So yeah finally saw the Evil Dead trilogy

Never too late to start.

It's actually The Chin. There's only one worthy of the name.

I feel like the consensus is that the second one is better, but for me, the first is much, much, much scarier- am I the only one that thinks so?

Since the second and third are essentially comedies, no. The first is the scariest and the grossest and the tree rapiest.

No, but the second one has the best mixture of horror and comedy, whereas Army of Darkness is just pure comedy.

ack - wrong thread. Um, love the second on the bestest...

The high watermark for the series for me is the entire first half of Evil Dead 2 where Bruce Campbell goes crazy in the cabin. I wish the other characters never even arrived, I was having so much fun. Particularly that little dancing lamp.

Yeah, but you can't argue with the arrival of bodies to a horror film.

I just wish those scenes were anywhere near the first half.

But then you wouldn't have BOBBBY JOEEEEE!!! BOBBBYY JOEEE!!! Or eyeball swallowing. Or a giant plant-head. Or a guy to accidentally stab and then hit with a door. Or yeah, more bodies to kill. It does slow down a bit as it brings them into the story, but it just makes it that much sweeter as they get taken out.

Plus, the scene where they're hearing the noises all around them in the cabin is fucking BEAUTIFUL in surround sound, if you've got the system.

Evil Dead 2's still my favorite. It's funny... back in the days before the internet I used to watch Army of Darkness on vhs all the fucking time. I never had any idea it was a part of a series, until one day my video store guy mentioned the prequels. I did a double take, and said "There's more of these?" It was probably one of the most uplifting moments of my life.

Ha! I was the same way. A couple of friends and I saw AoD on a whim (in the theater), and just loved it. We told a couple of people and a sorta-buddy of ours was like "Dude, it's a meta-sequel to the Evil Dead movies <inhale weed>, you really out to check them out <exhale>. Plus, Bruce is just awesome". We went to the video store the next day.

Alex & Brian: That was about what it was with me. I loved the cover art for ARMY OF DARKNESS and rented it. Loved the shit out of it. It wasn't until my freshman year of high school that I met another weirdo (also named Matt) that loved it and owned the first two on glorious VHS. Seeing the first EVIL DEAD and then immediately watching the second, discovering it was a comedic retread of the first, was a glorious WTF moment.

Ya mean I'm not the only one to discover Evil Dead series in reverse? Wow. I don't feel like such a schmuck now. I've been dying to see the musical.

Hands down, some of my favorite flicks of all time. This is how you make a low-budget movie. What they lacked in $$$, they made up for in enthusiasm, manic creativity (action, camera, effects, etc), and a great leading Chin. I judge all other low-budget horror on the standards put forth in this series.

Take some notes, you primitive screwhead film-makers.

Raimi deserves all the success and opportunities he's had. And Bruce deserves every bit of fanboy love and goodwill he's showered with. These guys (along with Peter Jackson's similar rise to success) are truly inspirational.

i hate the bootleg cut dvd edition of army of darkness or any edition where they change some of the scenes. that part where evil ash comes out of him and then ash fucks him up with the shotgun and buries him and goes "whats that on your face" or whatever he says. they fuck that shit up on some of dvd versions. the original vhs copy is the best cut...but the dvd i own is fucked up. anyone know which dvd release has the original theatrical cut?

and i like evil dead 2 better but evil dead is the shit. i got introduced to the films through aod just like alex and i heard the original evil dead was scary as hell. when they tree rapes that girl, priceless. what a great cinematic moment. i would never condone raping a tree, but when its the other way around im all for it.

I got the Boomstick Edition of Army of Darkness with both cuts, but that one is out print. The director's cut has Ash saying "I ain't that good." instead of "Good, bad I'm the guy with the gun." Is that the scene you were talking about? The thing that I do like about the director's cut is the ending, it fits better with the theme that Ash gets screwed over at the end of each movie.

Great as the second one is, I feel the first one is, on the whole, the best-paced and put-together film of the three; and it's still funny, just in a much blacker way.


Now, if only Evil Dead: The Musical would get some kind of DVD release so I could actually see the thing. I live a long, long way from New York.

yeah..the im the guy with the gun line is my favorite line of the movie. i always thought it was such a bad ass line and the background music. that's one my all time "FUCK YEAH" moments in movie history.

i saw the director's cut ending first (that's the one in the future, right?). It totally kicks the ass of the shopping mall ending, which actually makes very little sense, and just seems tacked on - which it was.

Look at the endings to the other movies. The Evil Dead ends with him getting nailed with evil, 2 ends with him being sucked back in time and then AoD has the supermarket ending. It works better with Ash being screwed over in one form or another. Plus the director's cut ending has him in an apocalyptic future with a glorious beard, which would have been great for a sequel.

Sadly, the musical is gone. It's starting up in Toronto soon, and a CD is coming out of the music, but that's it for now...

I always use the Evil Dead trilogy as my yardstick of film taste. I make snap judgments about people depending on which one is their favorite.

I'm pretty shocked too as to how many people are in this boat(for shame, Alex. Hehehe).

I am too. I was hooked on Army of Darkness when I was younger. It was high on my top ten faves at that point, I don't even have it on my top 100 anymore(yes I have such a list), but it's still super fun.

After being utterly addicted to Army, I moved on to Evil Dead 2. I dug it a lot, but still preferred Army(damn I wish they had used The Medieval Dead title).

Around the same time I rented The Evil Dead as well. Frankly, I hated it, just seemed piss-poor and amateur.

Well, time(and multiple viewings) does some amazing things...

Evil Dead 2 is one of the best/most entertaining horror movies ever in my opinion. As I grew older and got more into film, I was amazed by how much cool shit they did on such a low budget. The creativity on display here is amazing. I loved the callback to this film in Spider-Man 2(the Doc Ock hospital scene) as well.

The Evil Dead is now my second favorite, they did so much great stuff on a "nothing" budget. A truly fantastic movie to watch for anyone who wants to make low budget horror movies. It's scary, too.

I've always loved how the last act of each film is basically how Ash as a character is in the next film. In the case of Evil Dead and it's sequel, it's more the Raimi camera tricks kicking in at the end of the first film. Particularly with Evil Dead 2 and Army, though, how Ash becomes a one-liner-spouting badass at the end of 2 and it carries onto 3. I also love how the continuity is also ever-so-slightly fucked from film to film.

I'm curious, anyone who saw them in order... what were your feelings about how the series progressed? I can't help but thinking if I had seen them the other way around I would be disappointed at how things ended up(as fun as it was).

*edit for- If things work out, will you not be well-off financially upon graduation and a few years of practicing? Like Nick said, it's never to late to start. You said you would want to be a filmmaker, look what these guys did with almost nothing. I say set aside some cash when you have it coming in(I know it's a ways away) and give it a shot.

Well, being one of those that experienced Raimi's films in the proper order of release, I can say that I, personally, was hugely disappointed when Army of Darkness was released. I know i'm in the minority on that and don't begrudge anyone enjoying the film, but to me Evil Dead II balanced the horror and comedy elements perfectly. "Army" ,however, went so far into self parody that I just could just never get into it. I know that you really have to look at each film in the series as a seperate entity, but I was really hoping for an actual continuation of those final shots of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness just didn't deliver what I had been hoping for.

Well it was about as far from the other films as you could get in scope, then they cut the gore, amped the comedy to more "three stooges" type shit, mad one-liners.

And they removed Campbell's sweet Reed Richards-type gray streak in his hair.

Anyways, that's what I was curious about, thanks for responding, Amphibatron.


Slightly off base here... how the fuck did Army Of Darkness get an R rating? He says "fuck" once as I recall("Get the fuck out of my face"). The gore is cheesy or non-existent. There's no nudity.
I can think of 50 PG-13 movies way more "freaky" to a kid. And of course there's Beetlejuice("Nice fucking model!" *honk honk*, rated PG).

Ah, UK ratings are much saner. Army and Beetlejuice are both 15s.

Hah! Gimme a break, I was 10 when Army of Darkness came out. Perfect time to warp my poor little mind.

I showed it to my younger cousins when they came of age... around 7 or 8 or so, much to the dismay of my aunts. I got hell because one had nightmares about skeletons and zombies. I still think it's a great flick for a younger crowd, just because of the humor. Evil Dead 1 is a different beast entirely.... it's pretty vicious.

You guys ever see Within the Woods? It's probably on Youtube or something if you look for it, and it's pretty crappy, but it's an interesting look at what the first film would become.

AKA: Evil Dead 0 perhaps?... How did that avoid 1/2 a dozen Anchor Bay releases? Or is it possibly a special feature on one of the others? How have I not seen this yet?

Bruce: You're only cursed by the evil spirits if you violate the graves of the dead. We're just gonna be eating hotdogs.


EDIT: Found this info:
Was slated to be released in April of 2002 as a special feature on Anchor Bay's "Book of the Dead" DVD release of The Evil Dead (1981), but it was withheld at the last minute due to problems with royalties for the music used in the short. This problem has prevented it from being given a release in any format.

Picture/Sound quality ain't that great at all...

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9foTSk8TSc

Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZKci07Fcjc

Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKOXWVqVSd4

Back in high school (must have been around 1990 or 1991, for those keeping score at home), a buddy of mine worked at a video store (this was a couple years before I got a job as a counter-jockey at a little mom and pop video chain). I was hanging out there one night, and he suggested that I check out Evil Dead 2, letting me take it home for free because he was cool like that. I had no idea who Sam Raimi or Bruce Campbell were at the time, but after watching the flick, I pretty much became a fan for life.

Personally, like others on this board, I think the first one is definitely the scariest, but I enjoy part 2 and Army of Darkness just a bit more. Still, the original Evil Dead is the one that I HAVE to watch every Halloween.

as I recall... wasn't the release of Army of Darkness delayed for like a year while Dino and Universal fought behind the scenes over unrelated shit? Plus Universal did a ton of re-shoots (including a different ending) after Raimi turned it in...

My art teacher would talk about these movies and how great it was to go to theatres that'd be playing them all in a row, but my mom wouldn't let me rent it until a couple years later. By then the vibe I got from imdb was that both Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 were pretty much the same movie but that Evil Dead 2 was better. So I got that one first. After the great comedic elements of the second, the first felt flat to me (it wasn't until a couple viewings that I really got into it as a horror movie in it's own right.)

I didn't see Army of Darkness until several years after that at a Halloween party and, while it's a fun movie to watch with friends who've never seen it before, I've always felt pretty lukewarm about it, relative to my love of the first two.

I'd rank them like this (with other movies thrown in for scale):

Evil Dead 2
Reanimator
Evil Dead
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Return of the Living Dead
Army of Darkness
Black Christmas remake
Some dumb boring Asian shit that Chris Olsen likes
Chris Olsen (who is the worst)

I think the theory is that the MPAA was getting back at Raimi and company, who were upfront about wanting an R for the second film (that they didn't get) by changing the color of the blood.

On the commentary, Bruce and them even go so far as to say that the original version of "Army" was gonna be an NC-17, which I find absolutelty ridicilous as even in its most intense form, the film still feels like a hard "PG-13".

Who is this Chris Olsen of whom you speak? Because my last name is OLSON.

Punk.

Evil Dead 2 was on late last night. I know it's a geek cliche, but there isn't a more fun movie to sit through. It's so obvious how much fun they had making it, and it's a joy to watch.

Do we have anything written up yet on another Evil Dead?

All I've got is IMDB's claim that "The Evil Dead" has been announced with Raimi on as producer...

Anybody know anything else?

I saw them in order, on the same night, the same Halloween night, completely blind. My friend and I had no idea what we were in for, we'd never heard about any of the geek cult shit. We just wanted to get some good Halloween movies, and we consulted my two sweet movie guide CD-ROMs (Corel and Blockbuster, I believe), and they pointed us to this high-rated horror series, so we went with that. Had to go to two different Port Perry video stores to get all three VHS tapes. Came home, set up my La-z-boy, brought out my ripped-out car seat for my friend, set out the nachos & salsa, and pressed play on the clicker.

What a trip. The first movie was all about how Ash's moccasins would protect him from tree rape. It had its tense, creepy moments, but mostly we were chuckling at it. Amusing at it was, it didn't prepare us at all for the comedy to come...

The second was all about how they retold and completely changed the first in the opening ten minutes, and also about how Ash wasn't wearing his moccasins anymore ... until he slipped the chainsaw onto his stump and said the magic word. Then, as I said to my friend that very moment, we realized we were witnessing the birth of the coolest movie character ever.

Army of Darkness was hilarious, for sure (and it did right by re-telling and changing the first two movies right off the bat), but there was a level of disappointment at the time over how un-gory it was. Still, you can't argue with the sheer volume of quotable one-liners it packed in.

Yes, we began that evening as boys, but by the time it was over, we were truly men. Oh right, did I mention we also fucked? The Chin is a charmer.

Here's basically the latest on what has been said....


Evil Dead IV - Raimi & Co. have always said they want to go back and do at least one more low budget horror movie together. First they said it would be ED4, then they said it would be something different but just as crazy, and now it's back to being ED4 again. Raimi has also said that they would likely have to title it Army of Darkness II or Return of the Army of Darkness because that's how most people identify with the series now, through the third film. Sam has talked about it off and on for the past ten years or so, continually stating that he still wants to make it. Bruce, while very interested, has kind of downplayed it though. Since he is the one who constantly has to answer questions about it from the fans, I guess he's afraid that Sam will keep putting it off and Bruce doesn't want the fans to get their hopes up too high until an official announcement is made at some point (if ever). Until they actually come up with a script and have a budget locked in, Bruce will likely continue to shrug off the prospect of it happening.

That said, Raimi has been talking it up again these past couple of weeks, going so far as to say that he has started to talk with his brother Ivan (who wrote Army of Darkness and helped out on the Spidey films) about finally penning a script for it. In fact, of all the potential projects he's been asked about in interviews (this, Spider-Man IV, The Hobbit, etc.), Evil Dead IV is the only one he's actually sounded serious about and given any concrete information on. I just hope he's serious about doing it soon this time. Now would be better than ever since he is coming off the insane success of the Spider-Man franchise and can probably get away with anything. It might also help him to have more fun than usual and re-energize after coming off of three very demanding films.



The Evil Dead (Remake) - This sucker is on hold for now and, according to Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, will stay in limbo until they find a director with his own creatively visceral take on the material. Until they find the "perfect" director for re-imagining their original film, this redo is going to remain in development hell. Of than that, the only concrete info is that the character of Ash will not appear in it. They've said that Ash is Bruce's character alone and will remain that way. It also sounds like when it happens it will be a straight-up horror movie, with none of the comedic elements of ED2 or AOD.