Throughout its 41 years the Evil Dead franchise has always suffered from its lack of stable continuity. This lack of any true continuity between the films as always led to issues with connecting the different films. For decades it was easier for fans of the series to take each film separately instead of as one whole story. But with the most recent addition to the franchise, Evil Dead Rise, it seems this issue may be a thing of the past.
History of the Franchise’s Missing Continuity
When The Evil Dead was made in 1981 it was director Sam Rami’s directorial debut, made on a tiny budget of three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, it was supposed to be a one-off film. Rami initially only decided to make the sequel film out of desperation to save his career after his failed film Crimewave.
However, the decision to make this sequel would only kickstart the issues that would plague the series for forty years. Because The Evil Dead had its distribution rights sold to multiple different studios at the time of the filming of its sequel Rami was unable to acquire footage of his own film, forcing him to do a partial remake.
The first fifteen minutes of Evil Dead II are a remake of the first film, changing key parts of the first story, such as characters and plots. At the end of The Evil Dead the book of the dead is destroyed by Ash in a fire, but in Evil Dead II it is intact. In Evil Dead II Ash’s friends, and their bodies, are absent and never mentioned. Even the state of the cabin itself is not free from the issues in the continuity.
The partial remakes of the history of the films did not end with the sequel but instead continued to plague the franchise. The third film Army of Darkness was filled with studio involvement, leading to a change of title, a change of ending, and three different movie cuts. Army of Darkness also changes the entire ending of Evil Dead II as well as adding an entirely new back story to Ash.
The original Evil Dead trilogy is only really connected through Ash Williams, its characters and stories changing drastically throughout each addition. Even the films tones don’t connect to each other. The Evil Dead is your classic cabin in the woods horror movie, Evil Dead II adds a dark comedy element to the film, and Army of Darkness can barely be considered a horror movie with how comedic it is.
After the release of Army of Darkness it would be almost twenty years before the next film in the franchise was released, continuing the lack of continuity and bringing the franchise back to straight horror. While the 2013 movie shares the same name as the original, does not include any of the original characters, and repeats the same beats as the original movie it is not a reboot. Although this film is supposed to be a sequel to the original series it holds no real connection to the original trilogy other than the enemy of the deadites. The lack of connection to the original trilogy in this sequel only adds onto the disjointedness of the franchise.
Between the release of Evil Dead and Evil Dead Rise there was a three season TV show made which for its first season, again thanks to rights issues, effectively ignored the third movie. Although this was rectified in the second and third season it does not help the argument that the franchise suffers from its lack of a concrete connection between its films. Ash vs Evil Dead also does not mention the 2013 movie or its characters, only focusing on the original trilogy widening the gap between the films.
However, with the release of Evil Dead Rise it seems there may be a way to connect the franchise once and for all.
How Evil Dead Rise Solved the Problem in One Movie
Evil Dead Rise offers a solution to the problem of the lack of connection between films that seems simple and yet had not been brought up before. Instead of connecting the films through its characters as most franchises, such as Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street, it was decided that the movies would be connected through the Necronomicon, also known as the book of the dead.
The Necronomicon was introduced in the first film and provides the titular villains of the franchise. It has been a key staple throughout the movies and TV show but the idea that the book, or books as introduced in Evil Dead Rise, is what could bring the franchise together had not been considered. Of course, the deadites, demons brought about by reading from the book, were always what made a movie an Evil Dead movie. An issue arises when your main villains are evil spirits instead of one recognizable villain such as Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers.
Deadites rely on a set of rules on how they work and how to defeat them, a set of rules that has been changed multiple times throughout the franchise. They also rely on the characters they possess, which have also changed throughout the franchise, as seen in the original trilogy.
So, while for the first 40 years the franchise relied on the presence of the deadites to connect the movies it’s easy to see of this reliance could not last forever.
Evil Dead Rise ensures that it can.
Evil Dead Rise introduces the idea that the three Necronomicons introduced in Army of Darkness are all legit forms of the book of the dead. The original trilogy and the TV show focus on the first book, while the 2013 movie focuses on the second book, and Evil Dead Rise focuses on the third and final book.
This idea to connect the movies, and all future instalments, through the books instead of its characters saves the series from any more headaches about the lack of connection between its instalments. As it allows rules to be bent to fit the book the instalment is going to represent and allows for movies to include and leave out certain characters without worrying about straying too far from the original story.
This decision made by Sam Rami, Bruce Campbell, and Lee Cronin has given a new life to the series, and sets up the possibility of future instalments that are free from the issues that once plagued the series.
It is uncertain whether this idea will truly work the way it’s intended to, as no other movies have been made within the franchise just yet, but Evil Dead Rise provides some hope to fans of the franchise.
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
