Acclaimed director Sam Raimi burst onto the scene with 1981’s “The Evil Dead.” It not only cemented the classic cabin in the woods premise, but it also introduced us to the deadites. Raimi, who previously released a Super 8 crime/comedy called “It’s Murder!” while a student at Michigan State University, brought a sense of blood-soaked mayhem to the horror genre we’d never seen before.
Through the ensuing decades, “The Evil Dead” franchise took on a life of its own. Raimi fine-tuned the formula with 1987’s soft remake/sequel, “Evil Dead II,” and capped his saga with the genre-bending “Army of Darkness” in 1992. The franchise lay dormant for 21 years before Fede Álvarez (“Don’t Breathe,” “Alien: Romulus”) took a spin in his feature directorial debut, with a sequel worthy of Sam Raimi in both tone, style, and approach.
The series took another decade-long nap and eventually returned with 2023’s “Evil Dead Rise,” which swapped the tried and true cabin in the woods framework for one set inside an apartment building high-rise. Lee Cronin (“Hole in the Ground,” “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy”) took the reins and injected the franchise with a bit of ingenuity. He’s also behind “Evil Dead Burn” and “Evil Dead Wrath,” expected April 7, 2028.
“The Evil Dead” franchise can’t be killed, no matter what you do. Ahead of Cronin’s “Evil Dead Burn” hitting cinemas on Friday (July 10), here’s a complete ranking of the franchise.
All films are now streaming on HBO Max.
5. Army of Darkness
At the end of “Evil Dead II,” the series’ hero Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) attempts to send the deadites back to where they came from, but he accidentally gets transported through a wormhole to the Middle Ages. He finds himself caught in a war between Lord Arthur (Marcus Gilbert) and Duke Henry (Richard Grove), and he’s quickly captured and imprisoned when Lord Arthur believes him to be a spy for Duke Henry.
The usual hijinks occur, and when the deadlites come out to play, it’s a race against time. The townsfolk soon claim him as a savior sent from heaven to rescue them from certain death. It’s a refreshing change of pace, both in storyline and location, and while it’s an acquired taste, it remains a solid entry in horror’s best, most consistent franchise.
4. The Evil Dead
“The Evil Dead” did so much for the genre. When horror focused on slashers in the 1980s, Sam Raimi saw an opening to do something so psychotically different that it broke through the static. It’s a simple premise, one on which 2011’s Chris Hemsworth-starring “Cabin in the Woods” riffs, that we’ve seen perhaps hundreds of times since. But it all goes back to Raimi’s bizarre, chaotic, woodsy entry.
A group of youths heads to a secluded, rustic cabin for the weekend. After discovering the legendary Necronomicon (aka the Book of the Dead) and a tape recorder, Scott (Richard DeManincor) plays a series of creepy incantations and unwittingly unleashes a demonic entity. All hell, literally, breaks loose, and it all leads to possessed trees and one of the most grotesque scenes in horror history. It set in motion decades of cabin in the woods knockoffs and proved how experimental horror could be.
3. Evil Dead Rise
Lee Cronin penned an emotionally rich family dynamic in “Evil Dead Rise” that raised the stakes and gave audiences a host of characters for whom to root. After an earthquake, a young teen named Danny (Morgan Davies) discovers the Necronomicon and a collection of vinyl records tucked away under the rubble of their parking garage. Naturally, because this is a movie, Danny plays one of the records, which contains ritualistic chants that inevitably raise the deadites.
The high-rise location demonstrated that “The Evil Dead” didn’t need to be constrained to a cabin in the woods to be effective. The kills upped the ante, as did many other set-pieces (the cheese grater moment is an all-timer), and proved that there was so much territory yet to mine in the terrifying universe. Cronin peppered in several references to previous films, including the iconic chainsaw, and they never felt shoehorned into the story. “Evil Dead Rise” put a truly unique stamp on the franchise.
2. Evil Dead (2013)
It’s rare, but some sequels rival or outdo the original. Fede Álvarez’s 2013 take, “Evil Dead,” nearly made the top spot on this list. Álvarez, who co-wrote the script with Rodo Sayagues, showed real creativity both in honoring the past and forging a new future. When a group of friends takes Mia (Jane Levy) out to a cabin to detox from addiction, they get far more than they bargained for when one among them, Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci), makes the mistake of reading an incantation from the Necronomicon.
The tragic events feel more visceral and raw in a way the previous films didn’t. As Mia spirals out from hallucinations of her detox, demonic possession is afoot for her cabin mates. That scene from the original is even more harrowing and brutal here, as Mia struggles to separate her imagination from reality. “Evil Dead” (2013) pushed the boundaries in thrilling and nauseating ways that will live in the halls of horror forever.
1. Evil Dead II
“Evil Dead II” is the perfect melting pot of horror and humor. It also turned Ash into the heroic leader we’ve come to love and respect. Part-remake, the 1987 film brought out a frantic energy of storytelling that the original just doesn’t have. Everything is heightened and more earnest. The story is much the same: a group of friends heads out to a rundown cabin, incantations are heard, and twisted mayhem ensues. It’s everything you’d want in an “Evil Dead” movie.
