Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s post is my personal ranking of all five films in the Evil Dead universe! I have decided to do this ranking as a bit of a lead-in for Spooky Season, which is fast approaching. To preface my list, I want to be clear that I adore this franchise and have enjoyed all of the films, but I do have a very biased ranking of them based on my preference and rewatchability.
Number 5: EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)
~The newest film in the franchise just released last year was very good, swapping out much of the traditional setting for an apartment building. I loved the reference to Wuthering Heights with a character reading the novel in the opening. My favorite part had to be the title sequence, which is likely why it is ranked last, as I did not think the rest of it could quite live up to the awesome opening!
Number 4: EVIL DEAD (2013)
~The reboot or remake version which featured an all-new cast of characters and a much darker story is one of the best reboots of a series I have seen. This tale has one of the most badass final girls of all time, which also gives it major bonus points and ranks it above the newest film! The story does what good reboots do, it gives a fresh storyline vaguely inspired by the original but gives you twists that surprise the audience. I do want to note that there is a question if this is more of a re-quel, a reboot that is still a sequel in the universe of the original. I do not know if we will ever have a definite answer, as so many people view it in different ways.
Number 3: EVIL DEAD 2 (1987)
~The sequel to the original film is a great follow-up with a very fun tone walking the line between being a horror film and a comedy. This is many people’s favorite of the series, and while I love it, I find that I prefer my films in this franchise when they lean a little bit more toward either horror or comedy instead of this equal balance. That being said, the film is utterly iconic, and is where we really have Ash as a character fully fleshed out! I feel that he becomes Ash as we know him at the end of the first film, but this is where he is fully realized as the hero of the series.
Number 2: THE EVIL DEAD (1981)
~The first film had to be my second-place spot because I love its ingenuity and the story of how a group of young filmmakers and actors put so much time and energy into making their dreams a reality! The effects are really quite good given the budget, with stop-motion animation being an intelligent way to show the death of the Deadites. The concept of a group of young people going to a cabin in the woods and finding horror there is now seen as a cliche, but this is the film that truly started that trend, meaning it was anything but a cliche at the time!
Number 1: ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992)
~No other film in the franchise could have been my number one. Anyone who knows me and my taste will likely not be surprised that Army of Darkness ranks as my very favorite film of the franchise. It is a fun and rather light-hearted comedy horror with plenty of laughs in addition to lots of gore and violence. My favorite aspect of the film is the time-traveling to the medieval period! In many ways, this serves to combine several of my favorite genres including horror, comedy, fantasy, and historical fiction. Ash is at his most over-the-top in this installment, giving the audience a very fun viewing experience!
~I hope you have enjoyed this ranking. Where do you rank the films in the franchise? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a collage of the first three film posters. I found the image on https://collider.com/evil-dead-movies-ranked/.
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