I had the pleasure of catching Evil Dead Rise one week early at Panic Fest 2023. It was such a blast seeing the film with a theater packed full of rabid theater fans, it’s unbelievable to think this film was originally never planned for theaters at all!
The film was groovy, but how does it stack up against its chainsaw-tastic, boom-stick-erific predecessors? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Good, bad, I’m the guy with the Evil Dead Franchise Rankings. And I even threw the TV show in there to give you a little extra sugar!
#6 Evil Dead (2013)
The hype was real for Fede Alvarez’s 2013 Evil Dead reboot. I always wondered what The Evil Dead might look like with modern special effects, and when I heard we were finally getting to find out, my excitement went through the roof. There have been a lot of horror remakes over the years, and this is easily in the top three most anticipated for me.
I found it to be a pretty huge let-down when I first saw it. It is essentially a re-telling of the same story as part one but with a major addition to the story: Rather than just going out into the woods for a weekend of drinking and sex, our heroes have made the exceptionally irresponsible decision to bring the protagonist Mia to a secluded location to detox from her heroine addiction. It’s an intriguing plot device as her spiral into withdrawal makes it easy for the other characters to doubt her when the deadite shenanigans start happening to her, but ultimately it’s not handled as well as it could have been. The opening half of the film is incredibly dour and unpleasant, and lacks all of the fun campiness of the original film.
When things really get going, the film makes a sudden tonal shift as it tries to pepper in some humor and ham-fisted throwbacks to the original film, ultimately creating an experience that I find to be tonally confused. Tack on a final act cop-out where the heavily mutilated Mia suddenly comes back to life and sanity unscathed, and I’ve mostly been removed from the experience.
All of that being said, the special Effect in this film are AMAZING. It is one of the last great major horror films to truly dedicate itself to real-looking, practical FX and horror has honestly never looked better. It goes a long way toward making the film re-watchable for me, and in fact I can safely say I’ve enjoyed it more with every re-watch just for the overall look of it. Who knows, after a few more years it may go up a rank. We’ll just have to see!
#5 Evil Dead Rise
The new film last relatively low on the list, but that is not to say it wasn’t a fantastic ride. I mean, it’s the best Evil Dead to not have Bruce Campbell as the main character, is that really a fair criticism?
The movie definitely isn’t perfect, but I had a blast watching it at Panic Fest. Nearly everything that took me out of the experience in Evil Dead 2013 was rectified. The tone was far more consistent with the original series, the setting and exposition were more unique, there was no third act cop-out that suddenly undid half of the absolute carnage we’d just witnessed, and all of the characters were endearing and enjoyable.
Alyssa Sutherland gives a creepy performance as the new “Lead Deadite” and Lilly Sullivan plays a likeable protagonist, but it’s the child characters, something that has been mostly absent from the franchise up to this point, who make up the heart of the film. And spoiler alert, they’re not all safe! On top of fast pacing and great visual FX, the film has some top notch sound design, creative possibly the most immersive Evil Dead experience so far.
My only criticisms are a prologue and epilogue that feature side characters who have no interactions whatsoever with the main characters, and while the experience is pretty gruesome, it does feel like they are holding back a bit. It’s not usually great to criticize a movie for what it DIDN’T do, but it’s hard not to feel like there were some missed opportunities. Most of the grossest moments ended up in the red band trailer and there weren’t a whole lot of shocking surprises. But all that being said, it delivers about as much as you can expect from a sequel to a 40 year old movie and ultimately left me feeling more satisfied than the 2013 film did when I walked out of the theater.
#4 Army of Darkness
Easily the most unique film on this list, the third film in the franchise took some wild risks, and they paid off. The ending of part II set up the twist, but who in the early nineties actually believed they were going to run with it and go full “Ash in King Arthur’s Court” with the next film?
Though it is, in my humble opinion, the weakest “Ash” film, Army of Darkness is nonetheless a stone cold classic of the comedy-horror genre. Bruce Campbell has reached his final form as the zany, quotable tough guy, and the three stooges-esque antics are still funny no matter how many times I re-watch. And while the movie is technically Rated R and has a good bit of blood, the brutality is scaled down quite a bit from its predecessors, and the language and sexual aspects are mild, making it fun for the whole family!
It’s a bit too silly to land itself in the pantheon of all time great horror, but it’s a fun ride that you will never forget, and gave us some of the franchise’s best one-liners. Hail to the King, baby!
#3 Ash vs Evil Dead
When it launched on Starz in 2015, Ash vs Evil Dead proved that what the Evil Dead Franchise needed was not actually a reboot, but a continuation. Bruce Campbell is back in action as a middle-aged Ash, now estranged from his family and living a quiet, modest life as a hardware store clerk. That is, until he gets high and decides to read from Necronomicon, which he’s kept lock away in a chest in his meager trailer home, to impress a date. Just like that, evil is once again loose on the world, and the man who released it is the only one who can stop it.
It’s a perfectly absurd premise that sets up possibly the most bonkers three seasons of television I’ve ever seen. This version of Ash is crude, foolish, even a little pathetic at times, but when it’s time to strap on the chainsaw arm, he always gets the job done, and watching him carve up Evil never gets old. And Campbell plays him with such confidence that you can’t help but love him for his flaws. Along with some absolutely insane deadite sequences, the show delivers us memorable Ash one-liners in droves. “Hey Evil, why don’t you eat my butt?!”
But Ash isn’t the only star of the show. Kelly, Pablo, and Ruby at three brand new characters who now feel like an essential part of Evil Dead cannon, and that’s to say nothing of the many memorable minor characters who appear through the series. We also get to meet Ash’s father and gain an understanding of the repurcussions from his original encounter with Evil out in the woods. Overall, it’s a fantastic show that both pays homage to its roots and expands on the Evil Dead universe in ways that feel not only earned but necessary. My only complaint was that it was cancelled prematurely.
#2 Evil Dead 2
Army of Darkness and Ash vs Evil Dead may be the most dedicated to the absurd nature of the series, but Evil Dead II remains the funniest movie in the franchise. And in fact, it is my favorite comedy of all time. No joke, I would put this up against The Holy Grail, Airplane, and Dr. Strangelove as greatest of all time comedy status. This movie is a riot from start to finish.
Bruce Campbell’s three stooges-esque physical acting, Ted Raimi’s wild turn as the deadite Henrietta, a headless chainsaw wielding puppet, a laughing deer head, and a demonic severed hand are only a few of the things you can expect when you press play on this absolute banger of a film. Add in buckets of fake blood, great stop motion sequences, and a bizarre twist ending, and you’ve got yourself a formula for a guaranteed great time.
Despite being laugh out loud hilarious, the film never sacrifices its nightmareish quality. I wouldn’t say it is ever scary, necessarily, but you genuinely get the feeling that Ash is trapped and that Evil is closing in throughout. It never loses site of where it came from and gives the impression that the horror of the first film was so overwhelming, that the only thing left to do is laugh.
#1 The Evil Dead (1981)
Speaking of the first film, The Evil Dead from 1981 is my personal favorite of the franchise. It is arguably the only true horror film of the “Ash” entires, and while Evil Dead 2 is a technically superior achievment, the first film contains some of the most memorable horror imagery I’ve ever seen. It disarms the viewer in a way that few horror films can, and it was the film that first made me a genuine horror fan.
It starts off just like any other 80’s horror movie. A group of friends piled into a car driving out into the woods, with poor picture quality and mostly shallow dialogue. But as soon as we arrive at the cabin, the dread starts to seep in, as the steady knocking of a porch swing against the wall signals the presence of sinister forces. Soon enough, our heroes discover the book of the dead in the basement, and then all hell breaks loose. The first character to be taken, Cheryl, gets locked in the cellar, and it’s her demented, white-eyed face peaking up through the door that forms the most haunting image of the film.
Sam Raimi’s directorial talents really take center stage here. The film has a truly three dimensional quality as Raimi is always filing out the backgrounds and foregrounds with arresting images: a cellar door opening on its own during dinner; a severed head falling into frame; blood dripping from a corpse as Ash drags a second one through the room, while Cheryl watches. The low budget gore effects and sound design were truly inspired and are a testament to what seriously talented filmmakers can do in a bind.
But ultimately it is Bruce Campbell who anchors the film. While most associate him with his slapstick antics and tough guy one-liners in the later entries, his terrified, paranoid performance through this film as he slowly becomes the last man standing is incredible, and highly underrated. While much more rough around the edges than anything that came after it, this is a film that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. It gets through my defenses more than any of the other films and always leaves me a little bit speechless. It is, in my opinion, the greatest Evil Dead film, and holds a place among the greatest horror films of all time.
So what do you think? Hit me with your comments and your rankings! And of course, stay groovy!
Ryan Charles Lieb 