When we sit down to watch a spooky movie for the holidays, there are a variety of different types to choose from. There are haunted house stories, demonic possession stories, zombie epidemic stories, etc. Most horror films tend to stick with one subgenre amongst them, but there’s a series of horror flicks that definitely flies in the face of convention. In the early eighties, an ambitious young filmmaker named Sam Raimi got a group of his closest friends together to make a new kind of horror flick. Instead of focusing on one subgenre of horror films, Raimi’s flick would incorporate a little bit of everything all into something new for the world of horror. Demonic possession mixed with a little bit of zombie terror and plenty of supernatural spookiness all came together to define what we know as The Evil Dead (1981). But, even though Sam Raimi was able to make his vision successfully come to life in his first film, he didn’t just rest on his laurels after that. Like most horror franchises, there were inevitably sequels made, but instead of repeating himself Raimi would continue to experiment with each new film. The sequels Evil Dead 2 (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992) have a continuing thread through them, but each film is dramatically different in not just tone, but also in many ways style. And of course, the Evil Dead franchise is noteworthy for one other thing, which is that it made a star out of Bruce Campbell, a childhood friend of Raimi’s who would go on to become a horror movie icon thanks to his appearance in these films as the character Ashley “Ash” Williams. One of the horror genre’s most defining images of the last several decades is of Ash with either a chainsaw in hand or in place of his hand. There’s a lot to discuss about why the Evil Dead series stands out as one of the most important horror franchises that’s ever existed, especially in how it set the standard for how to craft a memorable horror flick. And the evolution that the series went through movie by movie is also just as fascinating to observe as well. So, let’s crack open the Necronomicon and take a look at Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead movies.
THE EVIL DEAD (1981)
One thing to note, The Evil Dead wasn’t the first “cabin in the woods” horror flick to be made, and certainly not the last. But, over the years it has become viewed as the seminal horror flick in that subgenre. Raimi, Campbell and their friends (which included the Coen Brothers by the way) managed to scrape together around $350,000 in funds to make their dream project together. At the time they started to roll cameras, Raimi was barely over the age of 20, having dropped out of college to make this film. He had never directed a feature film before; his only work up to that point being little seen shorts he made with Campbell. And yet, when you watch the movie, you see that miniscule budget utilized to remarkable effect. There’s a ton of creativity on display, showing that Raimi knew what he was doing even if this was his debut. The Evil Dead features a lot of new tricks that were novel for a horror flick. He would have his cameramen run through the forest with the camera on a stick, giving that stalking effect a lot more character as the camera swooped close to the ground. One shot in particular, with the camera floating across the pond, was filmed by Raimi himself as he laid on a dingy and was pushed forward by Campbell. The shooting went on through the dead of winter in a real abandoned cabin in Tennessee, and the cold damp night shoots really helped to give the movie the right amount of atmosphere. But, they were limited in time with the actors they had cast in the film. Once the movie starts to pick away at the cast as they become one with the “evil dead,” the performers (Ellen Sadweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly) would be replaced with what Raimi called the “Fake Shemps” which were actors buried under make-up to make them look like decaying, possessed corpses. Some of those Fake Shemps even included Sam Raimi’s own brothers, Ted and Ivan.
But, one thing that’s interesting about the movie is how Bruce Campbell’s Ash emerges as the primary character. The Ash that we come to know throughout the series isn’t fully formed yet. Bruce keeps things fairly restrained with his character in this film. Given that he was the one actor who was also deeply involved with the entire off and on multi-year shoot from beginning to end, he was pretty much destined to be the last man standing. Still, Bruce does stick out immediately. His square jaw appearance definitely gives off a leading man aura right away, but Campbell as we all know is no conventional leading man. He’s not afraid to go a little oddball, which is why he and Raimi were so like-minded. There are a little bit of hammy acting that Bruce throws into his performance, but it fits with the moments of insanity that the movie increasingly throws at the audience. The Evil Dead is also a gloriously gory film that really lays into the bloodletting. Perhaps as a nod to the classic Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1975), the chainsaw is the weapon of choice for Ash Williams, and it leads to some pretty extreme blood splattering. The movie would end up receiving an NC-17 rating as a result, but that wouldn’t the film in the end. Thanks to it’s small budget, the movie managed to become profitable pretty quickly. It also would not just prove to be influential on the horror genre as a whole, but also on both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell’s career. A lot of the trick shots that Raimi utilized in this movie, like the spinning camera move and Dutch angles, would become his trademark over the years. The movie also introduces the 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, a car that not only shows up in all of the Evil Dead movies, but would also cameo in every movie that Raimi has ever made his entire career; even the stuff he’s made for Marvel. But, for horror movie fans, they saw The Evil Dead as a great example of doing a lot with very little, and it would have a profound influence on horror filmmaking in independent cinema.
EVIL DEAD 2 (1987)
Sam Raimi would follow up his horror classic with a twisted thriller called Crimewave (1985), which he co-wrote with the Coen Brothers. The movie had a more substantial $3 million budget, but the movie would end up being a box office flop. In order to bounce back, Raimi decided to return to his Evil Dead roots and deliver a sequel. Naturally, Bruce Campbell would step back into the roll of Ash, and it would take place in a cabin in the woods once again, but that’s where the similarities end. Evil Dead 2 is very much a different kind of horror flick from it’s predecessor. Sam Raimi has long said that major influences on him as a child were comic books and slapstick comedies, and this is very evident when watching Evil Dead 2. While there were some goofy moments sprinkled throughout the original Evil Dead, the sequel fully embraces the madness. Everything in Evil Dead 2 is surreal in it’s execution. The grounded, DIY feel of the original movie is replaced with a stylized, bizarro world version of the same story. The cabin itself even feels far more artificial and stylized, like something out of a silent German Expressionist thriller like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). And Bruce Campbell’s performance is also more heightened to match the new tone of this movie. What we think of Bruce Campbell as an actor and Ash as a character was born out of this movie, much more than the original. The highly improvised scene when Ash battles his own possessed hand may be one of the greatest moments of physical comedy ever put on film. And that’s just one of the movie’s many iconic jumbles of horrific imagery and slapstick comedy. It was certainly a gamble on Raimi’s part to shift tone so dramatically, but given the full commitment of Bruce Campbell’s performance and the endless creativity of all the weirdness in the movie, audiences not only embraced the movie but considered it even better than the original.
Of course this would also be the movie that solidified Ash as a horror movie icon with one particular change to his appearance; the chainsaw arm. After he’s forced to cut his hand off because of it being possessed and out of his control, he later retrofits a chainsaw to latch onto the stub. Pair that with a shotgun in his other hand and you’ve got the makings of a true movie badass. But, one thing that the movie needed to demonstrate with all of it’s bizarre characteristics is that it could still terrify it’s audience even as the gore was toned down. The movie managed to come together thanks to the influence of a high profile fan of the original; author Stephen King. King wanted to help Sam Raimi make a sequel, so he convinced producer Dino DeLaurentis to finance the film, but it was under one condition; that they keep the movie rated R. Part of the reason that the movie is as hyper stylized as it is comes as a result of this rating restriction place on them. That’s why the blood is often different colors throughout, so that the deaths in the movie are much less realistic. By playing around with all the different loopholes in the movie rating system, Raimi was able to keep the movie sufficiently gory while staying true to DeLaurentis’ demands. And a large reason why Sam Raimi chose to change so much between the movies is because he wanted Evil Dead 2 to be something of a soft reboot for the series. This movie was going to be the template for where the series would go thereafter, especially in tone. And Raimi certainly had bigger plans for a franchise, given that he ended the movie on a cliffhanger, with Ash transported back in time in the movie’s final scene. And when he would finally get his next chance to make another film in this series, he would change style and tone once again.
ARMY OF DARKNESS (1992)
With his third film in the trilogy, Raimi wanted to expand much more into the lore behind the terrifying creatures of the “Evil Dead,” Here we see the medieval origins of the Necronomicon, and how it’s a product of a more magic centered world. While Sam Raimi still carries over some of the terrifying creatures he imagined for Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness is much less of a straight forward horror movie and more of an action adventure with horror elements. But, Ash is still Ash in this movie, and the story picks up right where the last film left off. Both Raimi and Campbell have a lot of fun with Ash’s fish-out-of-water presence in this medieval setting. One of the movie’s most memorable scenes involves Ash demonstrating his use of a shotgun to the people of the kingdom, calling it his “boomstick.” Raimi also ratchets up the cartoonish elements in this film, with one battle against the Deadites involving slapstick routines straight out of a Three Stooges short. Once again, Bruce Campbell is the right man for the job when it comes to these tonal shifts, and he even is not afraid to portray Ash as a tiny bit dumb in this film. One of the funniest running gags in the movie is that he can’t remember the words to a spell, those being “Klaatu barada nikto” which of course is a reference to the sci-fi classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). It’s a way to add another dimension to Ash’s character, where some of that bravado we saw established in Evil Dead 2 is undercut by his own foolish mistakes, which helps to make his character a lot funnier as a result. But even with all his blunders, Bruce still gets some hilarious badass moments throughout the movie, with some perfectly delivered one liners along the way.
For it’s time, this was also the most elaborate movie that Sam Raimi had made up to that point. It didn’t have the same Avant Garde style of Evil Dead 2, but it was impressive in it’s scale. It’s hard to believe that this movie with it’s epic scale period detail and lavish visual effects grew out of a series that started from a production made for less than half a million. And yet, it still feels like an organic extension. Perhaps it’s the way that each film chose to be so different from what came before, but only in it’s style. The character of Ash is what makes the series feel whole. Had The Evil Dead been just a one and done horror flick, we might not have seen the growth in this character happen. It’s a testament to Bruce Campbell as an actor that he keeps finding new ways to play this character, and the reason most people have returned to the series is primarily because of him. After Army of Darkness, the series went into dormancy, but Ash as a character would live on, at least in Comic Books. The Evil Dead series would emerge in the early 2000’s as a comic book continuation of the adventures of Ash Williams, with both Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell contributing story ideas to the series on the page. One of the graphic novels that came from this even included an adaptation for a sadly never realized crossover movie called Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason, which would’ve pitted Ash against two of the horror movie genre’s other most iconic characters. There was an Evil Dead (2013) remake that Sam Raimi had a hand in producing, but it lacked Ash as a character, instead focusing on new protagonists. Unsurprisingly, the movie didn’t do too well. But, Bruce Campbell would return to the character for a three season long run in the series Ash vs. Evil Dead on the Starz Channel. But despite all the different attempts to reboot the series, a lot of fans agree that Army of Darkness is where the series hit it’s peak.
While Sam Raimi has gone on to do many big things in Hollywood ever since, it’s still pretty clear that his Evil Dead series remains his favorite child. The DNA of those movies runs throughout every other movie he has made since then. You can definitely see the influence of Evil Dead in some of the most memorable moments of his Spider-Man movies, especially the Doc Ock operating room scene from Spider-Man 2 (2004). The fact that he continues to put the Oldsmobile into every one of his movies (yes even in a Western like 1995’s The Quick and the Dead) is a testament to how much he wants to create a through line of everything he makes back to where it all began. That’s also the reason why he always has a part for Bruce Campbell to play in every one of his movies, even in the briefest of cameos. It’s a blessing to have a director like Sam Raimi continue to have that strong connection to his roots, because it allows him to keep making movies with the same amount of creativity, even if the scale and the budgets are a lot bigger. Even in something massive in scale like Oz, The Great and Powerful (2013) or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) you still see those unique camera moves and artistic transitions that have been a staple of his filmography over the years. He’s even managed to still mix horror and comedy successfully in a spiritual successor to the Evil Dead movies like Drag Me to Hell (2009). But, his greatest legacy will certainly be in the way he’s inspired a whole new generation of horror filmmakers. It’s his DIY approach to horror filmmaking that’s left the most impressive impact, and it’s made the most recent crop of horror auteurs so effective recently, as their goal is to bring horror back to it’s practical effects roots. Originality and creativity is what audiences are seeking right now, and that means even taking horror into some weird and borderline absurd places. While Sam Raimi himself has moved onto more mainstream projects, it’s his influence on horror that will be his most profound legacy. Whether it’s the bizarre tone he set for the genre, or the fact that he made a star out of a true original like Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead will always be a cornerstone on which the genre of horror will be forever defined. Groovy.