have films that suffer significant drops in quality. It’s range with Evil Dead here, but it’s all positive, and Evil Dead Burn has reviewed just fine. That’s why this appears to be a record: six films, the entirety of a series, all getting positive Rotten Tomatoes scores. Its competition:
- Evil Dead – 6 out of 6 movies above 60%
- Halloween – 2 out of 13 movies above 60%
- Friday the 13th – 1 out of 12 movies above 60%
- Saw – 1 out of 10 movies above 60%
- Nightmare on Elm Street – 3 out of 9 movies above 60%
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – 1 out of 9 movies above 60%
- Scream – 5 out of 7 movies above 60%
- Paranormal Activity – 2 out 6 movies above 60%
- The Conjuring – 2 out of 4 movies above 60%
The closest, if it technically counts given the disparate films, is George A. Romero’s “of the Dead” zombie series, which has 5 out of 6 movies above 60%, the exception being 2009’s Survival of the Dead with a 29% score. Evil Dead has 100% of its movies above a 60%, aka “fresh,” and that’s the entire run of the series. And hey, we can even extend that into TV, as the Ash vs. Evil Dead show has a 99% Rotten Tomatoes score across three seasons, more than any of the movies.
Unlike the Raimi trilogy, Evil Dead 2013, Rise and Burn all have different directors. Fede Alvarez wrote and directed the high-scoring Rise, but is not back for Burn, having just released the less-well-received The Mummy (which is effectively an Evil Dead movie, which you’ll see if you watch it). Now, Evil Dead Burn is led by Sébastien Vanicek, though this time, has Sam Raimi as a co-writer. Vanicek directed what I would consider a shockingly good creature horror film, the monster spider-filled Infested back in 2023 (95% Rotten Tomatoes score on that one). I would absolutely give that a watch. That and Burn are his only two features.
Box office projections for Evil Dead Burn are somewhere between $20 and $30 million for the weekend, which is significant given that the $250 million-budgeted Moana is projected at $40-50 million. Burn has a reported $20 million budget. That’s horror for you!
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