When Luciane Buchanan stepped onto the red carpet at the Independent Spirit Awards, she was thrilled to meet Evil Dead franchise legend Jane Levy. As Buchanan told Collider Ladies Night, few people truly understand the physical demands of making an Evil Dead movie. "I feel like we have an understanding that a lot of people don't, of how physical these jobs are. The prosthetics, the emotional energy." Now, Buchanan follows in Levy's footsteps with Evil Dead Burn, pushing her character Thya to the absolute limit in Sébastien Vaniček's brutal new installment.
In the film, Thya joins her boyfriend Joseph (Hunter Doohan) and his family at a remote cabin to mourn his brother's death. But when an ancient evil awakens, Thya becomes one of its first victims. Her journey includes being impaled by a car seat headrest, drinking hot candle wax, tumbling down stairs into a scorpion, and finally meeting her end via a dishwasher door wielded by Joseph. That final scene was so violent it had to be trimmed to secure an R-rating. Director Vaniček revealed, "I had something like 35 hits in the head and close up, and it was very long and silent, and so that's why the censorship was like, 'Oh, that's a bit too much.'"
The Head Cast and the Sex Doll
To pull off the dishwasher door head smash, Buchanan underwent a head cast. "I fell asleep because of the pressure on the eyes, because it's quite heavy," she recalled. "One guy was meant to be helping, but he just had to hold my head." She advises actors to "go to your happy place" during the process, comparing it to scuba diving. But the real shocker came when Buchanan revealed what doubled for her body during the scene when Joseph's face is forced into Thya's remains. "The funniest thing, I probably shouldn't share this, but my body is actually a sex doll. It's cheaper than doing a full cast of my body." The crew even had to adjust the doll's anatomy mid-shot. "She had really perky boobs, and they were like, 'Cut. Her tits are like this.' And I'm like, 'Leave it! Leave it! They're perfect!'"
This behind-the-scenes ingenuity is just one example of the creative problem-solving that defines the Evil Dead franchise. For more on how Evil Dead Burn's post-credits scene rewrites the franchise's rules, check out our deep dive. Buchanan also shared stories about the unforgettable backbend at the bottom of the stairs and the denture scene with Maude Davey as Polly. You can catch her full Collider Ladies Night interview for even more wild tales from the set.
With Evil Dead Burn now in theaters, fans are flocking to see the gory spectacle. Buchanan's performance is a testament to the physical and emotional toll of horror acting. As she put it, "Whatever you can do to stay calm. Like, go to your happy place." And if that happy place involves a sex doll, so be it.
