Chronological guide to the Evil Dead films
Evil Dead is a rare horror franchise that mutates instead of repeating itself. It begins as scrappy cabin nightmare, mutates into splatter comedy myth, then re-emerges decades later as prestige brutality and urban possession horror.
What stays constant is the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, an ancient book that turns curiosity into catastrophe.
This guide is film-first. Television and other media are referenced only where they directly shape the films.
The original Raimi trilogy
The original trilogy stands as the genesis of modern cabin horror, born from the enduring creative partnership of director Sam Raimi, producer Robert Tapert, and actor Bruce Campbell. What began as a grueling, low-budget shoot in Tennessee evolved into a genre-defying saga that cemented Raimi’s kinetic visual style.
The aggressive camera movements, "shaky cam" POV shots, and inventive practical effects developed here would become Raimi's calling card, techniques he would later refine in his blockbuster work on the Spider-Man trilogy.
The writing process reflects a drastic tonal evolution. The first film was scripted as a relentless exercise in terror, but by Evil Dead II, Raimi (co-writing with Scott Spiegel) injected a manic, slapstick energy inspired by The Three Stooges, effectively birthing the "splatstick" subgenre.
By Army of Darkness, the script had fully embraced adventure-comedy, proving the concept's elasticity.
Central to this legacy is the character of Ash Williams. Unlike the stoic, competent heroes typical of 80s action and horror, Ash is uniquely fallible - a panic-prone, loudmouthed retail worker who survives through sheer stubbornness rather than skill.
Bruce Campbell’s performance is legendary for its physicality; he essentially served as a human punching bag for Raimi's camera, blending leading-man charisma with the durability of a cartoon character.
This collaboration created an anti-hero who remains the franchise's beating heart: a man who isn't the chosen one because he's special, but simply because he's the only one left standing.
The Evil Dead
Plot, lore, and themes
Five friends retreat to a decaying Tennessee cabin, unknowingly crossing a bridge that collapses behind them to seal their fate. The discovery of the Naturon Demonto (later the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis) and a tape recorder in the cellar triggers the horror.
The tape recorder acts as the true antagonist here, representing curiosity as original sin - a warning about knowledge replayed without context. The playback acts as an invocation, proving that belief is irrelevant; repetition is enough.
The "Force" is depicted as a disembodied camera POV that stalks them, culminating in the forest itself sexually violating Cheryl. This establishes the franchise's recurring theme of the violation of safe space; the cellar, the woods, and even Ash’s own body become hostile environments. The possession spreads like a virus, turning friends into "Deadites" who mock and mimic to psychologically dismantle the survivors.
Ash survives not through strength, but because the evil prefers prolonging his suffering. The final shot - the Force rushing into the cabin to claim him - cements the theme of cosmic indifference: there is no victory, only delay.
Evil Dead II
Plot, lore, and themes
Retconning the first film’s ending, Ash is possessed by the sunrise but released when sunlight passes, leaving him trapped in a loop of torment. The tone shifts to "splatstick" madness, where the environment itself mocks him - a laughing deer head and bleeding walls push Ash into a state where madness becomes a survival mechanism. Laughter becomes his only way to cope with the impossible.
The film deeply explores fragmented identity. Ash is forced to battle his own body when his hand becomes possessed, a literalization of self-betrayal. He severs the limb with a chainsaw in a violent act of self-reclamation.
The arrival of Annie Knowby expands the lore with the Kandarian Dagger and the specific history of the book. The climax, where Ash modifies a chainsaw to replace his hand, frames the moment like a knight claiming a sword, marking the birth of a legend. He is sucked into a portal to 1300 AD, realizing he is the "Hero from the Sky" of prophecy - a man constantly pulled out of time, doomed to fight battles he never chose.
Army of Darkness
Plot, lore, and themes
Stranded in medieval England, Ash is enslaved and stripped of his hero status. He must recover the Necronomicon to return home, but his arrogance leads to catastrophe. In the graveyard, he splits into "Good Ash" and "Bad Ash," a manifestation of his internal conflict between selfishness and heroism. He kills his dark half but forgets the precise words ("Klaatu Barada Nikto") when claiming the book, awakening the Army of Darkness.
This underscores that language is power; mispronounced words can doom kingdoms.
The film shifts into fantasy spectacle, where Ash uses 20th-century science to lead a human resistance. His journey is one of heroism by resistance - he saves the world while resenting it every step of the way. The theatrical ending, where he returns to his S-Mart job and slays a Deadite in the aisles, emphasizes the theme of mythologized survival.
He is the blue-collar king, a man who just wants to do his job but is forced by fate to be a warrior.
Standalone resurrection and modern era
These films expand the Evil Dead idea beyond Ash, treating the book as a curse that can surface anywhere.
Evil Dead
Plot, lore, and themes
This reimagining shifts the catalyst from curiosity to addiction as possession. Mia is brought to the cabin by her brother David and friends to cold-turkey off heroin. This narrative device brilliantly camouflages the initial possession symptoms as withdrawal; her claims of seeing monsters and smelling rot are dismissed by the group, creating the isolation necessary for the evil to thrive.
When Eric reads from the Naturom Demonto, he unleashes the "Taker of Souls," an entity bound by specific rules: it requires five souls to unleash the "Abomination."
The film is an exercise in purification by pain. The violence is excruciatingly intimate - boiling water showers, tongue splittings - suggesting that the only cure for the "infection" is the total destruction of the self. David sacrifices himself to resuscitate Mia, fulfilling the soul count and allowing the Abomination to rise from a blood rain.
Mia’s survival depends on her becoming the Survivor Girl reborn; she rips her own trapped hand off to wield a chainsaw, physically severing the part of herself that was weak or infected to destroy the demon.
Evil Dead Rise
Plot, lore, and themes
Moving the horror from the woods to a condemned Los Angeles high-rise, Rise explores the perversion of the home. An earthquake unearths a bank vault containing one of the three volumes of the Naturom Demonto and vinyl recordings from 1923. The invocation is auditory here, broadcasting the virus through the building.
The possession of Ellie, a single mother, twists the maternal instinct into maternal horror; she uses her children’s trust and fears against them, taunting them with intimate knowledge only a mother would have.
The lore expands with the "Marauder," a multi-limbed creature formed by the physical fusion of Ellie, Bridget, and Danny. This "Rat King" of flesh symbolizes inescapable family trauma - the terrifying idea that you can never truly separate yourself from your family's damage.
The climax, involving a wood chipper in a parking garage, reinforces that domestic tools are just as deadly as magical ones. The film ends with a loop back to the lakeside prologue, confirming that the evil has successfully escaped containment to spread further.
Evil Dead Burn
Status and expectations
Details are under wraps, but the creative team suggests another tonal mutation. With director Sébastien Vaniček (known for the spider-horror Vermines) at the helm, the film is expected to focus on sensory discomfort and claustrophobia. The guiding idea remains consistent: the book travels, the evil adapts, and no one escapes unchanged.
