The 2026-bound film recently wrapped filming, prompting director Sébastien Vaniček to release a short teaser for the film. In it, one of the actors is slamming a bloody metal object down on…something, or someone. Whatever’s getting the business end of that attack, it takes a lot of slams before it goes down for good, and the screen cuts to black after a few hits so you’re left with the character’s screams and the makeshift weapon repeatedly hitting the ground.
Details on the plot of Evil Dead Burn are under wraps, save for it being an unconnected spinoff to Rise. Our new set of unnamed characters are played by Souheila Yacoub (Dune: Part Two), Hunter Doohan (Daredevil: Born Again), Luciane Buchanan (Chief of War), and Tandi Wright (Pearl). In 2024, Vaniček teased to French outlet Konbini he wanted to make a “nasty movie, a film that hurts. […] I’m going to put all the horror I have inside, [and] it’ll be cathartic.”
Evil Dead Burn will hit theaters on July 24, 2026. After Burn comes another Evil film, this one written and directed by Francis Galluppi.
Peek behind the curtains in a new X-Men ‘97 featurette. Get a look at what’s coming on Halo’s season finale. The Wynonna Earp revival movie has wrapped filming. Plus, meet Inside Out 2‘s new emotions, and Evil Dead Rise’s Lee Cronin is setting up his genre future. To me, my spoilers!
Kara Swisher on All the Nonsense in the Tech Industry
Jurassic World 4
According to a new report from The InSneider newsletter, Universal Pictures has offered Scarlett Johansson the leading role in Jurassic World 4.
The Prisoner
Additionally, Variety suggests Christopher Nolan may follow Oppenheimer with a film adaptation of the 1960’s TV series, The Prisoner—a project the outlet notes the director was formerly “attached to in 2009,” but “the sci-fi project vanished from Nolan’s dance card that same year when AMC released its own The Prisoners, a six-part miniseries led by Jim Caviezel as the ill-fated agent Number Six alongside Ian McKellen and Ruth Wilson.”
Untitled Lee Cronin Projects
THR reports Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin “has joined forces with frequent collaborators John Keville and Macdara Kelleher of Wild Atlantic Pictures” to launch Doppelgängers, “a new production outfit focused on genre fare” that’s already signed “a first-look deal with New Line Cinema for its feature film projects.”
Cuckoo
According to Bloody-Disgusting, Tilman Singer’s horror film Cuckoo has been rated “R” for “violence, bloody images, language and brief teen drug use.” Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csókás, Greta Fernández and Jan Bluthardt star.
Inside Out 2
Disney has released character posters of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust, Anxiety, Ennui, Envy and Embarrassment as they appear in Inside Out 2.
Wynonna Earp: Vengeance
Filming has officially wrapped on the Wynonna Earp revival movie, according to series creator Emily Andras on Instagram.
The world is a hellhole, so that usually means that horror is in a golden period. You can quantify the success of the horror genre in a variety of ways in 2023.
This year brought all sorts of questionably sticky treats to choose from. Softcore naughtiness and Lovecraftian horror? You got it! Alien invaders? They’re here! Killer dolls? Killing it.
So — let’s take a spooky trip down memory lane and look back at the best horror of 2023.
Suitable Flesh (Joe Lynch)
It’s no mean feat to try and capture the spirit of the legendary Stuart Gordon, who brought us Lovecraft adaptations such as Re-Animator and From Beyond. Joe Lynch manages just that whilst retaining his own style.
Suitable Flesh is down and dirty in the world of Lovecraft, with Heather Graham showing a natural affinity to the horror genre alongside stalwarts such as Barbara Crampton, and promising young things like Judah Lewis.
Horny body-swapping madness slathered in a deliciously skeezy 90s erotic thriller coating.
Huesera: The Bone Woman (Michelle Garza Cervera)
I can’t deny I roll my eyes when I see a horror movie doing the ”everyone thinks that I’m going crazy because of this supernatural entity haunting me” trope, but that’s mainly because there are, so many terrible examples of it. The top tier stuff just makes it more aggravating.
Huesera: The Bone Woman is one of those top-tier examples of it being done right. A woman’s pregnancy is seemingly haunted by an entity that terrorizes and manipulates her even after the child is born. Of course, it appears to the outside world that she is suffering from the realities of motherhood. Cervera ensures there’s reasonable doubt about the truth and isn’t afraid to dig under the skin of her protagonist and unnerve many a parent in the process.
No One Will Save You (Brian Duffield)
After being surprised by Brian Duffield’s superb splat-tastic romance movie Spontaneous, I was excited to read his next film, which was an alien invasion thriller with a home invasion spin. But No One Will Save You still managed to pull the rug out from under me with its tight and tense action.
Despite a wordless performance, Kaitlyn Dever commands the screen as a traumatized and isolated young woman battling against alien invaders that start out in a traditional grey bipedal form before chucking in some interesting new ones as the battle for survival goes on.
Saw X (Kevin Greutert)
Jigsaw and Spiral: From the Book of Saw were supposed to reinvigorate the Saw franchise by taking it further from the influence of Tobin Bell’s John Kramer. Instead, it falls to Bell to put the jumper cables to the series’ flesh with a prequel that goes back to the heady heights of those early days.
Saw X is a worthy new entry because it puts much more focus on character, fleshing out Jigsaw’s reasoning for his brutal justice with a more personal edge against a seemingly worthy adversary.
It’s like the villain version of Spider-Man 2, where there’s a glimmer of a life that could be for John Kramer before the world reminds him why it needs him (well, at least that’s how he sees it!)
Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (Stephen Cognetti)
Now and then, a found-footage horror movie comes along and reminds me why I fell in love with the sub-genre. I genuinely did not believe the fourth entry in the Hell House LLC series would be one of them, but here we are.
Hell House LLC: The Carmichael Manor takes the action away from the Abbadon Hotel of previous films, which does refresh the formula to some degree, but really its greatest quality comes from taking things back to basics in building unease and dread.
M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone)
Chucky has the cynical, blood-splattered killer doll thing down to a tee, and Annabelle has the supernatural entity schtick going. So, where does M3GAN sit? It’s a rather bloodless film, with a checklist of overcooked modern tropes in its execution, but it’s on this list, so why?
Because it’s a really fun time and is fully aware of its limitations. M3GAN itself may feel like a cynical attempt to create a new horror icon, but it has worked because, visually speaking, she lives on the precipice of the uncanny valley that makes that effect so unsettling.
When Evil Lurks (Demián Rugna)
Demonic possession done differently. Rugna’s When Evil Lurks is a nasty piece of work that floods the screen with apocalyptic despair as it treats demons like a multipurpose disease, polluting the soil and the soul in equal measure.
When Evil Lurks doesn’t shy away from showing the devastating consequences of causing a deadly outbreak, nothing is off the table, and the demon may never be seen in physical form, but its malicious and manipulative intent is always on show.
Birth/Rebirth (Laura Moss)
There have been plenty of takes on the Frankenstein story, and Laura Moss achieves the admirable feat of recreating the gothic horror of the source material whilst feeling incredibly fresh in its modern womanhood-centered spin.
Marin Ireland is superbly cold, clinical, and antisocial as Dr. Rose Casper, a modern Dr. Frankenstein type, and Judy Reyes as nurse Celie Morales brings tragic obsession to the party as the unlikely pair team up to handle the reanimated body of a young girl.
Birth/Rebirth surprises with dark humor, heartbreaking tragedy, and abhorrent behavior as Rose and Celie push way beyond moral boundaries.
Godzilla: Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)
While 2016’s Shin Godzilla made the radioactive lizard an abomination (in a good way!), it’s been quite some time since we got a pure angry creature from the sea Godzilla.
Enter Godzilla Minus One. Essentially another reboot of the Godzilla origin, but taking it back to before the gargantuan monster first waded from the ocean. Post-war Japan is in tatters in a variety of ways, and just as life is starting to return to some kind of normalcy when the mutated local legend Godzilla takes personal offence to people living in what it considers its territory.
And so Godzilla is a destructive force once more. Not friend to man, just generally annoyed man is in the way.
Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg)
Brandon Cronenberg is really growing into his own skin (which feels like an apt description) and forging his own weirdo path as a director. He follows up surreal and violent bodyjacking in Possessor with a very different kind of body abuse in Infinity Pool.
There was no way a tale of two young couples meeting at a swanky resort was going to end well in a film that features a Cronenberg in the director’s chair, but yeah…Infinity Pool is a bit sadistic.
It’s helped on its way by two very different performances. Alexander Skarsgard exudes naivety and obliviousness in equal measure, while Mia Goth is menacingly manipulative and just a bit batshit.
Enys Men (Mark Jenkin)
Mark Jenkin’s Bait made for a striking audiovisual experiment, utilizing supposedly outdated and niche equipment to create an unsettling and intense tale of tensions in a cornish fishing village. It was abrasive and artful. Jenkin reteamed with many of that film’s cast to create Enys Men, an actual horror movie that doubled down on those qualities.
Enys Men is a low-fi folk horror that tells the story of a wildlife volunteer (Mary Woodvine) isolated on an uninhabited island off the British coast. Her secluded life appears to unravel in a strange dreamlike fashion.
It’s a film that I hadn’t even finished and knew would be the subject of divisive reviews. Enys Men is as experimental a horror film as you can get in the modern day. That comes the same year as the equally divisive and evasive Skinamarink gives some hope that horror can still be as strange, complex, experimental, and against the grain as this.
Brooklyn 45 (Ted Geoghan)
Being a chamber piece horror set in the aftermath of World War II means Brooklyn 45 could be accused of being little more than a fancy stage play being called a movie. However, its theatrical nature is what enhances it as an unorthodox ghost story.
A group of wartime pals, all of whom have personal grief and trauma from their time at war, reunite on a chilly December night in 1945 to support one of their number after the death of his wife. A cozy reunion becomes something more supernatural as the group’s dirty laundry is laid bare by literal ghosts of their past.
Brooklyn 45 features just the seven cast members, but all get to make an impact in a punchy, twisty-turny 90 minutes.
Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin)
Ten years had passed with an Evil Dead movie, and folks had started to come around to Fede Alvarez’s gore-soaked 2013 edition. So naturally, that vibe is what Sam Raimi brought back with director Lee Cronin taking the Deadite action to the city in Evil Dead Rise.
While it’s a bit disappointing just have a whole apartment block infested with Deadites, the fairly contained blood-splattered adventure we get does feel like a transference of the traditional Evil Dead setup. It largely works because of Alyssa Sutherland’s unhinged demonic performance.
Talk to Me (Danny & Michael Phillipou)
Arguably the breakout horror hit of the year. The Phillipou brothers’ fresh take on possession, curse movies, and general teenage tomfoolery is a fine example that old ideas can be refreshed in horror when done right.
The film’s mean streak propels it into unsettling territory, and the interpersonal drama that gets wrapped up in a possession gone wrong adds to the impact of their consequences.
Dark Harvest (David Slade)
I’m still not exactly sure how I feel about David Slade’s Dark Harvest. It has a really strange tone, feels like it was smushed together from several different interpretations, and it’s genuinely difficult to tell if some performances are meant to be bad as they appear.
And yet Dark Harvest’s story of small-town boys competing to beat the literal stuffing out of a supernatural scarecrow is dark, funny, and just the right kind of chaotic to make it stick in the mind. I genuinely would not be surprised to see this become a cult favorite of sorts in years to come.
Not only was it a fine year for horror movies, but it was also punctuated by a variety of intriguing, interesting, enticing, and downright mesmerizing performances in them.
From scenery-chewing villains to heartbreaking characters of tragedy, here are some of the best horror movie performances of 2023.
Alyssa Sutherland (Ellie in Evil Dead Rise)
Credit: New Line Cinema
The Evil Dead franchise is notable for two things. Ash Williams and Deadites. If one isn’t there, then it sure as hell needs a hefty showing from the other.
Evil Dead Rise features no Ash, so it leans heavily on its Deadite action, and Alyssa Sutherland performs like, well…a woman possessed.
Sutherland’s ”maggot mommy” is a mixture of Evil Dead Deadite old and new. Mischievous wise-cracking is there to a degree but with the nasty streak of Fede Alvarez’s 2013 movie.
Mary Woodvine (The Volunteer in Enys Men)
Enys Men is a difficult watch. Its discordant sound, grainy visuals, and repetitious story beats all serve a worthy purpose, but I can see how people might struggle with it.
Anchoring the increasingly swimmy tale of a remote lighthouse is Mary Woodvine. Her protagonist, known only as The Volunteer, serves as a vessel for our feelings on the strange turn of events depicted on screen whilst going on a narrative voyage of her own.
A lot of her performance has to come from facial expressions, and Woodvine conveys the dismay, worry, and horror of the story beautifully.
Heather Graham (Dr. Elizabeth Derby in Suitable Flesh)
Heather Graham’s expressive face just works wonders with Suitable Flesh. Joe Lynch’s cosmic horror madness works so well because Graham is at the heart of its body-swapping tale and conveys each of her personalities with fluid ease and no small amount of glee.
More Heather Graham in horror movies, please.
Larry Fessenden (Lt Col. Clive Hockstatter in Brooklyn 45)
I really enjoyed Ted Geogahn’s World War II chamber piece because its ensemble of characters pulled the tale in all sorts of fascinating directions, but its catalyst is undoubtedly Lt. Col. Clive Hockstatter played by genre stalwart Larry Fessenden.
Fessenden’s manic, heartbroken turn as a grieving army man sets the supernatural events of Brooklyn 45 in motion, and he continues to play a disturbing part of proceedings throughout.
Mia Goth (Gabi Bauer in Infinity Pool)
Mia Goth is a supreme weirdo, and we should be oh-so grateful she does horror movies. Case in point, her turn as Gabi Bauer in David Cronenberg’s unsettling and surreal latest Infinity Pool.
Goth’s Gabi is enchanting and alluring in a slightly dangerous way at first, but as we delve deeper into the film’s story, she reveals her sadistic, manipulative ways and her frankly deranged glee in tormenting Alexander Skarsgaard.
After the 1-2 punch of X and Pearl, Goth is on her way to becoming a genre icon.
Sophia Wilde (Mia in Talk to Me)
Talk to Me was one of the surprise hits of the year, thrusting its creators, Danny and Michael Phillipou, into the limelight. Its unique take on possession sees it used as a drug. And like any drug, the consequences can be devastating. Which Talk to Me emphatically shows us.
Central to that is the tortured protagonist Mia, played by Sophia Wilde. She enters the story already grieving, and when the possession game appears to offer some closure, she carelessly pursues it, with a horrendous impact on the lives of those around her.
Wilde’s complicated character is believable and sympathetic, and yet that doesn’t stop us from watching in abject horror as she goes down a self-destructive path.
Justin Long (Mayor Henry Waters in It’s a Wonderful Knife)
This was a toss-up between Long and his younger co-stars Jane Widdop and Jess McLeod who delivered a warm-hearted Christmas romance story in the bitter cold of a slasher movie. But Long perhaps best encapsulates what director Tyler MacIntyre and writer Michael Kennedy were going for.
Long’s almost cartoonishly evil Mayor is very much a throwback to the kind of boo-hiss baddie of a certain Frank Capra Christmas classic but with the more obvious murderous edge. Justin Long’s likable qualities convert well to playing utter pricks, and Mayor Henry Waters is a fine example of that.
Kaitlyn Dever (Brynn in No One Will Save You)
Photo Credit: 20th Century Studios / Hulu
Brian Duffield’s follow-up to the superb Spontaneous blends alien invasion with home invasion to tremendous effect. It’s near-wordless, but that doesn’t stop its star from shining bright.
Kaitlyn Dever’s performance as the troubled recluse Brynn relies heavily on movement and expression to convey her character’s somewhat self-imposed isolation. Brynn’s struggles, both internal and external, come across on screen without a word being said, and Dever communicates them with a natural ability.
Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Wassermann in Beau is Afraid)
Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid hops genres constantly, sometimes to its detriment, but Beau himself is living in a personal horror movie, and as such, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as the titular character is a notable horror performance.
That’s most readily apparent in the opening, where Aster and Phoenix put on a masterclass in ratcheting up anxiety-ridden uncomfortable tension. Beau utters every word like he believes the world will punish him for it.
Phoenix absolutely delivers on the title’s sentiment because Beau is afraid, always, in so many different and uncomfortably relatable ways.
Judy Reyes (Celie Morales in Birth/Rebirth)
A female-centric modern-day spin on the Frankenstein story, Birth/Rebirth focuses on womanhood and the ability to bring life into this world and the tragedy found within that. Both leads in Laura Moss’ superb horror represent that in quite different ways, to begin with, but common ground unites them in a horrifyingly twisted vision.
Judy Reyes may don the scrubs once more, but her character Celie Morales couldn’t be further removed from that sitcom variant. It’s a tough call to pick between the performances of Reyes and Marin Ireland in Birth/Rebirth, but the tragedy at the center of Celie’s story and the lengths she ends up going to in trying to reverse it make for a heartbreaking and shocking journey.
Amie Donald/Jenna Davis (M3GAN in M3GAN)
Both Amie Donald and Jenna Davis need mentioning in the performance of murderous robot M3GAN because both the physical and vocal performance make the character what it is.
The deadpan line delivery of Davis is as deliciously cutting as the unnerving physical delivery of Donald is deadly.Sure, you could say the film’s always angling to make M3GAN a bonafide modern horror icon, but the attempt wouldn’t have been successful without the two actors involved.
Russell Crowe (Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist)
The Pope’s Exorcist is a terrible movie. It’s the most cliche-ridden exorcism/demonic possession nonsense you’ll see wrapped into a single film.
But here comes Father Gabriele Amorth, riding in on his scooter and chugging caffeinated beverages whilst kicking demon arse with a tongue sharper than a butcher’s knife. Russell Crowe drags the film kicking and screaming into relevance with a wonderfully outlandish performance.
It’s the kind of role that feels like it should somehow allow Crowe to make a dozen more of these films. All technically terrible, but used as the perfect scaffolding for Amorth to strut his stuff again and again.
Evil Dead is one of the most celebrated horror franchises of all time. Fans of the series are rejoicing, now that we know there’s a way forward for the movies. Not only has the upcoming Evil Dead Rise been receiving rave reviews during test screenings and a preview at the South By Southwest Film Festival, but there’s news of many more entries to come. While a lot of horror franchises tend to lose steam when their major creative forces take a backseat, there are only so many things that can happen here.
Bruce Campbell is iconic as Ash in the Evil Dead franchise. He’s charismatic, tough as nails, and an excellent physical comedian to boot. The only problem is, he’s 64, and he may have some trouble pulling off the stunts he did earlier in his life. That being said, it isn’t the end of Campbell’s involvement.
He spoke with The AV Club recently to explain that he, Sam Raimi, and Raimi’s brother Ivan are going to be working on the franchise from behind the scenes in the future.
I think the stories will progress a little more now. We’re going to try and do them more like every two or three years rather than every 10 years. It’s also the first time Sam is working with his brother Ivan to create an overall Bible that will give future writers and directors an idea of where this thing should go next to potentially tie in some of these stories. So I think it’s going to get a little more tied in as the years go by. But because it’s all about the books. It could be a book in the past, a book in the future. It’s yet to be determined.
Evil Dead Rise is coming to theaters on Friday, April 21.
The Most Anticipated Movies of 2023`
Here are 20 of the biggest and most exciting titles coming to theaters in 2023.
