Evil Dead Burn (2026)

  

Synopsis

When her husband dies, widow Alice spends an awkward weekend with her husband's family. Things goes to (literal) Hell when forces unleashed by the Book of the Dead descend on the family's home.

Review

While different, this film is an Evil Dead flick through and through. Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert the main producers, with Bruce Campbell and Lee Cronin (Evil Dead Rise) serving as executive producers. The film's director, Sébastien Vaniček, is French and it shows. There are several French songs that play during the film and Alice, the protagonist, is as well. The cast all do a stellar job playing their rolls. Alice is a great protagonist. She also has one of the funniest scenes in the franchise. 

The gore and scares are top notch. I do have reservations about some of it. Evil Dead (2013) contained off screen violence against a dog. While brief the canine violence in Evil Dead Burn happens on screen during an extremely tense scene. While that scene bothered me, there was another that really stuck out to me in a new way. Instead of focusing on person being tormented and attacked by a Deadite, the camera focuses on Alice trying to escape the carnage. However, you still see the carnage happening in the background as a character is thrown around and brutalized. There’s something about this horrific action happening around the focal point, rather than being the focal point that was different in the best ways.

Another reason the film felt different is that unlike previous installments, I only cared about 2 (maybe 2.5) of the cast members. Normally I root for everyone to survive but honestly couldn’t wait to see some of these bastards bite it.

The film contains several connections to previous films. The first Deadite we see is Jessica, who is also the first (and last) Deadite we see in Evil Dead Rise. During a recording of Joseph and Will’s grandfather date 1983, he mentions there was a warning to not read from the books. This is probably a reference to Knowby’s warning from the first film. Some new franchise lore mentions the Circle of Wise Men. Given the name, I’m assuming they have a connection to the Wise Man from Army of Darkness. A news clipping mentioned four people dying in a fire is shown and probably a reference to my favorite Evil Dead, the 2013 film. The post credits scene also has a direct link to the previous film. I’ve also read that Ash is in a picture in the film, though I missed it.

Evil Dead Burn is a great addition to the franchise. It felt true to its Deadite roots, but also did it’s own thing. 

In Your Game

There’s definitely a lot in this one to expand into game content and I will eventually do that. For now I’ll just make a Cinematic Unisystem suggestion, since that’s what the Army of Darkness RPG uses. I’d use the Watcher quality from the Buffy game to represent members of the Circle of Wisemen.

Zombie-zilla!

What's more terrifying than a kaiju? Obviously and undead kaiju!

Frederik Hornung

More Hellboy Art from Kate Komics

I haven’t posted any Kate Komics Hellboy art in a few years. I recently found these and wanted to share. You can check out the previous Hellboy/cryptid pieces. 

I've still not seen Backrooms, but I'm familiar with them. The idea is a perfect match for the world of Hellboy.

This Hellboy piece done in the style of Alexandre Cabanel's Fallen Angel is inspired.

Victory in Valachan

We only had four players again this week so I let my fellow DM, Terron, run this time. The party was:

• Human Artificer (still not sure what his subclass was) 
• Bugbear Ranger (Hollow Warden)
• Dwarf Barbarian (Path of the Berserker)
• Lupin Druid (Circle of the Moon) 

Since Terron was running I spent my time looking through bulk Magic: The Gathering singles. I did catch what was happening though, so I'll give a short synopsis.

The party find themselves in a jungle realm (Valachan). They encounter a toothy tree that's quite hunger. The druid offers to bring it food if it doesn't try to eat them. The party then saves some townsfolk from hunting phase spiders. After defeating the spiders they hear massive footsteps. A strigori and his summoned t-rex (yes a goddamn t-rex in Ravenloft) fight the party. After defeating the stirge-like humanoid the party convince the t-rex they are friends (which is an option presented in the adventure).

The group had fun and it was entertaining to listen to. This will be the last session at Dungeon Dwellers until the Season of Arcana comes out.

The Vitruvian Slasher

 This piece from  Frederik Hornung is horrifying. 

Music Monday - Play Dead

This post combines two of my loves, Ice Nine Kills and Dead By Daylight. I've posted about the band and video game before (including posting SURVIVE THIS!! stats for the killer known as Trickster). Play Dead is an INK track released for Dead By Daylight's 10th anniversary. I'd actually stopped playing the game for a while, but the include of Jason Voorhees into the game brought me back. Finding out there was an INK and DBD just sealed the (infernal) deal.

The track is good and the video is a fantastic tribute to the game (including the killers, Nurse and (one of my favorites) Legion). All of the band members are dressed up in the outfits of the game's survivors and Spencer (the lead singer) is dressed as my fav survivor, Dwight.

The video has some fun cameos and continues the ongoing INK music video story. Also, going to be real, I love the Insane Clown Posse reference in the video.

Blood in Borca

  This week’s Season of Horror adventure was Blood in Borca. A few players were out so we combined player groups and I ran the session. The party included

• Human Artificer (not sure what his subclass was) [normally plays in other group]
• Bugbear Ranger (Hollow Warden)
• Dwarf Barbarian (Path of the Berserker)
• Lupin Druid (Circle of the Moon) [same build as the druid in my previous game but different player)

After slaying the illithid vampire in Darkon, the players wake in the domain of Borca. They save a noble from wolves. He hires them to accompany him to a party. The host uses his newly acquired shadow raven powers to incapacitate the party. They wake up in a lab and their new noble patron is ordered to repair a mechanical spider. While this is going on the party are forced to fight a fiery dwarf (an azer). The battle is hard fought and the artificer and barbarian are severely wounded, but survive.

The next room (and final encounter) contains the evil noble (a Priest of Osybus), his two fanatical cultists, and four spies that serve him. This fight was BRUTAL. The cultists started the fight by casting Hold Person on the barbarian and artificer (who failed). Then the Priest used his Soul Blade to constantly paralyze the wildshaped druid. There were many rounds of characters doing nothing but taking critical hits because they were paralyzed. If it wasn’t for the druid, it would have been a TPK. After several rounds, eventually the druid (with help from the ranger and mechanical spider) were able to take out their foes. The fight was frustrating, but ultimately the heroes triumphed. While I was chuckling at first, honestly, I felt bad during this fight. The constant paralyzing effects just made the fight tedious.

Next week will be the final Season of Horror adventure, Victory in Valachan.

Death in Darkon

Earlier tonight I ran the third session of the Season of Horror, Death in Darkon. It was a blood bath (which is fitting because it's vampire-centric). This week Enza has sent the party to the domain of Darkon to stop the second shadow raven. My group this week was made up of the following:

• Bugbear Ranger (Hollow Warden)
• Dwarf Barbarian (Circle of the Moon)
• Drow Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 

They awake in an underground river. The first encounter they face off with an elven vampire familiar, two bandit captains, and four toughs. I was rolling crits like crazy and they had a small party. The drow (played by my kid) was taken out in one round by the familiar. The party was killed and since we had plenty of time I pulled a Groundhog's Day and let them run through it again. I took the four toughs out and still cause a party wipe. I asked them if they wanted to fight the adventure's boss, an illithid vampire, for the Hell of it. While the dwarf went down, they killed the abomination.

Despite the deaths, everyone had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to next week's adventure, Blood in Borca.

I Want You For The Honk Legion

I will be running two session of The Honk Legion for Lurking Fears at Origins. This 5e adventure is set in a twisted carnival full of demon clowns. It's laugh out loud funny and totally absurd. My sessions will be Thursday and Friday morning at 9:00 AM. The Thursday session is full, but four of the five spots for the Friday session are free. Here are some props and decorations I’ll have at the table.

Also if you wear a medium or smaller shirt, Hot Topic has an awesome Honk Legion shirt on clearance.

Terror in Tepest

Tonight I ran the second session of the Season of Horror at Dungeon Dwellers in Portsmouth, Ohio. After saving townsfolk from the graveyard, the party made a deal with Inza. The witch told them that if they seek out the shadow ravens that caused the graveyard incident, she would send them home.

One of my players wasn't there, but a new players was. My players were:

• Bugbear Ranger (Hollow Warden)
• Dwarf Barbarian (Path of the Berserker)
• Lupin Druid (Circle of the Moon)

The mists led the party to a harvest festival in Tepest. They feasted with townsfolk and were hired to make sure a ritual site was set up properly. When they arrived they found a hobgoblin captain, some bugbears, and signs of a struggle. The hobgoblin claimed a druid let them have this abandoned home. There was a stand off, until the ranger climbed over a wall and caused the ritual effigy to animate into a death's head tree. The druid (who'd misled the humanoids and created the tree using the shadow raven) joined the fight. While the hobgoblin and her crew fought the tree and druid, the party fought flying death's heads. Eventually the humanoids were killed, but their attacks had weakened the party enough to finish off the tree. A shadow raven escaped the tree and was banished. The party grabbed some loot before the mists took them.

The session was fun. Encounters two and three were combined because of the ranger's actions, but it worked. My only disappointment is that I was never able to do the quirky thing the death's heads have. If they reduce a character to 0 HP, the creature is KO'd and the head replaces theirs's permanently. You then get to roll on a random head chart. They change is just cosmetic, but it's wild.

These scenarios are fun. There are three more. Come back next week to hear about Death in Darkon.

Grave Awakenings

I’m running the Season of Horror at my FLGS. Characters are third level and players could either make them using rules from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within and the 2024 PHB or they could use premade characters. The premade characters are the party form this season of Dungeon Masters (which just wrapped up and was fantastic).

A majority of the three-hour session was used for character creation. Because of that we didn’t really get to play most of the adventure, Grave Awakenings.  While most sessions this season are 90 minute one shots, Grave Awakenings is designed to be a three hour “Encounters Celebration” event. The event is designed for up to four tables playing the adventure simultaneously. It’s a cool idea, but we only had six players total so this couldn’t happen. 

I won’t spoil the adventure, but the premise is cool. Multiple groups of heroes are drawn into the domain of Sithicus to cleanse a graveyard. There’s a ticking clock mechanic because townsfolk have been buried alive. There’s also the protentional for a character to become a wereraven. 

My group got through one combat and then we had to call it a night. The other group aggroed the graveyard and got pretty far. I spoke with the other DM and decided that instead of continuing with this adventure we are just going to move on to the second adventure Terror in Tepest next week.

There Must Always Be Nine

The Coven of the Nine is a third-party folk horror adventure for D&D 2024. I randomly came across it on Etsy and it immediately caught my eye. The art is evocative and kind of reminds me of tattoo art. The premise is right up my alley as well. A coven of nine hags has infiltrated a fishing village. The party is sent in after another group of adventurers goes missing while investigating. The adventure was written and contains illustrations by Will Humberstone and Luke Stuart. I absolutely love the art! It reminds me of old school sailor tattoo art. I also appreciate the color choices for the book. While the pages are white, the rest of the book is black, red, and shades of blue-green. It just gives everything a hag vibe. The color is used effectively in text too. Proper nouns, monsters, and magic items are introduced bolded and in red. This makes them harder to miss.

The adventure is broken down into three parts. The first takes place in the fishing village of Oshorio. In addition to the history of the region (which is tied to the adventure), we’re given a nice town map with 18 locations. Pretty much all locations have some lightly fleshed out npc’s attached to them (with a quote for good measure).

After investigating the town, the party will make their way to the second part of the adventure, Rotwood Bog. This appropriately named location is filled with all kind of nasty creepy crawlies. There are a few encounters (with maps) and encounter tables listed.

The final part of the adventure takes place in the lair of the hags. Like the lairs of certain legendary hags, it initially appears as an unassuming hut, but its much more than that. The lair is located on the remains of a huge tree with ties to the Shadowfell. There are a variety of encounters that can take place here, even including some puzzles.

The book ends with a lunch of crunch. There are many new monsters to torment your party with (mostly hags and corrupted fauna). Several new magic items are presented to help and hinder adventurers. Finally there is a really helpful glossary of important names and places for the adventure. 

The Coven of the Nine is a great mix of action, exploration, and intrigue. It’s dripping with insidious folk horror. Plus, it’s just a gorgeous book. If you play 5e (specifically 5.5) and love folk horror, this one is worth your time and money.

The Coven of Nine - A TTRPG Adventure - Etsy

A Dark Double Feature

John McGuire and Levi Combs have a pair of horror themed Shadowdark RPG adventures crowdfunding at the moment that you need to know about.

Of A Harmonious Nature is a folk horror adventurer for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5. It will be 80 pages and will be a hardcover tome "written to be the best parts of an A24 film, in the Hammer Horror style." Confront fanaticism and corruption and maybe you'll be able to stop the ancient entity known as Prastr-Vem. You can check out a preview here.

Nothing Left To Lose, a 48-page zine for 4-6 characters of levels 3-5 that is "SAW in the H.H. Holmes "Murder Castle"." After a failed mission the characters (fully equipped) wake up with their allies and have to find their way out of a place of danger. Will they survive or just be more playthings for their sick captor?

Check out the campaign here. I backed at the Early Bird: Double Feature - Collector's Edition and am stoked. That pledge scores you the hardcover and zine, pdfs, and a miniature of Prastr-Vem. Because I'm an Early Bird I also get a glow in the dark version of the mini. I also decided to splurge and order several of the bookmarks for the adventure, since there are extra game mechanics associated with them.  

This one is gonna rock y'all.

Clayface Teaser

James Gunn said the Clayface movie was going to be more like a horror flick. Based on this initial teaser it will be. The music just fits perfectly with the images to create something truly unnerving.

Happy Easter (Night of the Living Christ)

Pardon the blasphemy but this is the most appropriate day to share this. 

Also to clarify I love Jesus, it’s his most vocal fans that I can’t stand.

Frogmen and Wrasslin'

I haven’t really posted this week because I started my job Monday. I think I’m going to like it. In other awesomeness, I’ve also found a place to move into next month. That should mean regular gaming will occur. This past weekend I attended the fifth annual Loveland Frogman Festival and GCW Presents “So Alive." I had a fantastic time at both. I spent most of my Frogman time hanging out with Eric and Josh from Bloat Games. They are the best and it's always a wonderful time when I get to see them. My friend Holly of Holly Who Art was also there (and a sponsor). I also got to see my friends Creep It Real. Check out their Frogman songs.

I probably spent too much, but I snagged some cool stuff. Y'all know I love public domain supers and I finally had a chance to grab a physical copy of one. I've not done Dracula stats, but now I have too. I also grabbed another Savage Dragon issue I didn't have. While it took me a a second to understand how to read them, I also grabbed some really cool oversized cryptid d6's from P House Games.

I also picked up some cool cryptid figures from Archie McPhee. They are perfect for D&D and other tabletop games. Here they are with a few D&D minis and some Archie McPhee glowing zombies I picked up a few months ago.

After visiting Loveland (near Cincy) I headed home and then made my way to Columbus to watch a Game Changer Wrestling show. I won't go too much into it, but I will say I had an amazing time! In addition to badass wrestling there were wrestling zombies and circus clowns. Oh and an entire ballroom full of people singing Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus.

So yeah, I had an awesome weekend. It was a great way to end my birthday week.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commandos

While looking for the Toxic Crusaders beat’s  up (which I feel is never coming out), I discovered John Carpenter’s Toxic Commandos. It’s a co-op fist person shooter with Carpenter’s signature horror and humor. In the game you take on hordes of zombies unleashed by the “Sludge God.” I thought it looked and sounded awesome.

A few days ago an animated trailer for it, featuring Carpenter and the band Gunship dropped. I’m even more excited about the game now.

The game drops March 12th and I’m sure I’ll be picking it up.

Music Monday - Twisting The Knife

Ice Nine Kills have teamed up Scream 7 actress Mckenna Grace to do a haunting track for the film's soundtrack. In classic INK style, the video has a trailer.

Trailer

Music Video Part 2

I thought the song was beautiful, and the video is stylish. I appreciated the cameo at the end and wrestling reference. If you're interested in the continued narrative of the Ice Nine Kills story, check out part 2 of the video.

Music Video Part 2

Satanic Panic

If you want a zine relevant to gaming in the 80's, I highly recommend picking up Satanic Panic from Bloat Games/Bloat Zines. Written and layed out by Mr. Bloat himself, the zine addresses (as the cover says) "why parents in the 1980's lost their fuckin' minds over D&D." The zine is predominantly black and white, though red is used to highlight things and it makes it pop. Christopher Torres and Phil Stone's art is featured throughout the zine. This one is metal and aesthetically pleasing. Although its professionally printed, it has a great punk/metal/DIY vibe.

This one is personal. As he mentions in the zine, Eric's life was made a living hell by ignorant religious folks because of the things he loved as a kid. This is really shown in his scathing takedown of Pat Robertson. I also appreciate Eric discussing the origins of the hysteria and highlights what fueled it. I had no idea that it started in Canada or the full story of person Mazes & Monsters was "based on," Dallas Egbert. Eric's a smart and insightful dude and I appreciated reading his thoughts on things. 

This zine is a hybrid of Bloat zines. In addition to discussion of the topic, it also includes game stats for a few systems and random tables (because random tables):

• d66 Reasons Your Mom Thinks You Are A Satanist
• Ratt Pobertson (5e and Shadowdark) - a craven goblin liar definitely not inspired by a hate-spewing religious leader mentioned earlier.
• Garzax (Demon) with Cultists (OSE) - demon lord of gluttony and his followers
• d12 Raise Your Horns For Satan (the devil's music)
• d12 Occult Inspired Movies
• d66 Games Like Old School D&D
• Satanic Cult Members and Cult Leader Necromancer (SURVIVE THIS!!) - ready to use cult stats for use with Dark Places & Demogorgons and SURVIVE THIS!! games

You can order Satanic Panic from the Bloat Games shop. Don't worry, the zine is only 13 bucks, despite the listed price.

Evil Has Always Had A Name

The newest Resident Evil game, Resident Evil: Requiem, comes out at the end of the month. The game features a new protagonist and also is supposed to be the send off for series favorite, Leon S. Kennedy. A live action short dropped for the game yesterday. 

This (very) short film tells a story about a mother trying to keep her daughter alive during the events of Resident Evil 2 and 3. Despite the brevity, it packs quite an emotional punch. Even if you don't play the games, check it out.