Grave Tone: Horror Podcast

Evil Dead Burn review: Sébastien Vaniček made the nastiest movie in this franchise, and it starts fast and never lets up.

We came home from the theatre and recorded immediately. Evil Dead Burn drops French expat Alice (Souheila Yacoub) into a house full of in-laws who never wanted her there, and then turns them into Deadites one by one. The early hype said you are not ready. Usually, that hype is nothing. This time it is one of the exceptions.

Sébastien Vaniček Brings French Horror to the Evil Dead Franchise

Second feature after Infested (2023), the spider movie that got him hired. Sam Raimi saw it and handed him the keys.

Vaniček's stated goal was a visceral sensory experience that punches audiences in the gut and leaves them physically drained. It works.

The dry humour running through the crematorium scenes is unmistakably French, in the same family as Le Manoir.

Evil Dead Burn Cast and Performances

Souheila Yacoub (Climax, Dune: Part Two) plays Alice, the French expat widow, and she carries the whole film.

Hunter Doohan (Wednesday) as Joseph, Luciane Buchanan as Thya, Tandi Wright as Susan, Erroll Shand as Edgar, George Pullar as Will.

Maude Davey plays Polly, the grandmother, and she is the only real levity in the movie (she is also the funniest thing in it).

Mostly lesser-known actors, which is what this franchise keeps getting right.

Practical Effects, Gore, and the NC-17 Problem

The holes in Edgar's skull hold up in close-up for most of the runtime. Mostly practical with a VFX layer on top.

The original cut was rated NC-17. Vaniček trimmed one long, cold, raw scene to land the R.

There is one head sequence where you see everything. If you are squeamish, skip the popcorn.

Necronomicon Lore and the Evil Dead Timeline

The grandfather's link to Professor Raymond Knowby finally gives the modern films connective tissue back to 1981.

The Kandarian dagger returns as the only thing that kills a Deadite for good.

The Circle of Wise Men reaches back to the mage in Army of Darkness. [CONFIRM: exact in-film name of the Circle]

Burn's cold open brings back Jessica from Evil Dead Rise's lakeside prologue.

Evil Dead Wrath (Francis Galluppi, April 2028) is a prequel set in 1972.

Trigger Warnings and Scores

Animal death: the dog dies. Domestic violence is a heavy plot point, not a background detail.

Arthur: 8. Meaghan: 7.5 to 8.

Two credits scenes, one mid and one post. Stay for both. We are not telling you what they are.

Coming Up

Fantasia International Film Festival, 30th edition, July 16 to August 2, 2026. We have media accreditation.

Our horror movie picker quiz is four questions and gives you three films we actually like.

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The best Canadian horror movies don't get talked about enough, so for Canada Day we counted down ten we genuinely love (killer jeans included). This is Grave Tone doing what it does when there's no new release to chase: pulling from the deep, weird catalog of Canadian horror films and arguing about them.

Canadian Horror Comedy That Actually Lands

Slaxx (2020) is Elza Kephart's killer-jeans satire skewering fast fashion and sweatshop labor, and the kills are great.

Suck (2009), Rob Stefaniuk's vampire rock 'n' roll road movie, somehow got Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Moby, Alex Lifeson, and Malcolm McDowell into one cast.

Vicious Fun (2020) traps a horror-mag critic in a support group for serial killers; high energy, fun from start to finish.

Buffet Infinity (2025) tells a full cosmic-horror story entirely through fake TV commercials, SCTV style. Weird, and it works.

Werewolves, Zombies & Body Horror

Ginger Snaps (2000) is still the definitive werewolf-as-puberty coming-of-age film, carried by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins.

Pontypool (2008), based on Tony Burgess's novel Pontypool Changes Everything, is a zombie movie where the virus lives in language. Stephen McHattie is perfect.

Possessor (2020), Brandon Cronenberg's body-swap assassin nightmare, sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason.

Les Affames (2017), Robin Aubert's French-Canadian zombie film, took Best Canadian Feature at TIFF.

Psychological Dread & Dark Web Terror

Red Rooms (2023), Pascal Plante's dark web true-crime thriller, barely shows violence and stays unbearably tense. Juliette Gariepy is the whole movie.

Come True (2020), Anthony Scott Burns's sleep-study descent, is nonlinear, strange, and impossible to shake.

Undertone (2025) is audio horror about a cursed podcast; turn the lights off and let it get to you.

Cult Classics & Deadly Labyrinths

Cube (1997), Vincenzo Natali's deadly-labyrinth cult classic, was made for roughly $350K and arguably paved the way for Saw. A 4K restoration hit Fantasia in 2024.

Kryptic (2024), Kourtney Roy's strange, goopy creature study, is our sleeper honorable mention.

Screamers (1995) is the fully sci-fi one that scared Arthur as a kid; we covered it in our Childhood Trauma series.

What's Next: Fantasia 2026 & In a Violent Nature 2

Fantasia's 30th edition runs July 16 to August 2, 2026 in Montreal, and will be covering it in full!

In a Violent Nature 2 moves Johnny to a summer camp; Chris Nash writes, Nathaniel Wilson directs, expected 2026.

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Meaghan and Arthur welcome Eleazar for a Childhood Trauma episode that doubles as one of the deepest Evil Dead franchise dives we've done. They cover the full arc — from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's proof-of-concept short film Within the Woods, through the legal chaos that forced Evil Dead II to basically remake the first twenty minutes of its own predecessor, through Army of Darkness and its cursed rights issues, through Ash vs Evil Dead and the weird, wonderful lore that keeps expanding with every entry.

🎙 About Our Guest: Eleazar of Nightmare Echoes

Eleazar is the host of Nightmare Echoes Podcast, a horror podcast exploring classic and modern genre films with a rotating roster of co-hosts.

The show has covered every film in the Evil Dead franchise — and has been running for 120+ episodes across multiple seasons.

Meaghan and Arthur appeared on Nightmare Echoes earlier this year to discuss The Substance.

Follow Nightmare Echoes: Instagram & Threads @nightmareechoespod

🎬 The Evil Dead & Evil Dead II: Origins & Chaos

Within the Woods (1978) — Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's proof-of-concept short film, used to secure the $90,000 needed to make the original. The same bootstrapped-short-to-feature pipeline Curry Barker used decades later with YouTube.

The original Evil Dead (1981) was shot in extreme cold in a Tennessee cabin that was slowly falling apart — the fireplace was their only heat source, power tools were stolen off the set, and the crew's housing was converted into a brothel mid-production.

Evil Dead II (1987) couldn't use footage from the first film due to a multi-studio rights dispute — so it re-created the first twenty minutes, quietly altering character counts and relationships to sidestep the issue.

Linda is played by a different actress in every film in the series. Same with the character count: Evil Dead has five friends; Evil Dead II drops it to just Ash and Linda. Rights issues explain both.

Ted Raimi (Sam's younger brother) wore a full latex suit in Evil Dead II during the extreme Tennessee summer heat. Buckets of sweat were reportedly dumped out of the suit between takes — and the perspiration is visible in the film.

📖 The Necronomicon: Franchise Lore Explained

The Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) evolves in detail and design across every Evil Dead film — each entry adds new layers of mythology and expands what the book can do.

Evil Dead II introduces a crucial detail: pages from the Necronomicon can function independently of the book, which becomes a plot point involving Jake throwing them into the fireplace — a decision the hosts describe as one of the franchise's most frustrating character choices.

Army of Darkness introduces three Necronomicons on a pedestal — two fakes and one real — and Ash picks the wrong one (partly) because he can't say the words correctly either.

Evil Dead Rise confirms that all three books across the franchise's history are separate Necronomicons, placing every film in a shared universe. Evil Dead Burn appears to introduce a fourth.

🪓 Ash Williams: Character Arc Across the Franchise

In The Evil Dead (1981), Ash is almost passive — nearly self-effacing, not the commanding presence he becomes later. The hosts note how strikingly different he is between films one and two.

Bruce Campbell's physical comedy and willingness to be repeatedly destroyed is the engine of Evil Dead II. The hand-severing sequence remains one of the franchise's most iconic (and genuinely terrifying) moments.

Sam Raimi originally intended to go straight from Evil Dead into what became Army of Darkness (working title: Medieval Dead). Stephen King's rave review of the first film helped secure funding for a sequel — but the studio wanted more of the same, not a medieval adventure.

Evil Dead II was ultimately designed as setup for Army of Darkness — a bridge film Raimi made funnier because he knew where the story was going.

🔥 Evil Dead Burn & The Franchise Future

Evil Dead Burn hits theaters July 10, 2026. Directed by Sébastien Vaniček (Infested), produced by Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tapert, executive produced by Bruce Campbell and Lee Cronin.

The crew discuss the fan theory that a voice heard in Evil Dead Rise's vinyl record sequence is Bruce Campbell's — suggesting Ash is still time-traveling through the franchise timeline, trying (and failing) to prevent Deadite uprisings.

A Deadite glimpsed in the Evil Dead Burn trailer appears to match the lake woman from Evil Dead Rise — potentially linking the two films and suggesting the franchise's shared universe is tighter than any official confirmation has stated.

Evil Dead Wrath (directed by Francis Galluppi) is also in development, marking the first time two Evil Dead films have been in production simultaneously.

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Arthur and Meaghan dig into William Bagley's Hold the Fort (2025), now available on VOD. They saw it first at its world premiere at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, loved it enough to re-watch it the second it hit digital, and they're still laughing. This is that kind of movie.

HOLD THE FORT — EPISODE SHOWNOTES

ABOUT THE FILM

▸ Hold the Fort (2025): written and directed by William Bagley, co-written by Scott Hawkins

▸ Distributed by Sunrise Films (North America); available on Digital HD via Apple TV, Prime Video, and Fandango at Home as of June 23, 2026

▸ Runtime: 74 minutes · Genre: Horror Comedy

▸ World premiere: Fantasia International Film Festival, Montreal, July 2025, also screened at FrightFest London, Sitges, Beyond Fest, and Toronto After Dark

 

THE CAST

▸ Chris Mayers (Ozark) as Lucas, the new homeowner who definitely did not read the HOA contract

▸ Haley Leary as Jenny, the more sensible half of the couple, and yes, also a nurse

▸ Julian Smith (social media comedian and producer) as Jerry, HOA president, keeper of the lore, cheese stick casualty

▸ Levi Burdick as Ted and Michelle Lamb as Annette, the neighborhood veterans who've been doing this for years

▸ Tordy Clark as Leslie, the neighborhood's better-living-through-chemistry advocate

▸ Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson as McScruffy, the hired weapons expert who gets taken out of commission early

▸ Luke Michael Williams as Marcus, the mechanic who changes everyone's oil for free (this is genuinely nice)

 

THE MONSTERS

▸ Witches, recurring annual visitors; killable with bullets (magic doesn't stop bullets — remember that)

▸ Spirit Ninjas, possession-based entities that reanimate corpses as kung fu experts; require a peachwood sword to kill

▸ Kamikaze Bats, bats that fly into people and explode. Yes, really. Arthur loves these the most.

▸ The Werewolf, big, campy, old-school practical suit. Excellent snout.

▸ The Stick Man, the final boss. Blue. Gooey. Genuinely unsettling.

 

THE SHARED UNIVERSE

▸ Hold the Fort is the second feature from William Bagley, following The Murder Podcast (2021)

▸ The films share a universe: a character from The Murder Podcast appears at the very end of Hold the Fort, moving into the neighborhood

▸ The line 'magic doesn't stop bullets' originates in The Murder Podcast as a TV commercial gag; it becomes a recurring rule in Hold the Fort

▸ Arthur and Meaghan watched both films back-to-back, recommended viewing order: Hold the Fort first, then The Murder Podcast

 

WHAT WE LIKED / WHAT WE DIDN'T

▸ The creature variety is unlike most horror comedies; you're never dealing with just one type of monster

▸ Fight choreography is clean and well-shot for a crowdfunded indie production

▸ Jerry is the MVP, and Julian Smith plays the character with incredible comic timing

▸ The film has genuine emotional moments you won't expect, given how goofy everything else is

▸ McScruffy lands slightly over-the-top compared to the rest of the cast, the writing for that character pushed just past the line

▸ Final ratings: both Arthur and Meaghan sitting around 6.5/10, fun, not perfect, absolutely worth watching

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Leviticus review: the queer Australian horror film Joe Bird stars in just opened, and we saw it opening night. Here's our raw reaction. Leviticus (2026) — written and directed by Adrian Chiarella — is one of the best horror films of this year so far. It's sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and the praise is not overstated. This is a queer coming-of-age horror film that follows Naim (Joe Bird, Talk to Me) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) — two teenage boys in a small, deeply religious town in rural Australia whose emerging feelings for each other trigger a supernatural entity that stalks anyone who's had a conversion ritual performed on them.

About the film

Leviticus (2026) — written and directed by Adrian Chiarella in his feature debut. Released June 18, 2026 in Australia; June 19, 2026 in the US via Neon. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2026 (Midnight section).

Produced by Causeway Films (also behind Talk to Me, The Babadook, Bring Her Back). Distributed internationally by Neon, acquired in a reported seven-figure deal post-Sundance.

Running time: 88 minutes. Currently sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 84 on Metacritic. Nominated for an audience award at SXSW.

Cast and Crew

Joe Bird as Naim — best known as Riley in Talk to Me (2022). AACTA Young Stars Award 2025 winner. Leviticus is his first leading film role.

Stacy Clausen as Ryan — praised by critics for conveying warmth beneath Ryan's guarded exterior.

Mia Wasikowska as Arlene, Naim's mother — widely known for Crimson Peak, Alice in Wonderland. Plays the film's quiet, devastating antagonist.

Nicholas Hope as the deliverance healer. Jeremy Blewitt as Hunter. Ewen Leslie as Rod.

The Queer Horror Conversation

Leviticus sits within a larger queer horror tradition — the film draws deliberate comparisons to It Follows (2014) in its use of a supernatural entity as social metaphor.

The film's central metaphor: a post-exorcism entity that takes the form of whoever the victim desires most. It follows them. It adapts. It doesn't stop. The implication — that sexuality cannot be prayed away — is embedded in the film's rules.

Meaghan also draws a comparison to Grave Tone's coverage of At the Place of Ghosts, another recent queer horror film dealing with queerness and small community dynamics.

The book of Leviticus (specifically Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13) provides the film's title — and its central indictment of religious doctrine used to justify violence against queer people.

Australian Horror's Moment

Causeway Films has quietly built one of horror's most consistent track records: The Babadook (2014), Talk to Me (2022), The Moogai (2024), Bring Her Back (2025), Leviticus (2026).

Arthur and Meaghan discuss what makes Australian horror feel distinctively raw and stripped-back — less Hollywood gloss, more visceral grounding in real places and real dread.

Director Adrian Chiarella filmed across Victorian regional towns including Geelong and Bacchus Marsh — specific locations chosen to reinforce the film's claustrophobic, isolated atmosphere.

Production Details

Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen completed two weeks of pre-production bonding exercises — including a shopping complex improvisation (staying in character while buying each other gifts as their characters).

Director Chiarella drove both leads around the filming locations before production began to build atmosphere and connection. A significant portion of the film's dialogue and movement was improvised on set.

Production designer chosen specifically for her subdued, drab color palette — a deliberate visual choice to reinforce the emotional bleakness of the setting.

Score composed by Jed Kurzel. Cinematography by Tyson Perkins.

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