Tales from the Script: A Dissection of The Evil Dead Trilogy

[BEWARE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS AHEAD]

It’s England in 1300 A.D., and society is divided into armored, ruling-class knights and dirt-covered peasants. In Lord Arthur’s Kingdom, defined by rolling hills and feudal castles, knights ride horses carrying steel swords and the phenomenon of medieval panic. From the sky falls their savior: a 20th-century man trapped in the Middle Ages, bearing a 12-gauge double-barreled Remington shotgun. To return to the future, he must retrieve the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (also known as the Book of the Dead) and battle an army of deadites. 

I didn’t make this up. This is the plot of the 1992 film Army of Darkness, the threequel of the original Evil Dead trilogy directed by American filmmaker Sam Raimi. 

The final man, Ash Williams (played by Bruce Campbell), somehow survives the three films. But in order to get to the middle ages, the story starts in the early 1980s. 

The Evil Dead, 1981: “the low-budget”

History: Longtime friends, Raimi and Campbell, spent their high school years making amateur Super 8mm short films together. While Raimi was studying at Michigan State University, he was inspired to write a movie script based on the Egyptian “Book of the Dead” after studying it for a literature project. To convince investors to fund his film, he pitched his idea using a 32-minute short film he created, titled Within the Woods, which blended Sumerian and Egyptian concepts of the dead that were later scrapped. As a young independent filmmaker breaking into the industry,  low-budget horror seemed like the move. He thought, “Who else would I cast if not my closest friend, Bruce Campbell?” The pair scraped together money from local investors, family, and friends to bring their vision to life. During post-production, Campbell even gambled with his family’s property, putting it up as collateral to secure a loan. For his first feature-length film, I’d call it a breakthrough. 

The Evil Dead tells the story of five college students who vacation at a remote cabin in the woods. It’s no surprise what happens next… this is a horror movie, after all. In the cellar, they discover a cursed tome called “The Book of the Dead.” Its pages are filled with gruesome illustrations, alongside a tape recorder left by an archaeologist. They play the tape, which reads the phonetic translations of the book’s incantations aloud… subsequently unleashing an ancient demonic entity that possesses the group one by one, turning them into decaying monsters known as “deadites.” Ash is forced to take on a gory fight for survival against his own friends throughout the night. 

This movie is very fast-paced and uses characters as vessels to later turn into enemy “deadites.” There isn’t too much happening besides fighting to stay alive. With 85 minutes of splatter, foggy atmosphere, and distorted sound effects, it’s clear that Raimi aimed to give viewers a real thrill. The raw filmmaking does show its age, but it adds a sense of eeriness and uncertainty that gives viewers a rush. You can’t disparage an original film. It was 1981; this was cool at the time. 

Evil Dead II, 1987: “the requel”

History: To get the original film into theaters worldwide, the film’s home and video rights were sold to roughly 50 international distributors. Evil Dead II was funded by a separate production company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. This meant that in order to use footage from the first film, Raimi needed clearance from each of the distributors. Considering some were small companies that had gone out of business, this task proved to be nearly impossible. So, instead of tracking down dozens of distributors scattered across the globe, he decided to spend a couple of days reshooting a recap of the first film. Because Raimi did not own the rights to The Evil Dead, the condensed version was reenvisioned and rebuilt. Instead of recreating the exact plot of the first movie with the full cast, Raimi cuts the extra characters completely and tells the brief prologue as if only Ash and his girlfriend Linda were on the trip. Additionally, they had to recast Linda because her original actress was pregnant at the time of shooting. This left moviegoers confused about whether the film was a remake or a sequel. 

Campbell has repeatedly stated that viewers mistakenly think Ash was foolish enough to return to the cabin with new friends. He called the film a “requel.” Unlike the first Evil Dead, humor and comedy take on a significant role in the second movie. The shift to comedy-horror occurred because audience members kept fainting during screenings of the original. Raimi mixed his classic splatter gore with slapstick to help rebuild his industry reputation. Campbell had aspirations to be a comedic actor, so Raimi decided to inject humor into Evil Dead II by mimicking The Three Stooges in his filmmaking.

Ok, stay with me now. 

The film begins. But who is that? And what is going on? Hopefully, you can answer these questions now. After the 15-minute recap, the film follows Ash as he continues to fight the deadites. He’s interrupted by Annie Knowby, the daughter of the archaeologist speaking on the tape that summoned the entity surrounding the woods, who helps him learn more about The Book of the Dead. In an attempt to banish the deadites for good, Annie recites a reading to open a portal, but is killed before being able to close it. Ash gets sucked into the portal and falls through a multiverse, sending him back in time to the Middle Ages.  

After watching Evil Dead II, I was shocked. Out of all the possible endings I envisioned for this movie, the actual ending never crossed my mind. Raimi’s incorporation of humor in this film solidifies the new style that the third film, Army of Darkness, follows. The way the script was written also gives Ash a greater sense of resilience that translates into the cartoonish action hero he’s later depicted as. He always gets the final word before defeating a deadite, and has some incredible one-liners that help shape his character into a horror icon, such as “swallow this” and “groovy” (some of my personal favorites). This film also explores concepts of more psychological horror, with Ash’s descent to madness that ends with the chopping off of his own hand by a chainsaw. 

Army of Darkness, 1992: “the comedy”

The third chapter in Ash’s story. 

History: In 1990, Raimi directed the horror superhero film Darkman, under Universal Pictures.  Following the box-office success, he earned the trust of Universal and financier Dino De Laurentiis to secure an $11 million budget, which was the highest of the three films. Army of Darkness, originally titled “Medieval Dead,” is a direct continuation of Evil Dead II. Universal Pictures dropped the “Evil Dead” connection from the title to appeal to general audiences. 

At a special event at the historic Fremont Theater in downtown San Luis Obispo, Campbell hosted an in-person Q&A session following a full screening of the film. Here, he said Universal Studios decided to call the film Army of Darkness to separate it from the franchise because they thought “nobody has seen those two movies…” even though many favor Raimi’s original title, “Medieval Dead.” With this film, Raimi implements adventure into the trilogy, finally accomplishing his action-hero vision for the character Ash. Campbell even performed his own stunts, ending up with a broken ankle and requiring plastic surgery after cutting his face on costume armor. 

The opening scene starts with narration from Ash explaining the situation he’s in. Time flashes back to his ordinary life working at S-Mart, quickly recapping the first two films and his never-ending fight with the Book of the Dead that has now landed him 682 years back into the past. Here, he is mistaken for a spy from the kingdom’s rival leader, Duke Henry the Red, and gets captured by Lord Arthur’s men. After surviving being thrown into a pit with deadites by using his 12-gauge “boomstick,” he wins over the locals, who now believe Ash to be the prophetically promised savior. In an attempt to get back home, Ash retrieves the Book of the Dead. He botches the words of the magic incantation needed to safely take the book, accidentally awakening an army of skeletal undead and forces. Ash has to set aside his desire to go home to help defeat the army, using 20th-century engineering. Alongside Lord Arthur and Duke Henry’s forces, Ash builds weapons and gunpowder to fight off the deadites.

The third installment of the franchise is by far the most absurd, but easily the most memorable (hence why I started this analysis with it in mind). I don’t know what made Raimi decide that sending Ash to 1300 A.D. was the best way to conclude the trilogy, but I applaud his decision-making. This film takes a turn away from the classic “cabin in the woods” trope of the first two movies. It feels like you’re watching the lives of video game characters through a really long video game cutscene. It’s way less of a fright flick than the first two and doesn’t exhibit any jump scares, but it’s entertaining, and the quality of the effects will keep you laughing. It’s a fun, unique way to wrap up what started with an independent film that sent theater audiences into shock.  

Until next time… the script is closed. 

Experience the supernatural horror on your own. I suggest watching the films as opposed to booking a stay at an isolated cabin in the woods. You never know… there may be grave consequences. 

---

Kate Casillas is a member of our editorial team. She wrote the article. Sam Thome is one of our art managers. He made the graphics.