The EVIL DEAD Universe
- Nick Digilio
- 1 hour ago
- 7 min read
With the release of Evil Dead Burn, I thought this would be the perfect time to look back at one of the greatest, weirdest, bloodiest, funniest, and most consistently entertaining franchises in horror history. And yes, I absolutely consider it a universe now.
We're not just talking about six feature films anymore. There was the terrific Ash vs. Evil Dead television series, comic books, graphic novels, video games, stage musicals, crossover stories, documentaries, conventions, endless merchandise, and one of the most loyal fan communities you'll ever find.
What started as a tiny independent horror movie made by a bunch of kids from Michigan has become one of the most beloved and influential horror properties ever created. That's an incredible story.
If you know me at all, you know horror is my favorite genre. Always has been. I've been reviewing every kind of movie imaginable for more than forty years, and if you've read my reviews, listened to my radio shows, subscribed to my Substack, or heard my podcast, you know I'll happily talk about everything from silent films to animated movies to big studio blockbusters to obscure foreign dramas.
But I always come back to horror. Horror was my gateway into movies. When I was four or five years old, I was glued to the television watching the old black-and-white Universal monster movies. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man...those movies changed my life before I even knew they were changing it.
That fascination never left. It grew into a lifelong obsession with the genre and eventually into a career where I've been lucky enough to write and talk about horror professionally for decades.
It's also one of the reasons I'm so proud to be one of the hosts and moderators of Flashback Weekend Horror Convention every year here in Chicago. It's one of my favorite weekends of the year because it's a celebration of what I lovingly call "The Tribe," the horror fans. They're the best fans in the world. Passionate, knowledgeable, funny, welcoming, and completely devoted to this incredible genre.
Every year I host interviews, record podcasts, introduce guests, and spend a weekend surrounded by people who love horror as much as I do. It's one of the highlights of my calendar, and the Evil Dead franchise has always been a huge part of that culture.
It's honestly kind of amazing that forty-five years after the original The Evil Dead was released, we're still talking about this franchise, new movies are still being made, and younger generations continue to discover it.
That's not something anybody could have predicted back in the late 1970s when three ambitious kids from the Detroit area (Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert) decided they wanted to make a feature film because they simply refused to give up on filmmaking.
Their story has become the stuff of independent movie legend.
Raimi was attending Michigan State University. Tapert was finishing his economics degree. Bruce Campbell had dropped out of college and was driving a taxi. None of them wanted ordinary careers, and none of them had any money.
They devoured low-budget horror movies at drive-ins, studied audience reactions, read books about independent filmmaking, bought business suits to look more professional when pitching investors, and scraped together enough money to make a prototype short film called Within the Woods in 1978. That little sixteen-hundred-dollar short was designed for one purpose: convince investors they could actually make a feature.
It worked.
That eventually became The Evil Dead, a brutally inventive, unbelievably ambitious independent horror movie shot under miserable conditions for almost no money. The film introduced Ash Williams, the mysterious Book of the Dead known as the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, and the terrifying Deadites.
Initially it had only modest success, but everything changed after Stephen King enthusiastically praised it. His endorsement became part of the advertising campaign, and then the exploding VHS rental market of the 1980s turned The Evil Dead into one of the biggest cult sensations of the decade.
I still remember seeing The Evil Dead for the first time at the old Woods Theatre in downtown Chicago. It was one of those gloriously run-down movie palaces that had become a grindhouse by the end of its life, and the audience was exactly what you wanted for a movie like this, they were loud, rowdy, screaming, laughing, completely invested.
I later caught it again at the Patio Theatre on the Northwest Side and became completely obsessed. There was simply nothing else like it. The camera flew through the woods. The violence was outrageous. The makeup effects were astonishing considering the microscopic budget. Every frame exploded with creativity.
And Bruce Campbell's performance as Ash hinted at something nobody could have predicted, that he was creating one of horror's all-time great characters.
Then came Evil Dead II, which, for my money, remains the masterpiece of the series.
That's where Sam Raimi's entire personality burst onto the screen. Raimi has always been as influenced by The Three Stooges, silent comedy, comic books, and movie serials as he has been by horror films, and Evil Dead II brilliantly mashed all of those influences together. It's terrifying one minute and hysterically funny the next.
It's slapstick, splatter, surreal comedy, haunted-house horror, and cartoon insanity all rolled into one glorious package. That's the movie where the franchise truly found its identity.
By the time Army of Darkness arrived, Ash had become a full-blown legend. Bruce Campbell had become one of horror's greatest icons, and Raimi leaned even harder into fantasy adventure and outrageous comedy. It's less horror than the previous films, but it's an enormously entertaining celebration of everything that makes the character so lovable. Ash wasn't just surviving monsters anymore, he had become one himself, in the best possible way.
Then came the long silence. When Evil Dead returned in 2013, I was skeptical. Really skeptical.
Bruce Campbell wasn't starring. Sam Raimi wasn't directing. A young filmmaker named Fede Álvarez (who most people had never heard of) was taking over, with Jane Levy leading a completely new cast. I walked into that screening expecting the worst.
I walked out loving it.
Rather than imitate Raimi's comedy, Álvarez wisely returned to the raw terror of the original 1981 film. The movie is genuinely disturbing, relentlessly brutal, and unapologetically violent.
It's one of the goriest mainstream horror films ever released, but it's also anchored by what I honestly believe is one of the greatest performances in modern horror. Jane Levy's Mia is extraordinary. It's an iconic horror performance that deserves to be mentioned alongside the genre's very best.
That film introduced Evil Dead to an entirely new generation of fans. Its success helped pave the way for one of the greatest horror television shows ever produced: Ash vs. Evil Dead. What a joy that series was.
Bruce Campbell slipped effortlessly back into Ash, and he was surrounded by an outstanding supporting cast that included Dana DeLorenzo, Ray Santiago, Lucy Lawless, Jill Marie Jones, Lee Majors, and Ted Raimi. Produced by Campbell, Raimi, and Rob Tapert, the show perfectly balanced outrageous gore with hilarious comedy and old-fashioned adventure.
It lasted only three seasons on Starz, but all thirty episodes are terrific, and its reputation has only grown since it ended. The fact that an animated continuation is still being developed just shows how much affection people still have for Ash Williams.
Then Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise proved once again that this franchise could successfully reinvent itself. Alyssa Sutherland delivered a wonderfully unhinged performance, the setting shifted from a remote cabin to an apartment building, and the film doubled down on practical effects, relentless intensity, and spectacularly nasty gore. It embraced the darker tone established by the 2013 film while still honoring everything Raimi created decades earlier.
Now we have Evil Dead Burn. While I do think it's the weakest entry in the franchise, it's still entertaining, packed with outrageous practical makeup effects, gallons of blood, insane kills, and enough Deadite mayhem to satisfy longtime fans. That's become the modern identity of the franchise.
The original trilogy found the perfect balance between horror and outrageous comedy. The newer films have leaned much harder into pure terror and spectacular gore. They're different flavors of Evil Dead, but they all belong together.
One of my favorite moments after seeing Evil Dead Burn was simply watching the audience.
There were teenagers and people in their early twenties dressed as Deadites, covered in makeup, posing for pictures in the lobby, celebrating a franchise that began decades before they were born. That's incredibly satisfying to see. This strange little independent horror movie made by three guys with almost no money has become a cultural institution.
The influence of Evil Dead extends far beyond its movies. It inspired filmmakers like Peter Jackson and Edgar Wright. Its DNA can be found in everything from The Cabin in the Woods and Shaun of the Dead to countless independent horror films.
Ash became one of horror's defining heroes, influencing video games, comics, animation, and pop culture in general. The franchise has expanded into comic books, stage musicals, board games, video games, crossover events with everyone from Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees to Marvel Zombies and Xena, and even inspired an entire generation of horror creators who grew up worshipping Raimi's fearless filmmaking.
I've also been lucky enough to meet many of the people responsible for all of this over the years through Flashback Weekend and other events. Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Ted Raimi, Rob Tapert, actors from throughout the series, and they're every bit as funny, creative, generous, and passionate as you'd hope they'd be. They built something truly special, and their influence on horror simply can't be overstated.
So with the arrival of Evil Dead Burn, it seemed like the perfect excuse to revisit this incredible universe and rank it. This list only includes the six feature films and the television series.
No comic books. No video games. No musicals. No crossover stories. Just the movies and the TV show.
And with that...
The Evil Dead Universe: RANKED
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