The Evil Dead franchise is one of the most obtuse icons of horror. It’s a series full of contradictions, continuously trampling over its own lore to haphazardly traverse its way to the next illogical installment. Each new film seemingly spits in the face of the last creating a chronology that progresses less as a straight line and more an inconceivable zigzag. Despite all that, the jumbled mess that is the Evil Dead franchise is an enduring horror staple, and for good reason. Each film in the series is a unique blend of action, horror, comedy, and genre reverence, bursting with unbridled energy that somehow hasn’t diminished over 40 years since the first film premiered. Here is my ranking of the Evil Dead franchise:
#5. Evil Dead Rise (2023) dir. Lee Cronin
Evil Dead Rise takes the claustrophobic horror of the forest and shoots it up into the heights of a high-rise apartment building in Los Angeles. The new setting is used to its fullest potential, utilizing elevator shafts, hallways, and parking garages in a modern gorefest rivaled by few. It has all the Evil Dead carnage we’ve grown to expect but now even more creative, successfully evolving the classic Evil Dead blueprint for a new age. However, it’s not perfect. Its emotional core is serviceable, but the film spends far too much time with it, and it often bogs down the pacing. The uneven balancing act dampens the frenzied momentum that makes up the core of the other 4 installments. Regardless, Rise is a scary and inventive addition to the Evil Dead franchise that I hope serves as a stepping stone for the next direction for the franchise.
#4. Army of Darkness (1992) dir. Sam Raimi
After two Evil Dead films set in the deep woods with a ragtag group of young adults fending off a gaggle of the undead, Raimi rounded out his trilogy in the most logical way he could, a slapstick comedy set in a fantasy medieval world with skeleton armies and time traveling prophecies. The change is jarring, even by Evil Dead standards, but franchise architect Sam Raimi manages to make it work. There’s a lot going on, all of it nonsensical, but a lot of it effective. Breaking past the confines of the cabin in the woods, the Deadite zaniness makes use of its lack of borders with unbridled creativity. The sinister mysticism of previous installments is blown up to full blown sorcery and dark magic, raising the stakes to a rousing battle of good against evil. Sometimes the film gets a little too overblown and its lofty ambitions begin to strain. It gets a little too kooky to be scary, a little too schmaltzy to be endearing, and a little too scattershot to be complete. Still, it’s hard not to love, and while it overstays its welcome with a litany of wacky conceptual leaps, the cheeky Evil Dead spirit is hard to ignore.
#3. Evil Dead (2013) dir. Fede Álvarez
Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead concludes with final girl, Mia, using a chainsaw to split open the head of “The Abomination” during an apocalyptic rain of blood as her cabin burns behind her. Evil Dead deviates from Raimi’s original plot, but it links itself with its predecessors with a simple mantra, demented bloody hellfire. Alvarez approaches Raimi’s original film with a darker perspective, shedding corny goofiness for a film that oozes malice and despair. It’s a unique detour from the franchise, but one that is undeniably effective. Where Raimi’s original feels like Night of the Living Dead in a funhouse mirror, Alvarez’s feels like Night of the Living Dead through filthy shards of broken glass where the cartoonish gore and violence feels a little too visceral.
#2. The Evil Dead (1981) dir. Sam Raimi
The film that started it all is still just as bewildering, horrific, and ingenious as it was when it first upended the horror scene in the early 80s. Today, what truly shines about The Evil Dead is its undeniable, boyish charm. It was made on a shoestring budget with a group of friends in the middle of the woods, and it shows. You can truly see the fingerprints of the creators all over this. Whether it be the crude handheld camerawork, the stop motion effects, the unrealistic gore, or any aspect of the film’s cobbled together production, the love for the craft always feels potent. At once prophetic of the decade to come for horror and a time capsule for the late 20th century American independent, The Evil Dead still feels like an underdog that succeeds despite the odds, and that aspect feels eternal.
#1. Evil Dead II (1987) dir. Sam Raimi
Evil Dead II begins with a shortened remake of the original film and ends with protagonist Ash Williams transported to the Middle Ages to fulfill an ancient prophecy. The progression from beginning to end doesn’t make it any clearer. It’s a film with inconsistent story beats and blind continuity. Most of the runtime is devoted to a bizarre blend of slapstick comedy and horror as if you placed Chaplin in Hell and gave him a loaded double barrel shotgun. A central villain is Ash’s severed hand which gains sentience after he cuts it off with a chainsaw. The film is loaded with cheesy one-liners and absurd practical effects, and the emotional center is so non-existent the film makes fun of itself for it. It’s an absurd, bloody, crude, inconsistent mess. In short, one of the greatest horror films ever made.
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