Ash Williams put it best: the Evil Dead franchise is “groovy.” Last week, the sixth film in the franchise, Evil Dead Burn, came to theaters, and with a seventh one on the way in 2028, the world of killer demons unlocked by the Book of the Dead is showing no signs of slowing down. There’s also no sign of a huge drop in quality. Most franchises, especially horror franchises, drop in quality almost immediately. Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream; all of those have one or two standouts (usually the original) followed by a lot of bad, albeit entertaining, sequels. Evil Dead has not been that. Most would agree that, like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, the first three Evil Dead films are kind of untouchable. Even when you rank them, you’re just tinkering with greatness or personal preference. Then, 20 years passed, and a new crop of films emerged. Films made by filmmakers who grew up with those originals, and with the help of Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell themselves, took things to another level.
Basically, we don’t think there is a bad Evil Dead film. But some are better than others, and below, we’ll explain where we put each. Ash vs. Evil Dead (Image: Starz) Honorable Mention: Ash vs. Evil Dead No Evil Dead-adjacent discussion is complete without a shout-out to Ash vs. Evil Dead, the TV series that ran for three glorious seasons on Starz from 2015 to 2018. The show picked up with Ash Williams 30 years after he thought his Deadite-slaying days had ended, only to discover there are still some ghouls that need chainsawing—with Bruce Campbell having a blast playing an older version of his iconic character.
