"Evil Dead: Burn" Rated And Debated

We put Evil Dead Burn to the test with a five-category scoring system, then argue over whether its violence feels like classic Evil Dead chaos or a clumsy attempt at a message. The conversation spirals into Deadite personalities, practical effects vs CGI, and why “send them to the mirror realm” might be the cleanest relationship advice we accidentally give. 

3/5
• quick toast-driven intro plus listener shoutouts and pre-movie banter 
• spoiler-filled plot recap focused on the funeral setup and Deadite spread 
• acting breakdown with a clear standout Deadite performance 
• cinematography talk on memorable gross-out shots plus CGI shortcuts and shaky geography 
• score reactions that focus on franchise sound cues over a memorable theme 
• plot and structure criticism including missing payoffs and unfinished beats 
• golden path take on comedy choices and why likable characters matter in horror 
• debate on spousal abuse themes and why the metaphor feels muddy 
• demon cosmology talk on mirrors, suffering, and cosmic order vs randomness 
• we insert ourselves into the film and pitch alternate arcs 

Transcript

Cold Open And A Dark Toast

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Crack that bad boy. So uh oh and uh also a really sad day. I'm sure you heard the news.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Oh yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna miss uh uh miss Lindsey Graham.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Yeah, yeah, Lindsey Graham taking forward.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

No, I I know about Sam. Or his time. Pretty pretty upsetting.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Yeah, no, it's a damn shame. And then it was uh Bonnie Tyler, like what, three days ago, something like that. It's just been uh he you know, he taketh and he uh he giveth and he taketh away.

SPEAKER_03 0:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

We uh we we had to pay for some other deaths, I suppose.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah. I learn about a lot of a lot of deaths from that claw machine meme. The death with the with the arcade claw machine.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, familiar? Yep, I I know what you're talking about. Where you see the just the new person that we've lost.

SPEAKER_03 1:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Well, well, we'll do a drink to them here momentarily. But first, hey everybody, welcome to High and Dry Podcast. I'm your host, Brian Barron North. With me as always, James. And you know, as y'all know, we are the only podcast keeping live the fandom that is freakazoid.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Freakazoid, I remember being

Welcome And Listener Shoutouts

SPEAKER_01 1:34

really good. Um I don't know how it holds up. I haven't watched it in a while. Sarah also really loved Freakazoid. Oh, we should I should check it out. I also you know, Animaniacs, gotta get down on some Animaniacs. Well, Freakazoid was a spin-off from Animaniacs, wasn't it? I think I think so. That's why I brought it up. I might be wrong. I feel like it was in the same family. I'm not sure. But yeah, Freak is I gotta check it out. But I know Animaniacs is still good.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Yeah, there's no way. I'm about that. I'm sure they all aged incredibly.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

That's Steven Spielberg, baby. Animaniacs is is is Spielberg. It's gonna be good. I forgot about that. Why did he do that? Because he's uh because he's uh amazing. He knows he knows what we want.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

I guess so. I guess just once you're Spielberg, you can do whatever the fuck you want, I suppose. Damn right. Well, good for him. But anyway, so we're not actually gonna be talking about uh Freakazoid anymore or uh anything close to Spielberg.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Well, I'll see you later.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Goodbye, all of our listeners. Um because we are gonna be talking about uh the new movie came out this weekend, Evil Dead Burn. And we're gonna be doing it in a three-part method guaranteed to get you the best results for your podcasting buck. First, we're gonna get you a definitive score out of five stars. It can never be disputed again. So we're gonna end the conversation today. Then we're going to dive into the golden path and discuss the deeper meanings of the film. And finally, we're going to insert ourselves, drugs, and alcohol into it. But what makes it so special and fun is that we are going to imbibe. So uh James, what did you uh take today?

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Well, I took my normal battery. Yeah, yeah, of several pills. And uh uh but I've also got a double uh Cafe Americano here, so I'll drink that as we go.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Alright, cool. And I I uh went through all my liquor this weekend. There was a party for uh my girlfriend's sister when she had her birthday, and so I'm I'm low on liquor, so I uh pulling out the stops here with a bottle of makers mark.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh really, really going off script.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Yeah, just some makers mark retails for about $25.95. Shop smart. Yeah. So uh this first one, first toast, first hit. Let's line them up. This one goes out to our newest listeners. These ones coming to us from Germany. Germany, whoever has the VPN with Germany, just just tell us who you are. Like you listen all the time. I like, come on, just tell us who you are. You don't need to hide behind uh yeah, you don't need to hide behind a VPN.

SPEAKER_01 4:41

Former Chancellor Merkel Angela Merkel is listening.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

She's a big big fan. Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, I I hope uh I hope one day you come out of the shadows. Um also we got uh Boardman, Oregon joined us uh this week. Uh oh. Yeah. Uh Los Angeles tuning in again. Uh let's see. Walton on the Thames. Thames. Rustinheim.

SPEAKER_01 5:10

Just so you know, it's pronounced Thames. I know it's T-H-A-M-E-S. Yeah, that's Walton on the Thames. It's pronounced Thames.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

And uh Grusenheim has also joined us. It's a totally separate Germany. So uh maybe he told a friend finally.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, maybe maybe yeah, Germany's just Germany's just uh logging in.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah. All right. Well, here's to you guys. Cheers. Cheers. Which not um strange coincidence. Um I just signed up uh going to back to school. Um going to do a lot of language learning and I went with German.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Oh, really?

Learning German And Exit Plans

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Why? Just uh it's I'm looking and it seems to have the most um crossover if I wanted to jump over to Europe.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah. Um Callie and I, we wanna, you know, this rat knows when a ship is sinking, you know? Yeah and uh for real all right, and I wanna I want to have another citizenship just on deck for when I'm the when I'm fleeing the country.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

This empire is a crumbling.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, this empire's a crumbling. And yeah, I uh I know which way the wind is is is turning. So yeah, and I went with German. And because she does not want anything to do with France, she hates Paris. Really? Yeah, she's uh she got all around over there, and she's not uh Parisian.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

What about Italy and Spain?

SPEAKER_00 6:47

She'd like to visit, but you know, and uh Germany seems to have some uh some decent social programs. So we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

What about Croatian?

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Well, I I have that uh that third generation I have that third gen uh Czechoslovakian thing, and um we've been talking to uh immigration lawyers or Slovakia, and it all comes down to what fucking side of the street old great grandpa was on during the whole Soviet thing.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Like it is and like neighborhoods are split here based on there you can't do it, based on there you can't. So yeah. So I'm gonna speak some German. My uh you know, my girlfriend's a doctor.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Just make ourselves look as uh, you know, um attractive attractive to the Germans. What could go wrong? God damn it.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

I'll be fleeing that country soon enough. So with that being said, it's time to line them up again. Second toast this one goes out to Sam Neil.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

R IP, Dr. Grant.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

We started uh watching um the Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park Tribute And One More Shot

SPEAKER_00 8:14

uh As you should. Just out of respect.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Oh, you mean oh you mean for Sam Neil, not just because not just on its own. I always I just turn it on all the time. Yeah, whenever whenever it pops, whenever I see it, I'm like, oh well, I'll just stop whatever I'm doing and turn on Jurassic Park.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

It's like put on something to clean in the background.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Well, and the finally hold onto your butts. Well, it's I was watching it and uh the look he gets when he's about to school some little boy on dinos. Yeah. It's so funny. Like, what the fuck? Like Sam, he's a kid. And he like his parents and our guardians are not near him. This is wildly inappropriate.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

You know why they aren't near him because that kid's a piece of shit. He was what he got.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Gets gutted by a velociraptor. Deleted scene. So this last one, this one goes to our film this week. Here's the Evil Dead Burn. Cheers. So Evil Dead Burn.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Yeah. Evil Dead Burn.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

It was quite the film.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

It was a film.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

It was I'm I am anxious to hear what

Evil Dead Burn Plot Setup

SPEAKER_00 9:38

you had to say about it.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Well, should we start with a uh uh uh summary?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Yes, so it all began when Ashley um I'm gonna kill I'm gonna get you all caught up here. No, so anyway, this one. So this one, uh continuation of the modern iterations of Evil Dead. Um it uh this one takes place after the events of Evil Dead Rise, and there's a very uh solid tie-in where we see, I believe it's Jessica from the uh Evil Dead Rise who wasn't infected rising out of the water, and she continues on the infection of Deadites that um spreads, and we meet our new list of characters here. This one uh kind of playing off of that same sort of family thing, but instead of you know what we saw in Rise of a bunch of you know more uh liberal individuals who love each other. Uh these people did not. Um this family did not love each other whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

And uh we get we kind we kind of get that, but they don't actually address it. We only ever see them after they've been infected. We don't know that they didn't love each other before.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Well, it's like uh it's this weird it's hard to we can always get to that. Yeah, it they have a very bizarre dynamic. The family is strained, I think is a safe absolute. Yeah, it it's they're strained. So, but then uh we meet our our main character and you know the evil dead final girl um of Thea, right? That was her name, Thia.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Alice.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Alice. Oh, was it Alice? Thea was the you're right, you're right. So uh Alice, she is um she's married to some piece of shit, and uh she divorces well the she dies, so she's back for the funeral, his parents are there for the funeral, we got a brother who's showing up, and the entire story takes place around this funeral, the family coming together for death. One of them inadvertently gets infected by the Deadites and brings it home, and then you know, chaos ensues. And the movie really then just uh drags you through a slug of violence and uh yeah, hardcore horror, essentially. Yeah, and you know, uh I if you're into Evil Dead, I I think it's a worthy addition. If you're not into Evil Dead, uh they're hard watches if you're not into Evil Dead.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

Yeah, agreed.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

They're hard watches if you're not into Evil Dead, and it's been funny because after Rise, Evil Dead has become more mainstream, and so there's been a lot of mainstream reviews I've been seeing about Evil Dead. Like, why are the Dead Eyes so mean? Why is this so violent? Like, you guys have never seen an Evil Dead, huh?

SPEAKER_01 12:49

That is the whole point is that they're mean. Like that it's it's mean. It's a very mean film. Yeah. Yeah, you're getting punished. For nothing. You even if they didn't do anything, it's just people getting it's it's it's destruction. It's like a it's like a what are they family annihilation is what it is.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

See, and um you and I have we've we've talked about that, and this is where um some of our enjoyment on certain things differs because you like your suffering to have a point and teach a lesson. I like to see the random chaos that makes me feel better about my own situation, that just it's random. And yeah, what I appreciate about Evil Dead specifically is that in if if demons were a thing, first you're not gonna have an exorcist's phone number on your refrigerator. And second, they're not gonna they're not gonna give a shit about it. They're just going to make you suffer.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

They might give a shit about it, depending on like what you the cosmic order of the world is, because there's like this. I don't know if you've uh encountered this kind of cosmic order. Is this is this golden path? Maybe I should hold on to hold on to that for golden path.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Yeah, we're on golden path now. Well, let's rate this.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Let me make a cosmic order note.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Yes, we'll talk about the cosmic order. But uh well, let's let's put a rating on this thing. Would uh would you care to start?

SPEAKER_01 14:18

I guess. So

Ratings For Acting Camera Score Plot

SPEAKER_01 14:22

uh so I'll go ahead and start with acting. So the acting for this one, uh for the most part, I thought the acting was pretty good. Um I didn't think it was anything I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. I felt like I felt like there were a I felt like there were a few standouts. I think the one who played Thea, Luciane uh Buchanan, uh the uh the uh wife who got stabbed through the or the girlfriend who got stabbed through the head with the uh with the car seat. Yeah, I thought she did an excellent job. I thought she was really good. Very good.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Well, and you are not alone in that opinion. She she has been getting um a lot of praise as a lot of people's new favorite Deadite. Yeah. Even competing with Alyssa Sutherland, who has become just a fan favorite and demon icon from Rot.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Okay, yeah. Yeah, I definitely uh I think she did a great job. I think she did a really good job of switching between like um the different kinds of uh like like she I feel like she did a really good job of embodying like the improvising of being a deade where you have to like take wherever your uh the person you're uh torturing or haunting is at and then kind of use that against them. Right, whereas I feel sometimes deadites are just like, oh I'm gonna do the creepiest thing I can instead of like specifically targeting people where they're at, like the the grandma who was uh who was you know uh in the thr in the throes of dementia, who didn't quite know what was going on, and it's just like uh yeah, and and like that was fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

It was really funny. It was really funny, really good with just the seeing a dead eye like that evil eye, which have now become like very recognizably scary, like uh yeah, and then just get let in. And then did a good job with it. Well, they listened because Alyssa Sutherland was the first one to really bring true personality to Evil Dead, and we really enjoyed that. We liked individual deadites kind of having their own personality, and I feel like they carried that forward with her.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, so I definitely I thought she was the standout personally. I thought the rest of the people on the cast were okay. Uh so I'm gonna give this a uh 3.5. Uh but I'll definitely remember Lucy and Buchanan as a standout. Cinematography. I thought there were some interesting cinematography choices. Uh they had a few cool jots. Um, you know, they have the um the like you were talking about, the eye when she's locked in the basement and she's talking to the grandma. That was a good scene. Um, I there was one that I heard some people talking about as we left the left the theater that I personally didn't find that interesting, and I was like, that's kind of a little overdone. I felt like the the um the like CG to make it happen wasn't very good, uh, which is the mirror shot where they're where they're fighting and then it goes to the mirror and then pulls away. I actually I clocked that the CG for that like pull away was not good in my opinion. Uh, because like you could do that practically, you don't have to do that through CG, you could do it practically, and they didn't.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Um well uh and that's like a big thing about that is um Evil Dead, uh where it came from with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell and everything like that, they were it that was like what was amazing about it was they had such a low budget and had to do it so practically, and you know, you know, modernization and all that, and uh you know it is what it is, but they kind of lost a little bit of that, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Yeah, because we didn't agree. Right, yeah, a lot of CG. One thing that you know, and then there was the one her the one or shot when uh she's trying to escape the kitchen, or actually he's trying to escape the kitchen, the uh the younger brother. He's trying to escape the kitchen, yeah. And uh there's that one or shot where there's no cuts and they're like fighting in the background. I still I think that was also done with CGI overlay. And I was like, I was like, this could this one or could have been practical, you know? Yeah, I still think there was CGI overlay in the background. So I think cinematography, while it was while there were some some interesting shots, I think that they took some shortcuts that really detracted me in a few ways. But at the same time, there are a lot of really gruesome fucking shots and some really weird, uh, some really weird shots like um like when she took takes the retainer out of the grandma's mouth and fucking licks it and puts it back in.

SPEAKER_00 19:36

Yeah, that was rough. That was nasty. But uh I've seen I've seen so many people right now like posting about how they're afraid of their dishwasher, and they will always put knives down now.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

That that happened to my mom when I was younger. I don't know if I ever told you that story, but yeah, there was a steak knife and a dishwasher. This was when we were living in Hammond, and our dishwasher was in the basement, and she'd fell back on the dishwasher was like it was by the laundry machine. She was like uh getting laundry on and fell back, and there was a steak knife, and she fell onto the steak knife and had to get stitches and her leg and stuff. Uh but yeah, that happened to her. Uh and Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it wasn't it wasn't like clearly not like this movie. And uh I don't think she got to be, you know, uh uh force humped by a dem hot demon woman.

unknown 20:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

So it's probably in that moment, in that moment, I would try my best to take the good with the bad.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Yeah. Try to keep a boner going, even though you're losing blood. Yeah. But uh, you know, uh some good things, some bad thing. I'll give I'll still give it a three uh for cinematography. Score. Uh the score, I don't remember any of it, so it gets a three. Uh plot, uh I thought that the plot was it in this one, there was more deserving. Like, you know, you were talking about like how we we have different feelings about about whether people should deserve it or not. Uh in this one, they did the they did the people deserved it more than they ever have. Anyway, yes, I agree. I agree. They they specifically had a message for this one like about abuse, like marit like spousal abuse and like covering up abuse and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah, and I see, and I don't know if that um that may have hurt it for me in a way, because yeah, but but at the at the same time, if we're creating a universe, bad shit happens to bad people too. And yeah, so like it's it's good to do. So I I think I may have been really, really hard on the film the day I watched it, and that was one of the reasons why was because, like, yeah, they're all bad people, fucking kill them and get it over with. And so I felt it sort of hurt it a little bit for me, but they weren't even all bad.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

Bad though, like the one I was talking about. My favorite, my favorite person wasn't even bad. They didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

No, she didn't. She didn't.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

The plot, you know, I don't think it was, you know, the plot was person does bad thing, dies, ruins his whole family. And it didn't, it it the plot wasn't, you know. I actually kind of I felt like it was the plot was actually kind of annoying for this one. Was the plot was we have to find a special dagger in the house, you know, that'll kill the deadites, which yeah, what the hell? What the hell is that?

SPEAKER_00 22:52

Where so that there is precedence in the series itself. And I think so it so it's interesting because I am a big Evil Dead guy. Evil Dead I me and my brother as children watched Army of Darkness on repeat.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

With the the most ridiculous slapsticky one.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah. And but then as I, you know, I got older, I would watch more and more of it, and then um a 23. I loved 2013, and that's uh unpopular opinion to the purists, but uh not gonna walk.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Uh the guy's gonna be out of work for a couple days.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Oh my god. When he hits the toilet. Oh shit, he ain't going to work on a Monday. But the thing about it is so like 2013 sort of restarted the series, Evil Dead Rise has catapulted it. Um, it took it from a straight streamer to theatrical releases. And in doing so, I think right now what they're trying to figure out is how do we keep it going? How do we keep it Evil Dead? And they're they're kind of like figuring that portion out of it. Because the original series, your Evil Dead 1, your Evil Dead 2, your Army of Darkness, the comic books, the TV shows, they're ridiculous. We have time travel, those that dagger is a thing in the original ones. I have no idea. Yeah, so it was actually a thing. And the more we expand the Evil Dead universe, uh, especially with other universes dying, like we have now confirmed that Jason Voorhees is a deadite. We've confirmed that uh Freddie Kruger is a deadite, we've confirmed that the creeper from uh that Justin Long movie. Cheapers Creepers. Cheapers Creepers uh was a deadite. And they attributed him to the flying creature in Army of Darkness. And so the the world is insane and slapstick and wild. And so that's like that's the thing about and right now. I think they're just trying to figure out how do we keep the viciousness and popularity of Rise in the modernization of it and start to make it evil dead again. And I was looking at things where Sam Raimi, and I was really worried about this one because Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell had expressed frustration multiple times about how they don't fucking understand story structure.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:43

And I I did see parts of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Yeah, and uh the producers uh, you know, our Sam Raimi and our Bruce Campbell apparently had their work cut out for them on this one, and I did see parts of it like you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, I felt like the uh the whole the allegory was incomplete that they were going for with the abuse and the you know, kind of getting rid of your past and you know, over conquering it and stuff. It it kind of um I felt like the allegory was incomplete. We'll get to that in the next section. Uh, I could have done with more comedy, like more like over-the-top, like clownish slap sticky stuff. I could have done with that.

SPEAKER_03 26:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Uh I I got a few bits of it, but it left me wanting more. And I was actually pretty, pretty bored through the movie. Uh definitely not an Evil Dead fan, so it wasn't for me really. Um, but uh but yeah, I got I got bored at times, but it wasn't the uh it wasn't the it definitely wasn't my least favorite Evil Dead. Uh I'm gonna give it a 2.5 on uh plot. Okay. And uh rewatchability, I might rewatch this one. And it's and the reason I'm the the reason yeah, yeah, I might re-watch this one because I really liked Lucianne Buchanan. Buchanan as Thea. I thought she was she was funny, she was great, she was really great. She was funny, she was like uh sinister. Uh yeah, she was she was really good.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

I saw some guy do a a smash or pass on all the deadites.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Smash for sure. Smash smash. Uh so I was like on rewatchability, I'm actually gonna give this uh I'll probably I'll probably rewatch this again and I'll give this a 2.5, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Okay, which is higher than that is higher than I expected.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

It's probably highest, this is my probably highest rated evil dead, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

Yes, I am yeah, I am I'm very surprised. I uh so for me, I I went in, I don't know, maybe you know, because I I I go into my theater and um the bartender knows me. And uh so I I'm lining them up and whatever it was, I I I was coming at it hypercritically.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:15

Maybe it's because uh that already is gonna shoot my rewatch ability up because I feel like I was unfair to this movie. But but so for me, acting, I was constantly thrown off by Hunter Dewin. Or as I refer to him, as I refer to him, Anton Yelchin 2.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or or or the less talented uh Jack Quaid.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Yeah. The less talented Jack Quaid, the uh but he I I what I think happened was when uh Anton died, they scraped some of him up and put him in a clout.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

Anton Yeltsin. They filled it in with Jack Quaid to the parts that were missing.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

See, but the problem is is that they they only ever asked if they could, and they never asked if they should. And um no, they shouldn't have. No, they shouldn't have. And so that threw me off. Uh maybe it but again. Perhaps I was too harsh on this film.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

If I I don't think you were. You're saying just because I gave it a you know middling rating, because it my my average turned out to 2.9. Don't take me into account that you know I want to hear what you have to say about it. Be harsh on it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:46

So I I think okay, so I think acting was competent. I think the acting was competent. There was definitely some standouts.

unknown 29:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:59

So competent, so if if everyone gums in, does their does their job competently, you know, we're looking at a 2.5. But the fact that we had some serious standouts, but like Thea, especially, like, she stood out enough that like we want to see her again. You brought back Alyssa Sutherland, bring back the uh her head was smashed, she she was destroyed.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

That's the problem. Her head was totally destroyed.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

Alyssa Sutherland was thrown into a the the fucking the tree mulcher.

SPEAKER_01 30:35

That's true, she was, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

But that's the thing about Evil Dead, it's wild. Like they don't follow their own fucking rules. The old the entire reason why this is all happening is because the main character, Ash, went back in time and was such a fuck up that he lost the books. Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

Like so they could come up with some reason. I mean, just like hey, the Deadites came back, they there's a body they like, whatever it is, who cares? But I give the acting I give the acting here a 3.5. 3.5. I I did I did like the we've only had like uh an adult male deadite for five seconds in the 2013 version. And he was super sinister when he finally became a deadite, and so I appreciated them deciding to finally just like make an adult male a deadite. Like there's men could be victims too, it doesn't always have to be women.

SPEAKER_01 31:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

So I liked that.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

But it's but it's not as sexy to have them be deadites, you can't make them sexy at all. Yeah, and he wasn't. He wasn't uh I'm also I'm also really glad they killed Will like early. Like the George Pouler, the actor. I think he sucks. I think he's a sucky actor. Everything I've ever seen him in, he fucking sucks. Fuck that guy.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Agreed. Quit acting. Agreed. Fuck you, George Pouler.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yeah, fuck you, man.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

Yeah, fuck George Poehler. You're better when you're dead. Uh cinematography on this one. I felt there was some solid ones. I liked when our our main uh character was sort of fleeing on hands and knees, and we were watching just terror and chaos and Sue behind her. I did enjoy that scene. I thought that was fun. I thought that was interesting to bring into it. Um, I felt it kind of forgot what it was doing with the scenery when they like went upstairs when it was just the husband and wife, and she lets him into the window.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Like there were there are parts of that because I think they were so focused on the horror of her giving in to her husband, and despite me that they forgot, like, hey, we have to set up the room first. This it has to happen. Give us some geography. Yes. And so I f I felt we lost that a little bit here and there. Uh so for that I'm gonna give cinematography a three. The score. Yeah, it it's the same thing that we always do. Like I it it didn't distract, it did not Jurassic Park uh scar jell me.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

But I didn't remember the only exception being the beginning and the end credits where there's the evil dead shriek, um, like when she rises from the water and all that kind of thing. You're kind of hit by the sound of it. I really appreciate that. So for that, I'm gonna give Score a 3.5 because they haven't quite come up with their own soundtrack yet. They've only come up with their own sounds. Right. Um plot. I like that they're doing new things.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

I'm I'm this did not detract me from wanting to see where the series goes. Um and I I think there was an honest attempt made here, and I I think that I I can see the parts where the producers had to come in and actually help this one. And so that kind of hurts it a little bit. But but um, you know, but you know, everything's going to the Neppo babies right now, and they don't understand story structure. So um, because then that they've never had a full arc of their own in their entire lives. So creating an arc for other people is really hard for them, and I get that. Um They also never finished off the mom.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Mm-hmm. The the or the grandma, I mean. They never finished her off. Her she cut off her leg and then just dis her bot, she just disappeared.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Yeah, they just kind of forgot about it. Um yeah, there's very, very basic story structure, check-off gun, all these kind of things that you need to that should become like breathing to a filmmaker who's working on a project. That you just have an innate understanding of I introduced a topic, there needs to be a conclusion, unless I'm trying to make a statement. But anyway, and they weren't making a statement, it was just they they they just forgot. They just last scene a Game of Thrones did. So uh for that plot, I'm gonna give it a 2.5. And uh rewatchability. That's fair. I do I mean, I I do evil deadruns all the time, so I'll watch so this one gets automatically. I'll watch it in an evil dead run. But then on top of that, I want to watch it again right now because I I've I need to see it again. I I just need to see it again. The whiskey may have just been flowing in the in a wrong way for me. So I want to see it again just to see it again, but then I'm also gonna see it again for Thea.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Yeah, yeah. So for that I gotta tell you, I don't think the I don't think things were flowing wrong. I think I I think I liked this movie less while I was watching it than when it was finished, and I was like, okay, here were the good parts, you know, because I wanna I wanna take a look back and say, what were the good parts rather than you know like during this movie, I was like, uh why am I here? I why do I have to keep watching these fucking evil dead movies? But you better see the next one. I don't want to see the next one. Stop making me see these. Well, tell them to stop making them. Okay. I will. I'll I'll message Samuel and be like, can you please stop letting people make Evil Dead movies? Just end it. And you say, wait, you're from high and dry?

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Yes, you understand.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah, you understand where I'm coming from. Me, I hope they keep going and I hope they get better and better. Um, and uh so rewatchability, it automatically gets kind of a boost to rewatchability for me just because of the series it belongs to, which I accept. Um, but then it gets a rewatchability boost because I want to see it again to see how I was feeling, and then it gets a rewatchability boost because of Thea. Um, so for that I'm gonna give rewatchability on this one a four.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

Alright. Bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep. 3.1 round down to three, which is respectable. Respectable for a niche movie that it that is a difficult watch, yeah, that doesn't have anything profound to say, or at least not at least it doesn't do it uh competently.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Three's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

No. Three is not bad at all. Congratulations, Evil Dead, on your three, which brings us to the second part of this podcast. It is time now to dive into the golden path. All right. Time to discuss the deeper meanings, but that means I need another drink. All right, more. Daddy needs his medicine. There we go. That quiets

Final Score And Franchise Expectations

SPEAKER_00 38:30

the deadites.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

You're always getting drunk. This is why's the the just some dumb bimbo who gets drunk at the club. Maybe we slow down. No. So how did you how did you feel about that when that scene came over? Shut the fuck up!

SPEAKER_00 39:05

No, and so there were parts of it that I like that. Like like Thea's

Golden Path Comedy And Character Likeability

SPEAKER_00 39:10

uh yeah. Um there there were that was Alice.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Uh Alice was the girlfriend who was like who was the one being told not to drink and eat not to get enough.

SPEAKER_00 39:17

No, no, Alice was told not to drink, but like so that scene where Alice is told not to drink, Thea, when she's looking through the peephole and Graham's like, if you come to give me back what you stole, and she's like Yeah. Those moments I really enjoyed. I I I I think it was well done because so like for me, there was some parts uh like because sometimes when I'm watching the modern iterations of Evil Dead, I I there's parts of me that want to leave the slapstick behind. Uh-huh. So I appreciated more subtle nods to comedy.

unknown 40:01

Right.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

They really spoke to me in in that horrific environment. So this one I appreciated more than, say, the flying eyeball in Evil Dead Rise. Right. And so, yeah, I I really enjoyed a lot of that.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

Yeah, I thought the flying eyeball was really stupid in Evil Dead Rise. Yeah. I didn't like it at all. Yeah. Yeah, I thought this one was better.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Yeah, I I liked that kind of humor. That that kind of humor spoke more to me um than Evil Dead Rise. I but I think just the problem that I might have had with this one was I didn't like any of you. Like, you all suck.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Like Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

You know, like uh in Evil Dead Rise, I you know, I I liked Ollie. I I liked where you were coming from. Um they did so much with so little screen time to actually like make us care about these characters. And yeah, that was that just didn't exist here.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

It's weird to me that I think right now, for whatever reason, society is going through spousal abuse is popular.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Yeah. Yeah. Spousal abuse Yeah, there's a real spike in spousal abuse media. Yeah, and this one really clumsily handled the metaphor of like conquering your conquering abuse, you know, and the the trauma that abuse causes you by like murdering the whole family, like like getting cathartic killing of the whole family that caused it to you. But it's like but it's it's also like muddled by Thea didn't do anything, like she didn't do anything, she didn't deserve it. Uh yeah, definitely muddled by that. As far as we know, you know, uh uh knockoff Yelchin didn't do anything to deserve it.

SPEAKER_00 42:02

Uh he he was the he was a knockoff Yelchin.

SPEAKER_01 42:05

Yeah, it was a knockoff Yelchin. He didn't seem to deserve it. He banned his girlfriend, uh, but she didn't know about that. So I mean, like, as as far as we know, he like stuck up for her. She was gonna she almost kissed him that first night, you know, because he was nice to her and stuff. And I don't know. It it it it was a muddy metaphor, which I hate a muddy metaphor. Supergirl failed on that too.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Yeah. No, and that's the problem. That that that's why I walked out of this one a little disappointed. Um, and but I but I I think Evil Dead has traditionally subverted that by the chaotic randomness of the Dead Eyes. Yeah, they don't they don't give a shit what you've done. You don't get to have a full arc. You just encountered something that doesn't care about you and wants you to suffer.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

Oh yeah. Here here's here's another thing. Uh so we had we had mentioned this earlier, uh, to come back to it. Uh I also have a note here. Was the grandpa Robert De Niro in that photograph? Did that did that pop out to you at all when they first showed that photograph with the grandpa? I was like, is that Robert De Niro?

SPEAKER_00 43:19

That was Bruce Campbell.

SPEAKER_01 43:21

You got you got was it Bruce Campbell? It looked like Robert De Niro.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

No, that was Bruce Campbell's cameo.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:29

It looked like Robert De Niro in that photo. Yeah, Robert De Niro was like, hey, put my face in this.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

Anyway, so the cosmic order of demons. Well, so you're just like, so you're talking about the random chaos of demons, it's just their desire to cause pain. Uh there's like this other cosmology of demons that that they're like part of like God's order, right?

SPEAKER_00 44:00

You're talking about the Book of

Abuse Metaphor And Why It Muddy

SPEAKER_00 44:01

Solomon.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

Well, am I? Oh, yes, am I? Okay. So so this is the idea that demons are part of the order of God's like judgment of humans, like the cosmic judgment of humans. And And that like the you know hell is is where you know bad people go bec and and like the lawful the it like demons and devils are are lawful in that way in that they uh that they punish the dead on behalf essentially on behalf of God, they punish the bad people. I don't know. So that's like a different that's like that's like one of the cosmological representations of a demon.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

Well well, so with these ones, so like you notice how every time we watch it, there's a mirror. Yeah. Like they'll do something with a mirror. Sure. Yeah, a little because so you had the dark ones who ruled the world before time, and they created the deadites to uh do their will.

SPEAKER_01 45:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

And whenever we see the mirror where like uh second ash comes from, where they're looking into and things like that, the deadites occupy you, and then you're just pushed out into this mirror world. They are not working um for any sort of cosmic sensibility. It's just because they serve the ancient dark ones, they push you into this realm, they take over your body. There's no rhyme reason in those regards. It's simply because they fulfill the will of making humanity suffer. Yeah. And and that's what I appreciate about it. And that's what I was saying earlier. Like, if this were to happen to us, first, I don't have a rabbi's phone number on my goddamn refrigerator who's who can do exorcisms.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

You're an anti-Semite.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

And my uh my thing with that is like so, like look look, even if, even if there was a cosmology, and even if you know these demons showed up and follow rules, with like the demon shows up and you bring a Catholic priest, and he's like, No, I'm actually into Skopsky, uh, the radical Russian sect that started chopping off penises because that's the only way to find God. Um it's like it doesn't make like even if you even if these things were affected some way from the way that a human being has ordered the universe in their mind, the chances of them being right are nil. Yeah. You know, and then that's what I've always appreciated about Evil Dead is that like

Demons Mirrors And Cosmic Rules

SPEAKER_00 46:56

Yeah, you don't have a chance. The only thing you could do, as Ashley did, was be cosmically stubborn and unwilling to die, and you just start chopping people up until they stop trying to kill you, and then you make the same mistakes again because you're human, and then you cause this whole fucking thing.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

Right. Yeah, uh yeah, it's kind of like a slasher movie in that regard where slashers don't really have a moral, they just it's just it's just a bunch of people are gonna die, you know?

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Yeah, and no, and and they like we always try and like recapture the magic of Jason Takes Manhattan boat school, but it's just not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Man, that was so much fun. Boat school is fucking hilarious. It was the dumbest movie I've ever seen in my life. I need a rewatch. We'll do it for we'll do it for Halloween this year. We'll do Jason takes Manhattan.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Rewatch ability, uh five, apparently. The rest of it was point five. Oh man. Oh, the worst movie ever made. Well, with that being said, uh I mean are we done on are we done on the golden path?

SPEAKER_01 48:18

Do we talk enough about spousal abuse?

SPEAKER_00 48:22

Did we well I I do think there's a point to be made there. What what's going on right now? Because I'm okay. I I'm not being abused. I'm okay too right now, which is really cool. I've been abused. I'm not right now. Yeah, right now I'm not being abused, but like w what the fuck.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

No parental abuse. I'm I'm look I'm no contact, so no par no parental abuse going on.

SPEAKER_00 48:49

So what's why is uh America so big on abuse right now?

SPEAKER_01 48:56

I think because a lot of people are probably talking about it. A lot of people are talking about how they've been abused, or you know, how people in their life have been abused. It's not something that was really easy to talk about before because a lot of people would call you weak, you know, or you know, well, there's people suffering, you know. They they would try to uh invalidate, you know, what you were talking about. And now a lot of people are talking about it and they they uh they validate they you if you go and talk about it online a lot of times, you'll be validated.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Uh there's a lot more spaces to talk about it and be validated, like uh the raised by narcissists subreddit, uh, good resource. Really? Yeah, yeah. Raised by narcissists. You you go there, read, and you're like, holy shit, a lot of these people have really common stories. Then you'll see worse ones and stuff too. But it's not a competition, it's like, damn, you know, like all these same traits.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

We're we're hurting, we're hurting, and we need a an outlet, we need a community.

SPEAKER_01 49:59

Yeah. So I have a feeling that that has something to do with that.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Well, I mean, we just talked about obsession, which we rated obviously very highly, and that one is about that. Um like it just seems to be uh a purveying sort of theme right now is hey, we abuse each other a lot.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

It's

Why Abuse Stories Feel Everywhere

SPEAKER_01 50:23

not good, bro.

SPEAKER_00 50:24

No.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

And I think that I wonder if I wonder if this movie had some rewrites because of the the popularity of the obsession. I wonder if or I wonder if this was I wonder if that was far enough in the past. Maybe, maybe not.

SPEAKER_00 50:40

No, this was out of post-production by the time of Obsession.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Okay. Never mind then.

SPEAKER_00 50:46

But it's that's what I'm saying. It just seems to be this that's the zeitgeist right now is getting your ass kicked by your spouse.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

And it's like Well, this one got shoe felt shoehorned in a little, uh, and the obsession didn't because that was the the crux of the story, you know? Yes. Yeah, that was the entire thing.

SPEAKER_00 51:04

Yeah, well, this one the this one turned the abuse into a background versus Yeah, it's flashbacks. Yeah. The flashbacks were really we have never had a flashback in Evil Dead movie. What the fuck were they thinking?

SPEAKER_01 51:20

That's because she's French.

unknown 51:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Yeah, the French. You can't.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

Yeah, she she wanted that, she wanted that Art Noir.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

Yeah, yeah. The French aesthetic is more powerful than the Dead Eye aesthetic.

SPEAKER_00 51:33

Well, we all knew that. That's why that's why no Evil Dead movie is ever taking place in France. That's a fact. You can look it up.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

Yeah, yeah.

unknown 51:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

Because by halfway point, the Deadites would be eating baguettes and truths.

SPEAKER_00 51:46

And smoking cigarettes. I didn't mean to rhyme, but I guess it's that time. No uh well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

I guess we've wrapped it up.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Yeah, we've wrapped it up. We've wrapped it up. We've did our rhymes, and it's time to move on. It is now time to insert ourselves into this film. So, how would the movie change if you were added to the film?

SPEAKER_01 52:14

How would the movie change if I was added to the film? Um well,

Inserting Ourselves Into The Movie

SPEAKER_01 52:23

I assume that if I was in this movie, you know, all the way from the beginning, if I was at that like that birthday party, I would be I would be the older brother Will. And I wouldn't be drinking and driving drunk. I would be smoking weed and driving high. So I'd actually be driving pretty slow. Uh so I I would be driving slower than normal. Yeah, yeah. So I would, I wouldn't, I wouldn't get into that car crash. I wouldn't be I wouldn't I wouldn't be listening to the radio because I'd be like paying really close attention to the road. Ted and two, main pain. Main pain. Exactly. It'd be standing on the road and I'd be like, gently at like five miles an hour, move slowly around.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Yeah, that tracks.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Uh uh, and then you know, uh, I would assume that I wouldn't have abused her in the past, and we would just go back to our it would be like, you know, we shouldn't hang out with those people anymore. We shouldn't hang out with my my family anymore. Uh, you know, the reason the reason I was talking to you about the alcohol wasn't because you wasn't because I don't think you should be allowed to drink. It's because I'm looking out for your health because you don't like who you are when you're totally slop sloppily sloppily drunk. You know, you you don't like you at that point. And I I want to I want to be there for you. I I'm sorry I approached in the wrong way. And then we'd smoke then we'd hit a big bong and we'd fuck. And uh and we'd be like, hey, you want to call my brother's girlfriend? And it would it would turn into uh it would turn into a threesome movie instead of Evil Dead.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 54:20

They would probably find the dead they'd they'd go there without me and find the dagger, and I would be no I'd be I would I'd be totally unaware.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

Yeah. Yeah, now for me, I like I I would wind up at the funeral of you know, an abusive ex or just you know, family members who've taken advantage of me. And I'll be hanging out there, shit'll pop off, and it'll become quickly like understood that the hot one has a personality, and but I'm like, hey, no, I'm not touching you. I'm not touching you. And we're we're just gonna play with each other. Me and this deadite are gonna form a situationship, uh, you know, where we both know we're not good for each other, you know. Yeah, like she's gonna bring me, like, she's gonna hurt me.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

You make me weak.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

Yeah. And and I'm like, no, you're not doing any of that grandma shit where you put dentures in my mouth and make me sick. I am not going to mirror world fucking deal with it. And she's like, You're such a fucking asshole. I'm like, am I? Really? Am I? And we're going to start replaying the toxicity that they were talking about. Yeah, I'm gonna do another loop. I do I do another loop of toxicity with the deadite. And uh, you know, I'll be I'll be warding off and like staving off like all the other deadites that are attacking me, and I'll I'll give her like a little tongue flick, you know.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

Are you knock-off Yelchin in this? No, no, I'm not. I'm not taking his place? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 56:08

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

I you're the third brother that they never mentioned.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

Yeah, no, no, I'm I'm like an ex that uh that came to the funeral that didn't know she kept him in the will. And uh yeah, and so so my story arc will be flashbacks of the toxic ex that brought me here now replaying with the situationship that I formed with the hot dead height.

SPEAKER_01 56:39

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_00 56:40

Yeah, and uh like she just doesn't know how to quit me. And uh like she'll try and get me event like every once in a while with like a she keeps trying to bite your arm and stuff. Like, oh shit, now I'm toxic. Um I didn't mean to hit I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you. I'm so sorry. And like and it it takes like it takes the audience to a really uncomfortable place.

SPEAKER_01 57:11

Like have you that that reminds me of have you seen uh I'm sure you've seen it, the the parody, uh the evil dead parody with uh Eli Roth and Mia Servino? Yeah, I think that or I think that was it.

SPEAKER_00 57:25

Yes, I yeah, I am aware of but yeah, no, that'll but like the audience will watch a dude die on steak knives in a dishwasher.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

Not Mia Servino, my bad, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

And then watch me and this deadite try and like dance around the fact that we're really into each other, and that's what'll make them uncomfortable. Uh and uh and then in my opinion, I think it'll teach the audience a better lesson than uh what Evil Dead Burn did. So yeah. Yeah.

unknown 58:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:01

That's good. I would I would watch that.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

Yeah, no, and I'll just repeat my same patterns and she'll repeat her patterns, and neither of us could send each other to the mirror realm. But but that's the key, though. Then that's what we learn from this is that hey, if you're in a relationship that you know is wrong, that you know you're being hurt, send them to the mirror realm.

SPEAKER_01 58:27

Yeah, yeah, just just send them to the mirror realm. It's right there. It's right, it's always there.

SPEAKER_00 58:33

Send them to the mirror realm. And if you're feeling spicy, drop them on a dishwasher of steak knives. So, well, there you have it, folks. We're high and dry podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Barron North. With me as always, James Croslin. Thank you all for listening. Bye. Bye.