Entertainment
‘Evil Dead’ Burns On, but It’s Been 34 Years Since We Got the Last Great One
The Evil Dead franchise is one of the strangest mainstream film series to exist, going from independent guerrilla filmmaking to a well-established brand name with distinct iconography. Even the poster font has become recognizable. It’s not surprising, considering all the Evil Dead movies from the original 1981 film to Evil Dead Rise have all been entertaining to various degrees. (Word isn’t out yet on Evil Dead Burn, but the teaser looked promising).
However, with the teaser for Evil Dead Burn offering hints to the vibe of the movie, it seems pretty clear that Evil Dead has officially gone in a different stylistic direction from its Three Stooges-inspired roots and gross-out carnage. Which, in turn, forces us to admit that the last great Evil Dead movie also happens to be the black sheep of the original trilogy — and that’s Army of Darkness.
What Makes an ‘Evil Dead’ Movie an ‘Evil Dead’ Movie?
It’s hard to nail down what a true Evil Dead movie is, considering the original three movies were all so tonally different from one another. They span from a low-budget haunted house movie to a medieval comedy-adventure film over the span of a single trilogy. The canon doesn’t line up, we’ve got three different Lindas (one of which has short hair), and franchise hero Ash’s personality changes from movie to movie. The first Evil Dead movie was practically a proof-of-concept by Sam Raimi that he could make a movie, the second was his creative hail mary after the failure of Crimewave, and the third is borderline a blank check movie after the success of Darkman.
If we’re trying to define what makes an Evil Dead movie, it’s probably best to say they are movies that blend dark humor with violent gross-out gags and legitimate horror threats in the form of the Deadites, who enjoy tormenting their victims just for the love of the game. The Deadites are out for blood, and they enjoy manipulating their victims. But they also don’t have any gravitas. When the possessed Henrietta gets her head cut off in Evil Dead 2, she yells in vain at Ash by saying, “Hey! I’ll swallow your soul, I’ll swallow your soul!” There’s no hubris in them, they’re just bullies. The gore of the movies is also important. While the original film had disturbing moments, most famously the pencil in the achilles tendon and “that” scene with the trees, the violence would later become so over-the-top that it inadvertently turns comical. Think Raimi’s predilection for blood fountains and the Evil Dead 2 gag of one of Henrietta’s eyes popping out and landing in Bobby Joe’s (Kassie DePaiva) mouth. It’s excessive in a goofy way, rather than leaning towards torture porn. To quote Bane in The Dark Knight Rises: “That comes later.”
Bruce Campbell’s Ash Leads the Charge
Arguably the most important aspect of the movies that make them true Evil Dead movies is Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams. Even though Ash’s personality changes between movies, his involvement still has that authoritative seal that gives them that added layer of entertainment, and Army of Darkness is where the character became a legend. Ash is the Scream King, and, interestingly, he’s one of the only protagonists in the horror genre who’s the star of the movie rather than the monster, which is often the case for franchises. Similar to the Ghostbusters franchise, while the premise itself is what gets carried on in the series, it’s the performance and writing of the lead character (or characters) that made the originals memorable. This is where the lines diverge between Evil Dead movies and movies branded with the title.
Army of Darkness is the last film in the series that had the union of Campbell’s charisma and Raimi’s creativity. Sure, the horror pretext is almost entirely omitted, but stylistically, the movie still has that connecting tissue of Raimi’s direction and sense of humor to make it feel like it’s the natural next chapter in the story after Evil Dead 2‘s cliffhanger ending. If he made a goofy sequel to A Simple Plan, that would be a drastic shift. Making a goofy sequel to Evil Dead 2 isn’t the most outlandish thing in the world, considering that the film’s second-best character is a hand with a mind of its own.
When you watch the post-Army of Darkness entries in the series, from 2013’s Evil Dead, through Evil Dead Rise, and up to the footage of Evil Dead Burn, they all have a similar aesthetic and there’s a consistency in tone and style that wasn’t present in the originals. They’re seedy and atmospheric, and the violence is genuinely disturbing. It’s a stark contrast from Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, which are stylistically made to be cartoon-like and colorful. It’s ironic how the originals were all made by the same filmmaker and are all so tonally different, while the new movies were made by different directors to give their own takes on the material but feel more stylistically connected.
While the post-Raimi Evil Dead movies are entertaining in their own right, they feel more like standalone possession films with a few loose connections and references to keep them tied to the source material. Without that connecting tissue of Bruce Campbell as Ash, or the direction and writing of Sam Raimi, the movies just don’t feel ingrained in the franchise the same way the original films were. Army of Darkness was the last time that the series took a major creative risk, and in doing so, it made it the most distinct entry in the Evil Dead franchise and a favorite for die-hard fans.
- Release Date
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February 19, 1993
- Runtime
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81 minutes
- Prequel(s)
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The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II
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