The political family as hell

Hellish possession (1981) was a key title in incorporating humor as a logical consequence of the spectacle of the most atrocious violence, pointing out the parallelism that can exist between physicality in comedy and in horror. But the modern incarnations of the saga conceived by Sam Raimi are not very interested in applying this particular lesson. In fact, in Hellish possession: in flames, the closest to a gag is found in the sequence of a funeral disrupted by the acoustic intrusions of a neighboring construction site. After this unceremonious funeral, the deceased's widow accompanies her in-laws and brother-in-law to the old family residence, where reproaches escalate to the point that, when the demonic entities that have infected the patriarch begin to wreak havoc, it almost feels like a relief from the tension. At this point, Sébastien Vanicek picks up the gauntlet thrown by Lee Cronin to the previous Evil Dead Rise, centered on exorcising dysfunctional family dynamics and amplifying it to dismember (literally) a home founded on abuse, illness, and neglect. The filmmaker's commitment to a gruesomeness that revives the legacy of French cinematic extremism aims to give a physical dimension to the characters' psychological wounds, but the monotonous tone of the proposal makes the experience resemble, at times, the process of a visit to the butcher shop. It is then, precisely, when we miss Raimi's tickles.