The Evil Dead (1981)Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn (1987)
Evil Dead 3: Army Of Darkness (1992)
(Note: Since I'm cleaning up some of these reviews I did a while ago, I also updated some info and I hope I got everything right - if not, please let me know. Thanks!) I realize I'm in dangerous territory here. There is a very passionate following for Ash and his adventures. A reboot (the new 'thing' in movies, instead of just calling them 'remakes') was... not terrible. But the original is still the best. After years of waiting for a fourth in the Ashley series, there is to be a television series (don't panic yet) for 2015 on Starz. I wondered why - duh, 'cause Anchor Bay, who owns the series, also owns Starz. But we will get to see Bruce Campbell once more and of course Sam Raimi will be writing the project. I'm not sure if the famous 1973 Olds Delta 88 will be present though.
Continuity. It's a very difficult thing to maintain in movies. If you've ever seen a movie or TV show scene being shot, you realize that often only a few seconds or a minute or two is done at a time. That makes keeping everything exactly the same a very difficult task. Scenes are also shot out of order, so there are times when they don't know where stuff is going to be in the beginning, so the middle and ending is just about impossible.
Everyone knows by now that the first Evil Dead was practically a non-budget movie, so there was no one in 'charge' of continuity, even if it was possible. My suggestion is to buy or rent the DVD's with the commentary on them - they're hilarious and also give you some good inside information on why things turned out the way they did.
The Evil Dead trilogy is dear to me. Not only am I a big Bruce Campbell fan, I find these movies incredibly funny (no surprise there). It's supposed to be scary but elements of all the movies, especially if you've listened to the commentary, can't help but to make you giggle a little bit.
And the original Evil Dead was considered so horrible (in terms of gore, content, violence, tree rape) that not only was it not ever rated, Sam Raimi once had to go to court because of it... nothing happened of course, but it gives you an idea what an impact Evil Dead had on horror.
In fact, many who were in the Evil Dead made up fake names, not for the usual reasons, but because they didn't want to be associated with the movie. They're enjoying it now though.
The Evil Dead: Five friends (two couples and Ashley's sister) go up into the woods to a cabin to... well to do what young people do when left alone. They find a book and an audio tape that are most peculiar and in the interest of moving the story along they open the book and listen to the recording. And things go to the monsters (sort of zombies but not quite) pretty quickly.
Now, about the continuity. In Evil Dead, there is none. It doesn't even take a quick mind or keen eye to spot the inconsistencies throughout the entire film. I mean, it is really to the point of being downright hilarious. Ash (Bruce went through an awful lot at the hands of Sam Raimi too) appears in a magic set of clothing that alternately is covered with blood, then clean, then spattered, then covered, then clean, etc. Same goes for his face and hair - each scene shows him with different blood amounts on different parts of his face.
I mean I laughed so hard my spouse got disgusted trying to watch the movie. The moon changes color and location at will (a bad mat job carried most of the blame for that), even the bruises and cuts on his face move around. See if you can watch it without giggling.
It's here that Sam Raimi comes up with the term 'Fake Shemp'. Sam is a huge fan of The Three Stooges, and when Shemp Howard died, the film they had been working on wasn't quite finished, so they used stand-ins (backs to the camera of course) to finish. Thus in Evil Dead, a 14-year-old Ted Raimi gets his first credit when he visited his brother shooting a movie and ended up getting just as abused (and loving it) as the rest of the crew.
Oh yeah, and this is the first film appearance of Sam's dad's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88, a car that makes an appearance in I think every subsequent Sam Raimi film. Even the Evil Dead reboot had one (not the same car but the same type) as an homage to that now-famous boat of a car.
Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn kind of recreates part of the end of the first, but by then Sam Raimi could not use the people or characters like in the first so you can actually watch the second one and not miss anything. Bruce Campbell again is put through a mess of stunts and indignities at the hands of Sam Raimi, although Bruce showed incredible comedic timing and I get blown away each time I see him flip himself over when his 'hand' attacks him... the movie ends of course setting up the beginning of the third movie which Raimi had already planned to do.
Evil Dead 3: Army Of Darkness: The title to this movie is actually JUST Army Of Darkness or Ash vs. The Army Of Darkness but it is essentially Evil Dead 3. Danny Elfman provides the score, Sam Raimi is of course present, and this time Bruce is co-producer. And the continuation of the story was meant to be a horror comedy from the start. It's like they said 'look, the first two were a little grim, let's have some fun' and thus you have a comedy/horror film with Bruce at his best. Did I mention I like Bruce? He lives (or lived, not sure if he still does) in my home state so he's a local hero of sorts. Understandable, logical, progressive follow-up for the first two Evil Dead movies it may not be, but it is definitely fun. You could also watch this movie without seeing the first two and not miss any key plot points.Now I guess I'll have to order Starz to see the new series. Buuut I think I'll wait until 2015 to see if the series really is to be a reality. We've waited a long time, and whether it actually happens remains to be seen.
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