The Evil Dead Trilogy by Sam Raimi - where horror found a brand new home

My Lord, it got a home, through and within the imagination of a young man in his early twenties and a small bunch of his own friends, developing his first short story, named Within the Woods which would have been the basis for the first Evil Dead movie. Many stories about it’s production were legendary, if you would believe every answer that Bruce Campbell would say about the films, in every Q & A session, he happens to do all over the country, including Canada. Yes, Canada isn’t actually spared from him. When we, more or less, think about it, it’s only because of the Evil Dead movies, that he does have a career in a definite way. Oddly enough, it’s only because of Raimi’s direction, that Campbell is able to give an adequate performance. Otherwise, Campbell is good in the trilogy, and he’s good in another horror/cop flick, during the 80’s, Maniac Cop, and for filmwise, it’s really about it. Later on, during the end of the 90’s, the only viable performance he’s ever done was in the TV series Burn Notice, portraying the funny and debonaire Sam Axe. Well Campbell, in probably all of his career will actually be known for this trilogy in the role of Ash Williams, as much William Shatner is ever going to be known for his role as Captain James Kirk.


The first Evil Dead film, properly named The Evil Dead, was the first version of Sam Raimi’s vision or expression of his story. The film is completely made out of gore throughout mostly the second half of this film, and it’s exacerbate in length to make the gore and the agony more insufferable, as the wailing of pain coming from one the deadites seems so long that it’s seemingly suspended in time. For the time of the 80’s, this was the kind of gore that could make your film get banned in many countries, which was the case for The Evil Dead, it was banned from Great Britain under the rule of the BBFC, the British Board of films commission. It was deemed by censors as a “Video Nasty”, and it started to get excessively cut to have a cinematic release. Or, in the United Kingdom, it hasn’t seen the light of day altogether. When you think about it, for just a moment, where could you cut in that film ? Any kind of cut, would make it rather incoherent. As with most people in North America, the only versions that we see are probably the “unrated” or “uncut” film, or the “director’s cut”. For this film, there isn’t any “director’s cut” for the time being. You might as well start with the first film of this trilogy. Some of you may not like it, because this film, although well-crafted and well-directed in every piece of it’s form, does know how to put the screws to you, on an emotional level. It’s one of these horrors films, where the supporting actors are magnificent, and you do feel the weird uncomfortable chemistry that the actors and actresses never liked each other to begin with. They started to get sick of each other rather quick, and it deteriorates. For it’s period, the claymation special effects are amazing, and complex enough in their design. Raimi exposes to us our first insight into his film genius, so to speak, without inflating the man’s ego needlessly. As coined by another Horror master, Stephen King :«It’s the most ferociously original horror film of the year. » Also, if you’re just a gorehound, who wants the gore without having too much plot, well this is exactly for you. The gore is amazingly well directed into this, but maybe the script plays a huge part into this, or maybe it's only wishful thinking.


Now, on the remake/sequel however, Evil Dead 2 Dead by Dawn, you do ask yourself the question on why it could be a remake. It’s only a remake because they make a recap of what happenned in the first film, like for a TV show, and the story seems like the first one, but it goes on a different tangent. It also gives you the impression that this kind of series is neverending. This time, Evil Dead 2, is written by a still shadowy and obscure writer Scott Spiegel and Raimi himself. When both artists collaborate on the same script, you don’t exactly know which writer's input into the script is more discernable, because the world hasn’t seen yet a movie directed by Scott Spiegel. He’s made the sequel of From Dusk till Dawn, with From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money. For directorial work, that’s the most significant he’s done. Apparently, he was more interested in being only a screenwriter, pursuing in writing a film for Clint Eastwood, The Rookie, as much as The Hit List and The Intruder. They’re just some titles that I’m throwing away back and forth. I haven’t seen these films yet, aside from his work on Evil Dead 2. It’s quite bizarre the way, of making a sequel that is more or less of a remake. You might admit that it gets confusing for really nothing. When you consider the first movie of the trilogy, Raimi’s direction seems way more evolved. The special effects are downright amazing, even for today or for it’s own 80’s period, seeming way ahead of it’s time, in the animatronics departement. The emphasis is really more on comedy than on gore, making a fusion of slapstick in horror. In this remake/sequel, Ash, reprised by Campbell, has to survive yet again in this cabin from the evil dead. What is the evil dead, you might ask yourself finally ? Just watch the first film, you’ll get every possible explanation about it, because Evil Dead 2, just makes a recap of The Evil Dead.


The final part of this trilogy, Army of Darkness, ends with nothing more than a huge bang, and Raimi delivers a directing performance that closely resembles his own work in Drag Me in the Hell. Ash, played again by Campbell, is teleported through the dark ages of the medevial times : himself and his Delta Oldsmobile through a time storm/portal/thingy in the sky, which the main goal was to transport all of the demons through time, with an incantation from the Necronomicon book. He’s captured by a kingdom’s clan, with the king of the castle and his knights roaming around to seek and capture Henry the Red, and finding Ash in the process. Ash survives a pit of death, when he has been thrown into by the king and his merry knights and so on and so forth. Well the plot goes really off the rails in complete sillyness, so I’ll spare myself the burden of spoiling needlessly the storyline to you. Although with a simple plotline, written by Raimi and Ivan Raimi, he still manages to sustain our interest, while looking forward in making a well directed popcorn flick. It’s beautifully made mindless entertainement with Campbell helming this huge cruise boat ride till the end. It’s probably in the third film, that Campbell manages to evolve completely his character Ash, who is not only a badass, but an idiotic and inconsiderate badass. Yeah, that’s how he’s really likable, because men who are so macho, happen to have this kind of “charisma”. No, experience will tell you that if you’re an idiot badass, you’re still an idiot. But of course, that’s how Ash has been written, while in The Evil Dead, he seems less of an idiot, while being more surpassed by the circumstances. Nevetheless, Army of Darkness tries to give a conclusion about Ash, as you’re shown to him, still being an S-Mart houseware clerk. Yes, maybe at the ending of Army of Darkness, he should have been the king of at least something.

What still boggles my mind, even to this day, is how come Bruce Campbell did only three good films with Raimi, his best friend, when he made a decade long career worth in B-pictures ? Would he mind telling me what is so awesome about making B-flicks ? Has it been that long, that his agent chose these cheesy roles for him, or he chose himself and he’s his own worst enemy ? Seriously, man why you needed to star in terrible flicks ? The amount of these flicks is to the point of delirium. I haven’t seen Bubba-Ho-Tep yet, because I hear nothing but good about it, and I might rent it.

In short, it probably took a decade, to have a new generation of audiences to know Bruce’s talents and his acting capabilites in the breakthrough supporting role of Sam Axe, for the TV series Burn Notice. Having seen some episodes of the show, he’s absolutely wonderful in it, but he needs to develop his role a bit more.

My ratings for the trilogy:
The Evil Dead
4.0*/5

Evil Dead 2:Dead by Dawn
4.5*/5

Army of Darkness
3.0*/5

M.L

November 29th 2011