Evil Dead Franchise: Horror, Comedy, and the Evolution of Ash Williams

The Evil Dead franchise has given horror fans plenty to scream about for decades!

The Evil Dead Franchise:

It all started with the original Evil Dead movie back in 1981, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell as the iconic Ash Williams. This movie set the standard for what makes this franchise so awesome! However, things changed drastically from the first movie. Later movies changed and brought humor, along with the scares!

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From Horror to Horror-Comedy:

Bruce Campbell holding up a shotgun as Ash in Army of Darkness Image

Bruce Campbell recently spoke with Variety and talked about the reason behind this major shift!

Apparently, the initial Evil Dead, was so intense! People actually fainted! That means Raimi and Campbell knew they couldn't continue to do the same thing and didn't want their reputation to just become horror directors.

So this change added plenty of humor and is sometimes described as "Splatstick", with a combination of both splatter horror and physical comedy, creating an incredible mix and making it memorable to everyone.

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The Impact of Comedy:

Evil dead rise bruce campbell cameo Image

The Evil Dead series got some amazing success with these comedic additions. While Evil Dead II (from 1987), and Army of Darkness (in 1992), still delivered those frights, they mixed it in with hilarity!

Fans have different preferences! Check these Rotten Tomatoes scores:

Evil Dead (1981): 86%
Evil Dead II (1987): 88%
Army of Darkness (1992): 69%
Evil Dead (2013): 63%
Evil Dead Rise (2023): 84%

What you see from these ratings is how Evil Dead II really performed!

The 2013 reboot and the newest movie, Evil Dead Rise were less focused on humor. Although Evil Dead Rise attempted to add some humor. That did not take the focus from the main goal, pure horror. Even then the comedic bits were only subtle!

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The Future of Evil Dead:

There is a special cameo of Bruce Campbell in the newest installment of Evil Dead, as Ash! It’s going to be great. There are also a lot of things that fans haven't been able to see in upcoming movies!

There will be another installment being released by Sébastien Vaniček
And another movie from Francis Galluppi!

The newer movies seem to be leaning towards the more terrifying aspects of Evil Dead with Vaniček talking about what he wanted. It's pretty clear it will be focused more on creating a "realistic horror movie," and leaving some of that humor on the side.

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A Unique Horror Franchise:

Even with the introduction of new films. The unique tone from the Sam Raimi era and its awesome blend of horror and comedy made its impact. Ash vs. Evil Dead, a television show from Starz recreated a sense of nostalgia that made those previous installments so compelling! Even though 2013's Evil Dead and Evil Dead Rise made it pretty clear that the next set of directors will have a serious and somber look. While Campbell played his memorable role for so many decades it will be hard to fully leave those past moments!

Hopefully future Movies that release, will still bring in this exciting blend of horror and humor that's made it so popular, though horror-comedy tends to have less mass appeal and can be tougher to market, as more mainstream horror generally makes more profit! For sure, those early movies will always stay on people's watch lists!