What to Expect When Binging the “Evil Dead” Movies

Have you ever wondered why we yell at characters in horror films to not go off alone into the woods? Why are shotguns, axes, and chainsaws such staples as horror weapons? Where horror and humor began colliding? Who the fuck Sam Raimi is? Join me as we binge the Evil Dead film series, and I tell you all the things to anticipate:

The Evil Dead

• Expect very little characterizations
• Expect early ‘horror’ based on quick cuts and zoom cuts
• Expect the earliest depictions of evil inducing creepy drawings
• Expect tree rape. Seriously.
• Expect isolation and the origins of cabin horror
• Expect massive explosions of blood and splatters of paint across walls
• Expect people to get their faces absolutely sloshed with blood paint

• Expect men to dismiss women and their concerns
• Expect unconvincing transformations (for 2026)
• Expect lots and lots of props, makeup, facepaint, and masks
• Expect a truly remarkable mastery of lighting and framing
• Expect effects and intentions of horror before characterization and plot coherence
• Expect to understand the meaning of “auteur cinema”
• Expect to feel like Sam Raimi was almost punishing Bruce Campbell
• Expect to notice reshoots based on camera quality, pacing, and plot

The Evil Dead 2

• Expect confusion about timelines, sequels, and chronological order
• Expect spinning cameras, early greenscreen, and heavy facial makeup
• Expect matte paintings, stop motion, reversed footage, and miniatures
• Expect puppets assaulting Bruce Campbell

• Expect Campbell fighting an evil hand that smashes face plates on his head
• Expect a massive jump in practical effects
• Expect introductions of new, random characters
• Expect many close ups and exaggerated facial expressions
• Expect not to understand the humor
• Expect women to be catty to one another
• Expect a lore drop
• Expect sequel bait
• Expect to realize where The Conjuring and It: Chapter 2 got their flooded basement ideas
• Expect fantastic lighting and framing, warped shots, and fisheye lenses
• Expect massive gusts, bursts, waves, and cannons of unconvincing blood
• Expect a cabin to be destroyed
• Expect a montage that leads to a dude with a chainsaw arm
• Expect swords and sandals
• Expect a truly incredible ending shot

Army of Darkness

• Expect further recons
• Expect reshoots of the final scenes of the previous film
• Expect a little bit more backstory for sensibilities that are a little more modern
• Expect a jump in visuals, tone, and narrative decisions
• Expect to recognize present and past visual comedy
• Expect more massive splurts and gushes of blood
• Expect to learn the meaning of “kinetic camera movements”
• Expect more stylistic closeups
• Expect a campy horror to turn into themes of heroism and adventure
• Expect to realize that this series has been chock full of campy one-liners
• Expect to realize that Sam Raimi just wanted to have fun with this movie

• Expect a James Bond-esque level of abuse-to-romance moments
• Expect Gulliver’s Travels, anorexic behaviors, and body horror
• Expect the “N word”
• Expect a tad bit more sexual assault
• Expect more heroic montages, grotesque facemasks, and many more puppets
• Expect the battle of Helm’s Deep
• Expect the Batmobile (kind of)
• Expect the battle of Pelenor Fields
• Expect to realize that Ash moved on from Linda very quickly
• Expect trampolines, gunfights, and the guy getting the girl at the end

Evil Dead

• Expect a turn to lore, form, motifs, and creepy drawings
• Expect a modern bump in characteristics
• Expect cliche, recent, teen slasher film vibes
• Expect to be babied as an audience 
• Easter multiple inventive reinventions of how the first film progressed
• Easter easter eggs
• Expect a dog to die
• Expect plausibility that defies the implausibility of the originals
• Expect Domino’s slice sauce to taste better than their marinara
• Expect an intense return of intense body horror
• Expect more lore
• Expect many homages to the first two films in the series
• Expect to miss the inventive filmmaking and lighting
• Expect to see darkened blumhouse-eque jumpscare scenes
• Expect multiple nerd-ex-machinas
• Expect an emotional, familial climax like James Wan’s movies
• Expect the climax to go on longer than expected
• Expect not a torrent of blood until the very end
• Expect to ask if this was a reboot or a sequel

Evil Dead Rise

• Expect me to eat my words about Evil Dead Rise being “a short story stretched to a justified feature length”
• Expect for the characters to put “its characters through the absolute wringer”
• Expect the film “to be campy and extravagant”
• Expect “kudos to the film for not shying away from the edginess”
• Expect to miss humor, and to realize that Evil Dead was missing it too
• Expect an homage to The Evil Dead’s idea of tons of horror within a simple story
• Expect an absolute deluge of blood
• Expect to realize that “lore” is just an excuse to get spooky
• Expect an homage to The Evil Dead 2 creature designs

Conclusion

I enjoyed my binge of the Evil Dead series. Sam Raimi’s touch in the first three films is undeniable. It’s fun and creative and loose. It really feels like Raimi and Campbell and crew are just lovers of film and filmmaking. Every moment felt like they were pushing their creativity to their limits. Army of Darkness, despite being such a detour from the rest of the series, feels like an extension of the joy of storytelling and humor and getting to run around with costumes and effects and smoke machines. 

Then we get Evil Dead, which is a truly disappointing reboot. It’s one thing to drop the humor and camp and try to make a more modern, true horror. Then even by those standards, Evil Dead doesn’t feel truly scary. It’s got a lot of the main pieces in place, like emotions and personalities and character flaws. Heck, even the plot was so airtight to get the kids totally isolated, almost forcing themselves to remain isolated for a plausible reason. But it’s just a generic 2010’s horror film using the Evil Dead title.

So we try again with Evil Dead Rise, and this time we get that old flair for the extreme gore and a real desire to punish the characters and actors and douse them with blood over and over. It’s not funny, but it was genuinely frightening. So this is an acceptable addition. It’s Evil Dead because it’s so extreme in so many ways. Evil Dead Rise doesn’t totally capture the emotion of the joy of filmmaking, but it’s still Evil Dead. Honorary mention goes out to Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, because it’s truly just a bit of a spinoff, but without the Evil Dead tag.

If you’ve ever been curious about The Evil Dead films, if you’ve wondered if older horror films really do hold up and if they can leave an impact; you’d do well to binge these films. Even if you take them a bit at a time, then you can trust that Raimi’s films will leave an impact on you. You may not be scared, but you can’t help but smile thinking of the fun they had while making those movies.

I rate the films as follows:

Movie	Rating
The Evil Dead	GOOD
The Evil Dead 2	YMMV
Army of Darkness	GOOD
Evil Dead	BAD
Evil Dead Rise	YMMV

I’m also going to eat my words about the Evil Dead movies not being on HBO. At least at the moment, all of the movies can be found on HBO.