B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping The Evil Dead franchise into the ol’ VCR. 

Well, friends, we made it to the most wonderful time of the year (unless we didn’t, because we schedule blog posts in advance, so if you’re reading this after the apocalypse, welcome!). 

That’s right. It’s spooky season, baby. 

To kick us off, I thought it was only right to talk about one of the best horror franchises around, The Evil Dead franchise. 

When a man tells you to smile. 

The first time I watched The Evil Dead was all the way back in 2006. I was a freshman in high school, and I was channel surfing on a Sunday morning to recover from a band competition the day before. 

It had just started on IFC, so I decided to give it a go. Needless to say, I was hooked, and, fortunately, my soon-to-be brother-in-law was a massive horror fan and had the entire collection. The rest is history. 

The Evil Dead franchise is special to me for several reasons. First and foremost, it was one of the first big things Matt (my brother-in-law) and I bonded over. Secondly, it made me appreciate low budget horror in a way I hadn’t before. Sure, we always picked silly-looking horror movies from Blockbuster for movie nights, but The Evil Dead made me appreciate all of the work that went into filmmaking. 

I love The O.C. 

It would be years before I would be able to articulate what I thought, but The Evil Dead planted a seed. Now, as a 31-year-old writer, I understand that a budget means nothing without a good plot. We’ve all seen big-budget films that are painful to watch. But, it takes a real skill level to make one of the best horror movies of all time on a budget. I mean, c’mon, it’s still revered 42 years later, and it catapulted Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi into a legendary status. 

The Evil Dead franchise is also a poster child for franchise quality control. Evil Dead II, Army of Darkness, and Ash vs Evil Dead balance dark comedy and absurdity while still giving us solid villains with the Deadites. 

Evil Dead (2013) took the franchise back to its roots and is still, imo, one of the best horror movies of the last decade. 

Bruce Campbell is still one of the hottest men in horror, and I said what I said. 

Evil Dead Rise took us out of the forest and into an entirely new setting, but kept the parts of the franchise we’ve come to know and love. 

Each entry of The Evil Dead franchise has contributed something different, be it dark humor, pure horror, or expanding on its source material (something we’ve also seen successfully done by the Scream franchise). 

Hail to the kings, baby.