Is ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Connected To ‘Evil Dead Burn’?
45 years ago, childhood best friends Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell had a dream: they wanted to make a movie. The two had loved film, and thanks to some guerrilla filmmaking, plenty of ingenuity, and a micro budget, The Evil Dead (1981) was born. Now, four decades, four sequels, and a TV series later, the latest entry in the series, Evil Dead Burn (2026), is about to be released. It has a lot to live up to, given that the last film in the series, Evil Dead Rise (2023) was the highest-grossing entry in the series and reviewed quite well.
It has naturally led fans to question what, if any, connections there are between these two films. Traditionally, the series has shared an overarching continuity, but Evil Dead Rise forgoes that for a fresh start. So is Evil Dead Burn connected to its predecessor, the original films, the Fede Alvarez reboot, or is it something else entirely? For that matter, what’s even going on with Evil Dead continuity, and why has it become so hard to follow?
What Is ‘Evil Dead Burn’ About?
For those wondering what Evil Dead Burn is about, besides the chaos and carnage that ensues when some hapless fool decides to read from the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, it’s about a theme that’s all too familiar in horror films today: grief.
Evil Dead Burn revolves around a woman named Alice, played by Souhelia Yacoub, who travels to visit her in-laws after the untimely death of her husband. After she arrives though, her family begins to become Deadites, demonic entities who possess the living and delight in their torment and suffering. They’re only summoned if someone reads from the Necronomicon, but no matter who summoned them, they’re here, and Alice, and the surviving members of her family, are going to have to find a way to dismember those Deadites before they’re slaughtered.
Horror movies about grief and loss are nothing new, but the focus on a wife mourning the death of her husband isn’t entirely common. Sure, it’s appeared in films like Lake Mungo (2009) and The Babadook (2014), but rarely do they feature prominently in slasher gore fests like the Evil Dead series. More recent entries have decided to focus more on character drama, so Evil Dead Burn at least continues the trend set by earlier titles, and provided it can balance that with buckets of blood, then it should be a good time for Evil Dead fans.
Does ‘Evil Dead Burn’ Have Anything in Common with Earlier Films?
While everything seems to point to Evil Dead Burn being its own standalone film set in the wider Evil Dead universe, there are some small references and clues in the trailer that point to the film being more connected to Evil Dead Rise than one would think.
Eagle-eyed viewers who’ve seen the film’s trailers may have seen a Deadite on a dock in a lake. At first glance, this may be some creepy imagery interwoven with a lot of fiery shots, but fans online have been quick to point out that this Deadite may be Jessica from Evil Dead Rise. In case you forgot, Jessica was shown in the prologue turning into a Deadite and murdering her friends during a lake trip, and Evil Dead Burn picks up from there, showing how Jessica killed Alice’s husband. To strengthen that point, a character is slated to appear in the film named Jessica, making this theory seem all the more plausible.
Now, does that mean that we’ll be seeing characters from Evil Dead Rise or Ash Williams coming in to make a cameo? Not likely. Okay, Bruce Campbell may show up in a cameo as he does for every Evil Dead movie, but that’s about it. Jessica causes the inciting incident, so now let’s see how this entirely new group of people, completely unfamiliar with the Necronomicon and Deadites, reacts to their incursion. It does still make Evil Dead Rise a worthwhile watch just to see how the ending (or technically the beginning of that film), sets up Burn, but don’t watch the film just for continuity. Watch it for the gore, the kills, and the gnarly wood chipper scene.
Why Is ‘Evil Dead’ Continuity so Hard to Follow?
This whole confusion as to whether or not Evil Dead Burn is a sequel, reboot, or standalone entry does fuel a much broader question: Why is the Evil Dead continuity so hard to follow now?
It’s a point that even Evil Dead Burn’s director, Sebastien Vanicek, joked about when interviewed by Premiere Magazine. He said that the timeline is messy to the point where even Sam Raimi doesn’t fully understand the timeline anymore. It’s not much of a surprise to see why. Lee Cronin outright ignored Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015) when making Rise, Ash vs. Evil Dead ignored the Fede Alvarez remake, Evil Dead (2013), and the ending of Army of Darkness (1992) is still unresolved in the world of film, and that’s not even touching the multiple comic books expanding upon the series.
Following the Evil Dead series and expecting a coherent narrative throughline like Insidious (2011) isn’t the right way to approach the series. Maybe it was for a time when it was just a trilogy, but with Raimi having larger ambitions for the franchise, it shouldn’t try to prioritize continuity. Let it be an anthological horror series like Final Destination (2000) where ideas and concepts carry over, but not characters. Sure, maybe there can be a direct sequel or prequel here and there, but they should be the exception rather than the rule. Making a good Evil Dead film is simple. Give us some Deadites, extreme gore, dismemberment, and some one-liners. Continuity could be nice, but it isn’t a necessity, and Evil Dead Burn will live and die by how much of a bloody spectacle it is rather than how it follows up the events of Evil Dead Rise.
