Evil Dead Is Fully Switching Genres After 45 Years

While 2026’s Evil Dead franchise reboot was exciting even before its first full-length trailer dropped, the revelation that Evil Dead Burn will switch the franchise’s genre for the first time makes this upcoming horror movie all the more intriguing. The Evil Dead franchise’s high body counts are just about the only consistent thing in the series. Starting out in 1981 with director Sam Raimi’s explosive feature debut The Evil Dead, the first outing in the series was originally a gritty, gruesome, and thoroughly downbeat supernatural horror story.

However, 1987’s Evil Dead II upended things completely with a goofy, cartoon-ish, and intentionally over-the-top sequel. Although Evil Dead II did have its occasional creepy moments, the movie owed as much to Tex Avery as Dario Argento, and its gleeful comedic absurdity undercut the paranormal horror and underlying sense of dread. If Raimi’s first film was a gory endurance test, his second was a vaudeville comedy routine. Evil Dead II’s sequel Army of Darkness took things even further, ramping up the silliness with a historic action adventure plot.

Army of Darkness felt more like a bloodier Indiana Jones movie or a precursor to Stephen Sommers’ Mummy movies than Raimi’s original video nasty, but the franchise then took a hard turn back to its origins with 2013’s simply-titled reboot Evil Dead. Director Fede Alvarez went with an even darker, bleaker, and nastier tone than the original movie in this terrifying story of college students getting killed off one by one in a remote woodland cabin. Director Lee Cronin’s 2023 reboot Evil Dead Rise changed things up again, with more humor but no less gore.

Evil Dead Burn Is Clearly An Action Horror Movie

Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, like his later Blumhouse horror reboot Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, was both scary and darkly funny. Fusing the over-the-top gore of Evil Dead II with the genuine dread of 2013’s reboot, Evil Dead Rise also changed up the formula by transplanting the movie’s setting from an isolated woodland to a busy inner-city apartment block. It would be tough for any follow-up to replicate Evil Dead Rise’s successful experimentation, but Infested director Sébastien Vaniček’s upcoming Evil Dead Burn appears to have achieved this with yet another genre switch.

Judging by both its date announcement and its first full-length trailer, Evil Dead Burn is a full-blown action horror movie, which marks a first for the franchise. The date announcement has one floating Deadite, but it mostly consists of brutal fight choreography that wouldn’t be out of place in a movie from The Raid franchise or a John Wick spinoff. The trailer has a little more classic Deadite scares, but also a car chase, a boat chase, Deadites running on rooftops and, in one prominent scene, straight up a bathroom ceiling.

In an era when Weapons director Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil reboot is co-written by Shay Hatten of the John Wick franchise, it might not seem like a big shock that Evil Dead Burn is also jumping on the action horror bandwagon. However, from the novel setting and premise of Evil Dead Burn to this genre switch, Vaniček’s movie marks a major risk for the series. After all, the ever-changing Evil Dead formula has worked well over the decades, despite the tonal shifts mentioned above, and the action horror genre itself is hardly known for its critical popularity.

Evil Dead Burn’s Genre Shift Is A Major Surprise

There are a handful of critically acclaimed action horror movies, including the aforementioned Mummy movies by Stephen Sommers. However, there is also a reason that the sub-genre gained an ignominious reputation during its popular box office reign in the early 2000s. Thirteen Ghosts, Ghosts of Mars, 2005's Doom, House of the Dead, the Underworld series, Van Helsing, Alone in the Dark, Priest, Daywalkers, and even the original Resident Evil movies were all unpopular with critics. Most reviewers specifically complained that trying to balance action set-pieces with traditional horror resulted in movies that were full of bombast, but light on scares.

In contrast, the Evil Dead franchise has more than its fair share of authentically scary, intense horror. For every funny sequence like Ash’s slapstick battle against his former fiancée’s reanimated corpse, there is a scene like Evil Dead Rise’s upsetting Deadite threats. Cronin’s movie certainly had some action-heavy set pieces, but the 2023 hit was still very much a traditional siege horror like the original movie and its 2013 remake. In contrast, Evil Dead Burn looks more like Rec, 2004’s Dawn of the Dead, or even From Dusk Til Dawn judging by its trailer's bone-crunching fight scenes.

Evil Dead Burn’s Big Change Could Be Great News

Given the critically abhorred history of action horror movies, readers could be forgiven for assuming that things look bleak for Evil Dead Burn. However, this need not be the case. Already, the movie’s trailer features a memorably horrifying moment where a grinning Deadite swallows a candle’s hot wax with a grin, as well as a finger-severing shock that will leave many viewers watching between their own fingers.

Clearly, the series isn’t toning down its gore or scares in order to ramp up the action, unlike some lesser action horror movies. Furthermore, it is worth remembering that the franchise hasn’t gone wrong so far despite its many tonal changes and subtler genre shifts. 2013 went darker and grittier, 2023 went for an urban setting and more outrageous gore, II famously upped the cartoonish comedy. Still, so far, the Evil Dead series is one of the most consistently critically acclaimed horror franchises ever.

Since Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot looks great despite also being an unapologetic action horror, viewers might be relieved to hear that this genre shift isn’t necessarily a kiss of death for Evil Dead Burn. On the contrary, this upcoming movie might see the franchise revive the action horror genre with a story that is as thrilling as it is terrifying. As proven by movies like 2004’s Dawn of the Dead or 2007’s Rec, an action-packed story doesn’t necessarily mean an action horror isn’t terrifying. Now, Evil Dead Burn can prove this applies to the Evil Dead series.