Evil Dead Burn Smashes 34-Year Franchise Audience Record

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A surprise ripple rolled through horror circles this week. Fans are arguing. Critics are taking notes. And Rotten Tomatoes has a new talking point.

Evil Dead Burn just landed an 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a figure being touted as a franchise milestone that echoes a record set 34 years ago. Short, sweet, and a little shocking if you follow the series closely.

Sam Raimi's name still hangs over each entry like a ghostly signature — inventive, wild, often funny, forever indebted to practical effects and manic energy. But the franchise has never stood still. Directors change. Tastes shift. Yet each new chapter tries to push the mythos in a slightly different direction, and Burn is the latest to spark debate at the box office and on social feeds.

How does Burn stack up against its predecessors? By audience approval it's now among the top-rated entries. Evil Dead II leads the pack at 89% audience approval, Army of Darkness sits at 87%, the original The Evil Dead holds 84%, and Burn joins the upper tier with 82%. Later additions like Evil Dead Rise landed lower with 76%, while the 2013 reboot sits at 64%. Criticsʼ scores tell a different, but complementary story, showing the gap that sometimes opens between reviewer sentiment and fan enthusiasm.

Behind the cameras, Evil Dead Burn was made on a reported $20 million budget, directed by Sebastian Vaniček, who co-wrote the script with Florent Bernard. The ensemble leans young and hungry: Hunter Doohan plays Joseph Price, Tandi Wright is Susan Price, Sohaila Yaqoub portrays Alice Price, and Lucien Buchanan appears as Tia. Moody Davey, Errol Shand, and George Pullar round out the Price family in performances that critics and audiences have been dissecting with glee.

The franchise isn't taking a breather. Studios have already set a new date: Evil Dead Wrath is scheduled to open April 7, 2028, billed as an official prequel and written and directed by Francis Galluppi. Expect questions to be answered, and plenty more to be asked.

So what now? Watch parties, podcasts, thinkpieces. Or just go see it and decide which entry deserves the crown. Either way, the cabin doors are creaking again.