Ranking Evil Dead from the cabin to your front door.
Every movie is someone’s favorite movie. If you are a fan of the Evil Dead franchise and see your personal favorite movie ranked at or near the bottom of this list…don’t take it personally. Every movie has value.
Spoilers for the series and individual films (except Evil Dead Rise) are unavoidable.
5. Evil Dead
Back to Basics
Whether you consider Evil Dead a remake or something else…it’s return to the form of the original movie can’t be denied. This is a bloody, gore-filled horror movie. It follows The Evil Dead‘s playbook of sending a group of five friends to a remote cabin in the woods. From there it twists some of the story beats while adding in a metaphor for drug withdrawal.
Evil Dead came out two decades after we last saw an installment from the franchise. Without Bruce Campbell’s unique leading man charm…it banks on intensity and violence. Jane Levy shines as both the antagonist and, eventually, hero of the story. Given that the original trilogy ended on an action-comedy note…it’s interesting how far they went in the other direction here.
Ranking Evil Dead last shows you just how consistently good this franchise has been. This isn’t just one of the best remakes of the era of remakes…it’s a great movie in its own right. It’s a shame we never got to revisit Levy’s character Mia. But…there’s still time.
Check out our full Evil Dead review
4. Evil Dead Rise
Family Time
The latest chapter of the long running franchise takes the violence out of the woods and into the home. It centers the story around a possessed mother coming after her trapped family. Children in peril from the person who nurtured them from birth. It raises the stakes and delivers all the bloody fun you expect from an Evil Dead movie.
Alyssa Sutherland arguably gives a series best Deadite performance. It’s certainly the most sustained and personal that we’ve seen. Evil Dead Rise heaps on buckets of blood and doesn’t go easy on its younger than normal cast of characters. Some fun fan service…but largely forges its own path.
A new setting helps…but the family dynamic is what makes it all work. In some ways the most horrific story of the franchise. By any standard another win in a franchise that refuses to lose.
Check out our non-spoiler Evil Dead Rise review
3. Army of Darkness
Hail to the King, Baby
Ash Williams goes full superhero in the final chapter of the original trilogy. When we’d next see Ash decades later on Ash vs. Evil Dead he’d be playing an older version of this character. If you’ve seen all of these movies, you know what I’m talking about. His character changes wildly from The Evil Dead to Army of Darkness. This is the version that many people love the most.
The movie is such a departure from the first two movies that it barely feels related. It is expanding the lore of the world…but it does it in a completely different genre. This is slapstick action-comedy at its silliest. It helps Army of Darkness avoid the third movie trap of running out of ideas. Changing the setup allows it to forge its own path.
Now…I can already hear the grumbling. This is your favorite movie in the series. How can it be rated so low? Well…again….this series is ridiculously loaded with great movies. Make no mistake, Army of Darkness is a great movie. It’s the easiest watch of the bunch and the one that appeals to the broadest audience. If you would rank it number one…I understand completely. As a horror movie, however, we’re ranking it behind some heavy hitters.
Check out our Army of Darkness review
2. The Evil Dead
Don’t Read the Latin
Sam Raimi’s debut fright-fest features outstanding innovation. Its biggest issue is that he came back and topped it in every way a few years later. Excellent practical effects and make-up combine with Raimi’s unique direction to create a timeless experience.
Ash isn’t what you’d expect in The Evil Dead. He spends most of the movie easily sidelined and finds himself too weak to act. The final act of the movie gives us a glimpse of the Ash Williams to come…and to the coming creativity that Raimi will fuse into the franchise.
The scariest chapter of the original trilogy, The Evil Dead is every bit the classic it is regarded as. Bigger things would come for the series…but rarely better things.
Check out our The Evil Dead review
1. Evil Dead II
Dead by Dawn
Six years after The Evil Dead announced the arrival of the Sam Raimi/Bruce Campbell dream team the duo returned to deliver a masterpiece. Evil Dead II isn’t just the best chapter of the Evil Dead franchise…it’s one of the best horror movies ever made. Perhaps the best horror/comedy.
A classic example of a sequel that surpasses the original, Evil Dead 2 is Raimi at his most creative. There are more interesting ideas in the first half hour of this movie than most directors have in their entire careers. Cambell grows into the Ash role and makes it iconic. Madcap fun.
Whether it be an evil hand, Henrietta in the cellar or the extended opening with Ash alone in the cabin…Evil Dead 2 delivers over and over again. Wild, weird, funny and surprising. Evil Dead 2 stands alone atop the Evil Dead mountain.
Check out our Evil Dead II review
Buy the Evil Dead Groovy Collection on Blu-Ray from Amazon
