The Evil Dead Movies, Ranked
From gory over-the-top scares to total absurdity, we ranked them all.
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The Deadites are back! Well, they never really left. Ever since Sam Raimi introduced us to the sick and twisted world of The Evil Dead back in 1981, he unleashed a universe of wildly zany gore—and even slapstick comedy—to the horror genre. Raimi and his childhood friend, Bruce Campbell, helmed the first film, fundraising the film's budget through friends and family. Damn, did they succeed. 1981's The Evil Dead has all the best defining tropes of a horror movie, in a persistent evil figure that is hellbent on your destruction, lots and lots of blood, final guys and girls to root for, and some truly gnarly deaths. The film mixes all of that with Raimi's signature penchant for camp to make a truly unforgettable franchise.
The Evil Dead franchise spawned two sequels, a reboot, a TV show, a video game, and now, another installment: the Lee Cronin-directed Evil Dead Rise, which is in theaters now. But with all of this deliciously unhinged horror on our hands, you may be asking yourself: Where do I start? Which one really deserves a rewatch? That's why we've undertaken the enormous task of combing through every scene of The Evil Dead movies, sequels, and remakes to count down the worst to the best entries in the franchise. All of it? It's in the name of celebrating a low-budget horror film that crawled its way out of its humble beginnings—and into full-fledged universe of stories.
Army of Darkness (1993)
Immediately following the conclusion of Evil Dead 2, Ash Williams, our reluctant hero, is transported to the Middle Ages. There, you guessed it, the Deadites are clambering after him to wreak havoc... medieval-style. Abandoning the franchise's isolated cabin setting allows for our wacky final guy to have some fun misadventures, but it does make for a less scary sequel. Army of Darkness is a joyous romp with lots of warrior and Deadite action—but sadly, terror and thrills aren't the focus here.
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Now that we've established that timelines, rules, and continuity hold no weight in the Evil Dead world, we can fully embrace this fifth installment, Evil Dead Rise, from director Lee Cronin. This film might be the bloodiest one yet, which is a serious amount of blood—almost 1,700 gallons of it, according to Cronin.
In Evil Dead Rise, we meet a family of five, featuring a single mother and a drifter aunt who comes to stay. The typical isolated cabin is swapped out for a crumbling Los Angeles apartment building... but it turns out to be just as haunted and inescapable. The Book of the Dead returns and unleashes unimaginable horror—and, oh yeah, tons of blood on the unsuspecting family. Will the kids and their aunt survive their possessed mother, who is hellbent on desecrating their souls? With all these fun scares and plenty of gory kills, it hardly even matters.
In Theaters
Evil Dead (2013)
This entry is a remake/sequel/reboot of the original Evil Dead, although I think we know by this point that the movies in franchise don't respect continuity in any way shape or form. Time? That's a construct in Sam Raimi's world baby. This reboot marked director Fede Álvarez's debut feature—and he went full throttle in this nightmare. Evil Dead is the most serious take on the franchise's lore. Gore, disgusting death scenes, and a hellish fight for survival ensues. Evil Dead is missing the lively campiness from the original Sam Raimi-directed films, but the film makes up for it in spades with its intensity.
The Evil Dead (1981)
The Evil Dead, the film that launched all of the madness, comes in a tight, almost impossibly close second to its successor. When The Evil Dead arrived fresh from the wild imagination of Sam Raimi, it shocked and enthralled audiences. It served a powerful combination of genuinely horrifying scares and visceral effects. It received a majority of positive reviews from critics—and became a cult favorite amongst horror fans. Raimi's use of brutal gore and mise-en-scène set the hyperstylistic approach to filmmaking he became known for. Even decades later, The Evil Dead still haunts us.
Evil Dead 2 (1987)
What even is Evil Dead 2? Released in 1987, it's a strange brew that's not quite a sequel, and also not a remake. The film exists in the glorious Evil Dead universe as the crowning jewel of the franchise. Returning to the Evil Dead story, Sam Raimi returns to his beloved character, Ash Williams—and the Deadites, of course—with a twisted sense of humor and even more thrills. Our hero, Ash, battles with his own right hand (!) and faces off with inanimate objects that laugh at and taunt him. Equal parts knee-slapping hilarious and absurdly violent, Evil Dead 2 mastered the perfect recipe for a horror comedy.
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