NEW YORK (OSV News) -- Aptly enough, given its title, "Evil Dead Burn" (Warner Bros.) is a dumpster fire of a horror film. Director and co-writer Sebastien Vanicek's addition to a big -- and small -- screen franchise that ultimately dates all the way back to 1981 amounts to little more than an idiotic gorefest.

As laid out in the script, penned with Florent Bernard, the muddled plot concerns Benjamin Price, a bygone occult researcher who discovered a weapon, the Kandarian Dagger, capable of neutralizing fiends. As the action gets rolling, Benjamin's grandson, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), unearths the dagger from its hiding place, thus attracting the attention of a host of wicked spirits.

Their first victim is Joseph's brother, Will (George Pullar). As early scenes show us, Will is locked in a quarrel-plagued marriage with his Franco-American wife, Alice (Souheila Yacoub). In the wake of a nasty fight with Alice, Will storms off in his car and a malevolent sprite in the body of a young woman causes him to have a fatal accident.

As the screenplay has already hinted, and later plainly demonstrates via flashbacks, Will was a physically and emotionally abusive husband. So his death leaves Alice with mixed feelings. Thus when she pays a visit to the dilapidated house where Joseph and her other in-laws have gathered following Will's death, there's considerable tension in the air.

Will's dad, Edgar (Erroll Shand), soon becomes demonically possessed. With a malignant entity now controlling Edgar, it's not long before family strains erupt into homicidal fury. And we're off to the races.

Impaled, beheaded, torn asunder by a circular saw, the characters -- about whom Vanicek and Bernard have given viewers no reason whatever to care -- meet a wide variety of grisly fates. What exactly the entertainment value of watching them suffer is supposed to be, however, is anyone's guess.

The film contains constant bloody violence, many hideously gruesome sights, perverse behavior, partial nudity, a couple of uses of profanity, a few milder oaths, pervasive rough and some crude language and about a half-dozen crass expressions. The OSV News classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.- - -CAPSULE REVIEW"Evil Dead Burn" (Warner Bros.)Demons alternately possess and prey on the inhabitants of a dilapidated house where a recently widowed Franco-American woman (Souheila Yacoub) is paying a tense visit to her grieving in-laws. Characters about whom viewers are given no reason whatever to care meet a wide variety of grisly fates in director and co-writer Sebastien Vanicek's idiotic gorefest. Constant bloody violence, many hideously gruesome sights, perverse behavior, partial nudity, a couple of uses of profanity, a few milder oaths, pervasive rough and some crude language, about a half-dozen crass expressions. The OSV News classification is O -- morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.- - -CLASSIFICATION"Evil Dead Burn" (Warner Bros.) -- OSV News classification, O -- morally offensive. Motion Picture Association rating, R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.- - - John Mulderig is media reviewer for OSV News. Follow him on X @JohnMulderig1.