Variety's chief film critic Owen Gleiberman has reviewed "Evil Dead Burn", the sixth entry in the long-running horror franchise and the third since its 2013 reboot. The verdict is broadly positive but qualified: Gleiberman argues that the playful, "gonzo comedy" spirit of the earlier films — particularly "Evil Dead II" (1987) — has been stripped away, leaving a grimmer, more earnest work. On its own terms, however, he finds it an effective piece of "gross-out guignol".

The stand-alone story centres on Alice (Souheila Yacoub), a Frenchwoman locked in a toxic marriage to William (George Pullar), whose death in a car crash unleashes a demonic spirit that possesses his estranged family one by one at a decaying woodland house. Directed by Sébastien Vaniček, the film leans on relentless, "thematic" practical-effects violence and gives the demons a low, "Exorcist"-style menace rather than the mischief of old, though Gleiberman notes the rules of how to kill them are fuzzy. He praises the cast — including Erroll Shand, Tandi Wright and Yacoub — and, while wishing producer Sam Raimi would restore the series' humour, concludes the "evil dead" still feel alive. The Warner Bros. release runs 110 minutes and is rated R.