Evil Dead series retrospective

With Halloween coming up in the next few weeks, I decided that it would be a good idea to do a retrospective on a horror franchise. However, I’ll admit that I’m not particularly a fan of horror films. Sure, I’ve seen some of these films, but not many and in that regard I haven’t really watched many horror franchises. In the end, it came down to doing one of two series; at first, I was considering doing a retrospective on the ‘Scream’ franchise, which was one of the few horror franchises where I actually did see every film in the series. But since the last ‘Scream’ film hit theaters two years ago, I decided to look at a franchise that had a more ‘recent’ film release; the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise. After all, its remake was released back in April and is now on Blu-Ray/DVD. Also, there are plans for a sequel to both the remake and the last ‘Evil Dead’ film, ‘Army of Darkness’, with further plans for a  crossover film after that. So, without further ado, it’s time to look back at the ‘Evil Dead’ franchise from the original trilogy to its recent remake.



THE EVIL DEAD (1981)

‘The Evil Dead’ served as the feature-length debut of director Sam Raimi (who has since gone on to direct the original ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy and ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’) and was made after Raimi attracted the interest of investors with a 1978 short film he made, ‘Within the Woods’. Filmed on a budget of around $400,000, the film was released in 1981 (the film was shot in 1979) and helped launched the careers of both Raimi and star Bruce Campbell. It has been more than 30 years since this film came out, and it still stands as one of the best horror films ever made. Sure, it was made on a low budget and to some extent some aspects of the film are pretty dated. Still, the movie is an effective horror film; it’s very suspenseful and utilizes its chilling atmosphere to the full effect. Bruce Campbell does a great job in the lead role of Ash and while the other characters are sort of more in line with the traditional characters we see in plenty of slasher films (though for the record, this is not a slasher film); the other four leads are good as well. While the following two films began to move away from horror, this one stands as a true horror film and as such, it’s a must-see in the horror genre.

Rating: 4/5



EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN (1987)

After the success of the first Evil Dead, Raimi then began working on his next film, ‘Crimewave’. The film… didn’t turn out so well, but that was mainly due to studio interference, with Raimi being unable to cast Bruce Campbell in the lead role or even edit the film in post-production. So, in response to that and with their careers on the line, Raimi, Campbell, and producer Robert Tapert returned to the franchise that jumpstarted their careers with ‘Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn’, one of the rare sequels that not only manages to be as good as its predecessor, but even better. That’s even more impressive when considering that the intro to this film pretty much redoes the whole first film again. The only difference here is that only two of the first film’s five characters return for this film and yet this film is not a remake of the original film.

So why is this film better than the first? For one thing, I actually consider this film to be scarier than the first film. The atmosphere and suspense is just as effective, but there’s just something about this film that makes it scarier, and I can’t explain why. But another thing that this film does very well is blending horror with comedy. My favorite moment is when Ash is forced to cut off his hand after it becomes possessed and the hand starts acting on its own, resulting in Ash trying to shoot it with a shotgun. Bruce Campbell goes through quite a lot in this movie (figuratively in the movie and also literally while filming it apparently) and once again, he and the supporting cast members are all great. You also have to appreciate the creativity present in this film, from the creature/set designs to the camera shots. That is why Evil Dead II is not just one of the best sequels ever, but one of the best horror movies ever made.

Rating: 5/5!



ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992)

When looking at the series as a whole, something that is clearly evident is a change in tone over the course of the original three films; we went from a straight-up horror film to a horror-comedy and then with the third film, it’s a whole different genre. ‘Army of Darkness’ is a mix of fantasy, adventure, and comedy with really little to no horror in the film at all. Because of this, some might consider this as ‘the black sheep’ of the franchise for not being an Evil Dead movie… but not me. In fact, this is my personal favorite film in the series. I guess that’s because I’m not really a big horror fan, meaning that this film appealed to me more. It’s incredibly entertaining, funny, and highly quotable. And now, here are some my favorite lines from the film:

“Well hello Mister Fancypants. Well, I've got news for you pal, you ain't leadin' but two things, right now: Jack and shit... and Jack left town.”

“Woah… Wrong book”

And of course, who can forget this classic…

“All right you primitive screwheads, listen up. You see this? This… is my BOOMSTICK!!!”

Those quotes come from good old Bruce Campbell, and really he’s the best part of this whole movie. The character of Ash has gone through quite a change over the course of these three films. In this film, he’s got an arrogant swagger that he didn’t really have in the last two films but yet he’s a doofus, forgetting the words (‘klaatu barada nikto’) that will help keep the dead from taking over. Sure, in the end, ‘Army of Darkness’ may not really be an ‘Evil Dead’ movie, but it’s still a great movie nevertheless and my personal favorite of the series.

Rating: 5/5!



EVIL DEAD (2013)

(For my original review of the film: http://www.rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2013/07/evil-dead-2013-review.html)

As far as horror remakes go, this new Evil Dead is one of the better remakes in recent years, but it still has some flaws. First off, the good; the writers actually give a legit reason as to why the main characters are going to an abandoned cabin in the woods, because the main character Mia is going through recovery from a drug addiction. Also, in this current age of horror remakes that utilize a lot of CGI, this film relies on practical effects, which look far better. But this new film suffers from a problem that a lot of current horror films have; it tries way too hard to ‘one-up’ its competition in terms of its violence to the point where it’s not scary anymore. Believe me, this film does succeed at doing that, but it lacks the humor and charm that Raimi’s films had, particularly the former. This is just a bleak film, not just because of the tone and atmosphere but because of the grisly violence which, like I said, is not really scary; it’s just disturbing. Also, character development is really lacking, aside from a pretty decent brother-sister relationship between the main two leads. The character of Natalie, David’s girlfriend, is completely unnecessary and could have been written out of the film altogether without having any real effect on the story. Jane Levy does a fantastic job in the lead role of Mia who, spoilers, basically serves as the ‘Ash’ of this ‘series’ (we’ll consider the Raimi trilogy and this new film as separate storylines for the moment). The rest of the cast is fine as well, but she is really the standout of the film and her performance is perhaps the best part of the whole thing. In the end, the new Evil Dead is not a bad film but it’s a flawed film. Still, to its credit, it does do some things right.

P.S. This film also has one of the worst post-credits scenes ever, which is even more disappointing when considering that Bruce Campbell returns as Ash for the scene.

Rating: 3.5/5