Welcome to our 9 Deuce Horror group’s Evil Dead franchise discussion. You know the drill by now. I ask 9 film specific questions and then have some wiggle room for 2 bonus questions that may not be film specific. I am your host, Kent, and today I am here with Kristi, Chris, and Dom. Please, if you are reading this and would like to participate in one of these, contact me. All comments in bold are from me. We will be tackling The Evil Dead franchise on July 20th in our next blog, so I hope that pleases the masses.
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- Which of the 3 Evil Dead films is your favorite? Please keep in mind that nobody would ever say the remake and be allowed to post on this blog.
Kristi: I have to go with the original. It holds a special place in my heart. The beginning of an era, if you will.
Chris: Army of Darkness. My parents relatively sheltered me from horror movies growing up, so I hadn’t seen either Evil Dead or Evil Dead 2 before it came out (although I do remember seeing the cover of the VHS for it in Video World). Army I saw in the theater with my dad. After that the next time I spent a weekend with him we rented ED 1+2 to watch. But Army stills hold a place in my heart for being the first. (Horror movies bringing families together. Honestly, my mom took me to see a bunch and rented even more for me.)
Dom: In terms of horror, the first one, though I do have few issues with it. (Hmmm, you have me intrigued about your issues.)
Kent: I’m sticking with the original because it was the closest to horror and had a lot of my favorite scenes from the franchise. All are great in their own way. Poor part 2 gets no love because it’s not extreme in either direction, or at least that’s my guess why.
- Sam Raimi has made plenty of films aside from this trilogy. Which is your favorite of his, and tell me why? Other notable films include the Spiderman trilogy, Darkman, The Gift, Simple Plan, Drag Me To Hell, For The Love of the Game, and The Quick and the Dead.
Kristi: I had to do some googling for this one. The Grudge. I dig those flix. (I had no idea that he produced The Grudge. Gotta love IMDB!)
Chris: I forgot that I had never seen the Gift, which is now on my watch list. I guess The Quick and the Dead for introducing Russell Crowe. Or if you mean his scary movies Spiderman 3 for shitting all over the franchise. (I do love me some Russell Crowe. This is also how you can tell that I am not a Spiderman fan, as part 3 was my favorite of the 3. I know, I know, I’m an awful person in the eyes of every comic book fan, to which I am 100% ok with. I also liked XMen Origins Wolverine and XMen 3 better than the first and second films, and I will defend that position.)
Dom: The Gift and Oz the Great and Powerful (I only know about The Gift because of Katie Holmes, and had never heard of the Oz film. I would watch both I think.)
Kent: A Simple Plan was a brilliant film. I don’t know why it flew under the radar, but I absolutely loved it. It had Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton. I also gotta give props to Drag Me To Hell as it was fun at the very least. I’m honestly not a Spiderman fan though.
- Were you a kid or an adult when you first saw these films? Did it frighten you, or at least make you jump the first time that you saw it?
Kristi: I was late teens, early 20s. I had just eaten some Shrooms so it was friggin hilarious!!!
Chris: I was a teenager. No they didn’t. While I can appreciate what they were attempting in ED1 it wasn’t scary to my badass teenage self. And ED2 and Army were to comedic to really be scary
Dom: Teenager. And yes. If horror (or even suspense/thriller) movies are done right then you should have at least one moment you “jump”
Kent: I was probably in my mid to late teens. It was from Captain Video when you could get 5 movies for 5 nights for $5. I loved that place. The first film gave me a jump scare, so I was happy.
- The Evil Dead franchise is, by far, the most well loved and known horror franchise with a male protagonist and survivor. It’s an incredibly popular franchise, so why do you think that horror movies still stick to the cliched female survivor thing that we have had for decades?
Kristi: I have no idea but Ash is, by far, the best of the survivors!
Chris: Because by and large women are physically weaker than men. How often do you see roided out he-men as the protagonist in horror movies? It is usually children and women. I like when movies try to break the mold, but horror usually comes from placing the protagonist or the victim in a state of vulnerability. Depending on the type of situation you have in your movie that can lead to cliches or what have you.
Dom: Because young, beautiful girls in danger sells tickets. The idea that a girl is the main protagonist and the villain is generally male sets up a brains vs brawn scenario. We as an audience tend to root for the underdog. Yes we may get behind the villain for 85% of the film but in the end we want to know that the heroine can best the bad guy and if her or her (girl) friends boob happen to pop out so much the better. More Ticket sales.
Kent: I honestly don’t get it. A little variety would do this genre good. I could understand if this franchise failed, but it didn’t. I don’t really care how you take it, most women I know would absolutely panic and die in these scenarios, but when put in the film, suddenly they become smart and crafty. Please, spare me this nonsense. I feel the price of surviving is to get topless, male or female. That way everybody wins! I gotta give a shout out to Kincaid in Nightmare on Elm Street 3 for surviving. Poor dude didn’t last long in part 4, but that’s to be expected. Also, I don’t know where the fellas in the Phantasm franchise come into play, but that is another big franchise with male survivors, but it’s an odd one. These memes are for my enjoyment only.
- Army of Darkness isn’t really much of a horror. I think most people would agree that it’s a fantasy comedy with hints of horror, more or less. Can you think of any other films where the sequel(s) was/were such a sudden directional change in genre or theme? I don’t mean lousy sequels that made no sense like Blair Witch 2. I’m talking about going from drama to action or something along those lines.
Kristi: I can’t think of any that changed genres. The only one that comes to mind that was different is Halloween- Season of the Witch. I dig that movie but it really had no place in the Halloween trilogy. I feel like it would have done a lot better if it had been on its own. (We recently had a talk about this film. It’s pretty damn good and underrated.)
Chris: Waxwork and Waxwork 2. The first one was a relatively decent conglomeration of horror vignettes. The sequel went straight up comedy. The Aliens franchise: 1-sci-fi/horror, 2-action/horror, 3-nihilism/horror, 4- w/e the hell that shit was, AvP- sci-fi/action?, AvP Requiem-direct to video shit. The Puppet Master series, where the dolls went from being serial killers to getting revenge on Nazis to protecting people from demons. Wtf (Waxwork is a really good call, and I feel it’s one of those films that not many people remember. Alien franchise, that was going to be one that I tackled, but you did such a wonderful job, I left it alone.)
Kent: I should have written these down as I had a few of them, but alas, I’m a moron. Pet Sematary 2 was quite the change from the first one. Wolf Creek 2 became more of a comedy. Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was thematically different in many ways. One of the Children of teh Corn, like part 8 is very different from what the others had done. Leprechaun In The Hood was a big change comparatively. Hellraiser went into space, so did Jason Voorhees. Jason in Manhattan was also an oddity and very funny. The Last Exorcism’s sequel wasn’t quite right compared to the first one, which I absolutely loved. There was the Paranormal Activity with the Spanish or Mexican folks, somebody was definitely Latin, and I think it was the 5th one, and it was pretty different. I think I liked it better than some of the previous ones to be honest. The Phantasm franchise in general goes through some odd changes. OK, I’ll stop now.
- What is your favorite scene from The Evil Dead (part 1)?
Kristi: I love clown face Linda. Best part is when she’s sitting there all creepy as shit saying “We’re Gonna Get You”! Love that shit.
Chris: the chainsaw in the shack
Dom: this scene also happens to be the one of the worst scenes for me as well: The tree rape scene.
Kent: Tree rape. If you know me and didn’t guess that, then shame on you.
- What is your favorite scene from Evil Dead II?
Kristi: Dead Linda dancing in the woods. Like seriously, what the f%$k was that!!
Chris: the whole possessed hand scene is great
Dom: When Ash gets the Chainsaw hand
Kent: The whole house just going ape shit, that whole scene is amazing.
- What is your favorite scene from Army of Darkness?
Kristi: Being as this was originally an Army of Darkness blog, I decided to choose a few scenes. Most of them one liners..
“Well Hello My Fancypants”.. I laugh every time.
Introducing his gun “This is my Boomstick!”
“Say hello the 21st century” and driving up with his car windmill murder car. That thing was awesome!
I also very much enjoyed the fighing skeletons.
I know it took a different direction but i thouroghly enjoyed it!
I just love the zero F%$ks giving, Ash in this film. Ash is my hero. 😉 (This is, by far, the biggest answer that you have provided. Kudos to you, and glad to see you really getting into this one.)
Chris: So many. But probably the most iconic is “Klatthu, barrada, necktie” in the graveyard
Kent: The whole “This is my boomstick” scene will always get me pumped. I don’t care how cliche that answer is, it’s great!
- Aside from the Evil Dead world, what is your favorite Bruce Campbell role, whether it was on TV or in a film?
Kristi: I enjoy his role in Burn Notice. Its a pretty entertaining show.
Chris: I liked Sam Axe on Burn Notice because it gave him something different than what he always seemed to be typecast as. Or Elvis in Bubba-Ho-Tep
Dom: When he played on Hercules and Xena. Also the TV series Jack of All Trades.
Kent: I got 3 to offer. Maniac Cop was a fun one. The ring announcer in Spiderman, mainly because of Macho Man Randy Savage being involved. Finally, he had this real bit part in The Ladykillers, but that movie is a real treat.
Bonus Double Deuce
- If they ever made a legit reboot of The Evil Dead, not that trash from 2013, would you prefer that they focus more on the horror or comedic vibe that this franchise has given us?
Kristi: I’d like more like Ash vs the Evil Dead. Has a lot of comedic elements but still a little horrorish.
Chris: Let’s face it, the more successful the films became the funnier they became. There really is an untapped market for intelligent horror comedies. We get maybe one or two a year. (I would love to have more that worked well, unlike Zombeavers.)
Dom: Horror. The movie is horror based. Keep it that way.
Kent: I would keep it horror with a few witty one liners. Scary movies are allowed to make you laugh every once in awhile to lighten the mood, depending on the scenario. Just keep it scary when it needs to be. In Friday the 13th, it’s ok if the counselors are joking in the first 30 minutes, but then there’s a time to get serious.
- Name another film that you liked that you could see was directly influenced by these films. It would be nice if you told us what aspect was influenced. Be creative!
Chris: Cabin in the Woods riffed heavily on several of the scenes/themes present in a pretty good way. The whole title could be cribbed from the ed trilogy. (Yeah, this was going to be my answer as well.)
Dom: My mind is blanking on me
Kent: Drag Me To Hell had some of that tongue in cheek comedy and it reminded me of this, but that’s an obvious connection. I feel the need to bring up Home Alone and scary things in the basement, just to keep that joke running. I hate the fact that I am blanking on any number of horror films in the woods. Seriously, I am losing faith in my memory. Dreamcatcher maybe….let’s say that it counts. I’m sorry.
- Let’s talk about what has happened recently. In 2013, they remade Evil Dead. Did you see it? If so, what was your take on the film? Keep in mind that I will not be commenting on anything positive said about the film as iI don’t feel like hurting people’s feelings with scathing commentary.
Kristi: It was just a gore fest. I didn’t hate it as much as you but it’s not something I will be watching again.
Chris: Blasphemy. I didn’t see it. The only positive I have heard about it was a plausible excuse for why they were so remote in the woods.
Dom: I did not see it
Kent: It’s one of the lowest rated big budget horror films ever for me. So many issues with it.Just avoid at all costs.
- Have you watched any of Ash vs The Evil Dead, and if so, are they doing the franchise justice?
Kristi: Thanks to you, Yes I have!! I really like it. I think they did it well and I’m looking forward to season 2.
Chris: Yes it is great. The only thing I would love would have been for them to be able to acknowledge AoD in Ash’s past, but they can’t since they don’t own the rights. Lee Majors as his dad was awesome
Dom: I have and I love it. My only complaint is that it’s too short per episode. I’d love it if someone took all the episodes and sliced them together as a “film”
Kent: Yeah, it took a little bit of adjusting for me, but I got into it and was pleased.
I just want to say that although Army of Darkness was the original winner, I felt that people would feel ripped off not to get the full Evil Dead experience. I hope that you enjoyed this larger endeavor. Thank you, Kristi, Chris, and Dom so very much for actually following through and helping me get through this monster project.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
- Renaissance Pictures (presents)
- De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)
- Universal Pictures
- TriStar Pictures (presents)
- FilmDistrict (presents)
- Ghost House Pictures (presents)
- Starz!
Please go find a copy and support the creators.