‘Evil Dead Burn’ Stars Reveal the Hidden Character Backstories You Won’t See in the Movie

This week, fans of Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead will return to the world of Deadites with what’s being hailed as the franchise’s most gruesome to date. Evil Dead Burn, co-written and directed by Sébastien Vaniček (Infested), claws its way into theaters to continue the mythology in a terrifying new chapter. But before the premiere, don’t miss Perri Nemiroff’s conversation with the stars of the movie, Luciane Buchanan (The Night Agent), Hunter Doohan (Wednesday), and Souheila Yacoub (Dune: Part Two), where they discuss the details you won’t get to see on screen.

In this follow-up to executive producer Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise, we meet Alice (Yacoub), a woman grieving the recent loss of her husband (George Pullar), and the in-laws she stays with after his passing, including his younger brother Joseph (Doohan) and his girlfriend Thya (Buchanan). During a time of mourning, this family gathering quickly becomes a hellish reunion when Alice discovers a dark secret about the family she married into, and the consequences of those vows.

Check out the full conversation with the trio in the video above, or the transcript below, where Buchanan, Doohan, and Yacoub reveal the extensive backstories of their characters and the character work with Vaniček that informed their performances. They share the moments that don’t make the final cut and the unusual material their writer-director provided as inspiration for the Deadites, plus take time to highlight their impressive castmates.

These ‘Evil Dead Burn’ Character Backstories Won’t Be in the Final Cut

The trio reveals Deadite inspiration, backstories, and character relationship details.

PERRI NEMIROFF: My first question for all three of you comes from our conversation the other day, Luciane. We only spoke about this lightly, and I would love to hear about this from all three characters’ perspectives. You were saying that Sébastien [Vaniček] gave you a two-page backstory for your characters. Can you each tell me about something in that backstory that we don’t see or hear directly in the movie, but we can feel you holding tight to and it informing your performance?

SOUHEILA YACOUB: Oh, wow. Did we have two pages? Are you lying? [Laughs]

LUCIANE BUCHANAN: I have the PDF. Did you get it?

HUNTER DOOHAN: The audition PDF was crazy. There were YouTube links to videos of bugs for how to act like the Deadites.

What bugs were on the list?

DOOHAN: There was this beetle upside down that was, like…

BUCHANAN: That was twitching.

DOOHAN: Yeah, its body keeps moving after it’s dead for, like, a minute.

I love all these fun facts!

DOOHAN: There are so many little things.

BUCHANAN: I think a funny thing, I don’t know if I held it tight to my heart, but the way that Joseph and Thya met, Sébastien even thought about this, was originally, Thya was meant to be Polly’s nurse, which we discussed. But then they made them boyfriend and girlfriend, partners, and the way that they met was that you were getting your blood.

DOOHAN: I was donating blood.

BUCHANAN: Yeah, and he fainted, and she felt bad for him.

DOOHAN: Which is so Joseph. No one ever mentions it, but you’re like, “Yeah, I’d believe that. That guy’s a fainter.”

YACOUB: I didn’t have any pages or any PDF. I did everything myself.

DOOHAN: [Laughs] You had to build the character together.

Image via Warner Bros.

What about you on your own? Is there anything you came up with personally that weighed on your mind while you played her?

YACOUB: Personally, no. We did a huge writing team work with Sébastien and his co-writer, Florent [Bernard], in Paris. We did meetings, and we talked about the character for a long time before we went to New Zealand. We even discussed the hair color, the way she’s dressed, because also, having a Parisian girl in American movies is almost always the same type of Parisian. So, we also wanted to show something else that Paris can offer, also physically different. So, yeah, we were talking a lot about Alice.

The ‘Evil Dead Burn’ Cast Shares Which Co-Star Performance Blew Them Away

These stars are scary good.

I think this entire ensemble is top-tier and delivers so big, and I also love forcing actors to give each other flowers. Can you give flowers to the actors who are not here right now? Can each of you tell me something you saw a co-star do on this set that would make you want to tell fans of theirs, “You think you know how good they could be in this movie, but what they did there, that’s above and beyond?”

YACOUB: Well, I’ll talk about my husband, George [Pullar], who plays my husband, who is the most kind and sweet person on Earth. What he delivers in the club scene is insane.

DOOHAN: So different from who is.

YACOUB: So different than who he is. He was just owning the scene, and we were reacting to what he was doing. But he really nails it. I was very impressed with what he did. And he’s a sweetheart.

DOOHAN: Tandi [Wright], who plays Susan, my mom, is so amazing, and it all comes through in the scene. Even the moment when Polly finally says her name, you can just read every emotion. And then, just the kind of actor she is, she’d be like, “Can I, like, physically touch you before having to deal with the loss?” She’s just so in it. She kind of made all of us step up to her, I feel like.

BUCHANAN: Totally.

She’s so good.

BUCHANAN: Well, I guess I have the last two left. Erroll [Shand], who I’ve known for a really long time. He’s terrifying. We started off with the dinner table scene, so he kind of set the tone for us.

YACOUB: He’s a very passionate actor.

BUCHANAN: Yeah, totally. He’s incredible. And then Maude [DAvey], who plays Polly.

DOOHAN: We love love Maude.

YACOUB: We love Maude!

BUCHANAN: She transformed.

Evil Dead Burn hits theaters on July 10.

Release Date

July 10, 2026

Runtime

120 Minutes

Director

Sébastien Vanicek