Last Updated on July 23, 2026 by Angel Melanson
If there’s one thing about the brains behind the Evil Dead franchise, its creators know exactly how to summon its audience back for more. Since his 1981 cult original, Sam Raimi has continuously resurrected the Deadites to serve up a true horror experience: the kind that keeps you wide-eyed, breathless, and thanking the gods you’re not in the characters’ shoes.
Featuring some of the most creative, primordially terrifying kills in the genre’s history, they’re films that are reliably, reassuringly mean-spirited, and I do intend that to be complimentary.
Evil Dead Burn, the latest installment directed by Sébastien Vaniček and now playing in theaters, stars Souheila Yacoub as Alice, a widow unwittingly obliged to gather with her in-laws at the family home—where the couple had been married—following her late husband’s funeral. The family reunion from hell even before the Deadites’ arrival, the sanctity of the family home is soon thoroughly corrupted while Alice is forced to ask herself what she’s willing to sacrifice for personal history.
Chock-full of lore for those who want it, the film also works as a complete standalone with Alice at the wheel as she fights to escape the gaping maw of familial obligation and her own past choices.
FANGORIA sat down with Souheila Yacoub to talk about her background as a competitive gymnast, Final Girls, and the perils of bringing the Deadites back to life.
How does it feel to now be part of one of horror’s legacy franchises?
I’m so grateful. All the comments, all the fans, all the feedback that I received, it means a lot to me. I’ve received so much love from everybody, and I’m super proud of what we did. I think I didn’t realize before filming and the movie coming out how grateful I am. I was just super happy to be part of this franchise that started in the ‘80s–I wasn’t even born! — and it might go on maybe ‘til I die, even later. So I feel like part of a family forever and ever.
Is it scarier being in the film or just watching as a spectator? Were there scenes or sequences that stayed with you after shooting?
No, it’s definitely scarier to watch the movie for sure. When you’re working on a horror movie, on set it’s just the most fun time ever. When you see the movie, you can obviously tell that my character is going through a lot, so it’s really exhausting, and it was very physical. I needed to stay focused because this movie is very technical—the camera, the mise-en-scène. Everything was very precise, so we needed to work a lot, but on set it was for sure a very fun ride.
Before you started acting, you were a competitive gymnast. Did those skills come into play during filming?
Yes, definitely. Making this kind of project is so hard and intense, but I feel like I’ve been through way more before in my gymnastics career with my coach, who was from Bulgaria. I’ve been to Russia a lot. So I’ve already been through hell in my past life before becoming an actress. I feel like now, for sure, it’s intense. It can be very hard, but I have the discipline.
I’ve been through all that, and now I love my job so much, so it’s very joyful. I feel really lucky just to be an actress and to be in this industry. During stunts, I for sure know my body perfectly, so it was sometimes easier to understand all the choreography and the way I needed to fall down. Being a gymnast for sure helped me to find comfort in very uncomfortable positions.
The Evil Dead franchise is known for its singular camerawork and the creativity of its kills. How was the blocking and choreography of those more extreme scenes approached?
We had a super amazing stunt team. We were supervised by Clint [Elvy], who’s been working on amazing projects like Game of Thrones. He’s super careful and really takes care of us. He wanted us to have fun, that was his most important thing. So every rehearsal was very fun but of course very serious because it can be very dangerous. I learned last week that one of my stunt doubles broke four ribs while filming. It can be very dangerous, so it’s very professional.
But the choreography was amazing. As a gymnast, I never did gymnastics alone, I was always part of a group. The one-take that we have in this film, I remember the first time I was like, “It’s so fun, [co-star] Hunter [Doohan], goes up to the ceiling and falls down and is pulled everywhere. For me, I just need to crawl. It’s easy, it’s not that hard.” I had no idea how many things I had to think about in every step of my crawling. Because what you don’t see, of course, is behind the camera.
Hunter’s character Joseph had two other stunt doubles, so there were three of them. Three “Josephs” behind the camera running all around because, as you can see in the scene, there’s a lot going on. I had to think about every character’s movements, had to get into a certain rhythm because I had to wait for actors [to move out from behind the camera]. I needed to be close to the table, but not too close, for my safety. I had so many things to think about, but I loved it.
It was beautiful to us because after each take, all the departments were involved, and we went to the monitors together to see who made a mistake. It was such beautiful teamwork. We collaborated, and yeah, this took a lot of rehearsals for all of us to be in sync.
How did you prepare mentally and physically for those scenes?
I had a coach when I was in Paris before filming, not because we wanted Alice to be fit, we just wanted me to be comfortable on set. Before we went to New Zealand to film, Sébastien told me, “I really need you to understand that this movie is going to be so hard physically and mentally, so I need you to be focused.”
And I thought it was okay, I can do it. Obviously he was right because at some point, after more than three months of crying, being afraid, and jumping all around…. I’m not sure if you’re ever prepared for what’s going on. But this is the beauty of our job. There are surprises, and you’re never expecting what will happen. So I did prepare physically, but mentally, I was just doing my job as an actress. I really worked on the character of Alice with Sébastien for a long time before going on set.
Evil Dead Burn struck me as being very influenced by the New French Extremity films. I was wondering if Sébastien assigned you any specific movies to watch in preparation?
No, that’s the thing. He actually didn’t even want me to watch the first Sam Raimi movie. Of course I watched the second one because I obviously wanted to be aware of the heritage, but he told me the one he wanted to be close to was The Evil Dead (2013). He wanted that energy but with more humor and comedy. Also, that’s part of the Evil Dead franchise—it’s a new director, a new energy, a new vision every time, so we really wanted to work on the meaningful human reality of what Alice is going through in her relationship with her husband.
We really tried to create a character that is not a cliché, if I may say, for a Final Girl. This was the most important thing to me. It’s so funny because I just watched an interview with Sarah Michelle Gellar where she says that for her, a Final Girl is someone who’s not a victim anymore as we used to see in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Now we want a badass that is very strong, but this is not what I wanted for Alice.
I wanted to be true to the fact that she can make mistakes, she doesn’t know how to handle a weapon, she’s scared and has flaws. I want her to be a human being. A survivor but not a superhero.
What do you think happens to Alice after the movie ends?
I think that she’s probably gonna have a lot of therapy. Sometimes in these kinds of movies I wish for characters to die quickly because I don’t know how she’s going to live with that now. I think it will take her a long time to get back on her feet. But the thing I love is that at least now, or my hope for her, is that she will be able to say no.
