Evil Dead-October 28 Part 2

 Aaron Perez

10/28/2026

Image Credit: New Line Cinema

    Few horror franchises have thrived by refusing to stay dead—or consistent—quite like The Evil Dead. What started as a low-budget nightmare in the woods has expanded into a sprawling mythology of possession, practical gore, and the enduring power of an ancient text that refuses to stay buried. Central to the modern understanding of the series is a key detail from Army of Darkness: there are three distinct volumes of the Necronomicon (also called the Naturom Demonto or Book of the Dead). Each has surfaced in different stories, allowing the original trilogy, the 2013 film, Evil Dead Rise, and the newest entry to coexist in the same cursed universe without erasing what came before.

The Original Trilogy: Ash, the Cabin, and the First Book

The Evil Dead (1981)
    Sam Raimi’s debut remains a masterclass in resourceful terror. Five friends at a remote cabin discover the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. What follows is relentless possession, inventive practical effects, and a camera that feels like it’s hunting the characters. Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams begins as an ordinary guy and ends up forever changed. The film’s raw intensity and handmade violence set the template.

Evil Dead II (1987)
         Part sequel, part escalation, and part soft reset of the first film’s events, this is where the series fully embraces “splatstick.” Ash loses a hand, gains a chainsaw, and battles both Deadites and his own possessed limb in a nonstop cascade of inventive, cartoonish gore. The tone shifts toward horror-comedy without losing the underlying dread. Many still consider it the peak of the original run.

Army of Darkness (1992)
    Ash is flung into the Middle Ages, where he encounters not one but three copies of the Book of the Dead. He takes one; the other two remain unaccounted for—until later films claim them. The movie leans into adventure and quotable swagger (“This is my boomstick”) while delivering skeleton armies and large-scale practical spectacle. It closes the classic trilogy on a pulp high note and quietly plants the seeds for the franchise’s expanded continuity.

The Expanded Universe: Other Copies of the Book

Evil Dead (2013)
    Directed by Fede Álvarez and produced by Raimi and Campbell, this is not a full reboot that discards the originals. It functions as a sequel/parallel incident in the same world, centered on a different volume of the Necronomicon (the Naturom Demonto). A new group, led by Jane Levy’s Mia, faces the same cabin and the same forces. The tone is far more brutal and grounded than the original trilogy’s growing sense of humor, with exceptional practical effects and a commitment to body horror. Álvarez has noted that the similarities to the first film are deliberate “dark fate” created by the book itself, and visual details (including Ash’s car) reinforce the shared universe rather than a clean slate.

Evil Dead Rise (2023)
    Lee Cronin takes the third volume of the book and moves the action out of the woods into a Los Angeles apartment building. A family becomes the latest target when the Necronomicon is unearthed. The film delivers inventive, vicious set pieces (the elevator sequence stands out) while expanding the mythology: the books can have slightly different “personalities,” and the Deadites adapt to new environments. Cronin has openly referenced the three-book idea from Army of Darkness, positioning Rise as the story of the remaining volume. It proved the franchise could thrive without Ash or a cabin while staying true to the series’ love of tactile, excessive violence.

Evil Dead Burn (2026)
    The newest entry, directed by Sébastien Vaniček, continues the modern branch of the series as a standalone yet connected chapter following Rise. After the loss of her husband, a woman (Souheila Yacoub) seeks solace with her in-laws in a secluded family home. The gathering turns into a family reunion from hell as the Deadites claim the household one by one.

    Burn leans into domestic tension, grief, and toxic family dynamics alongside the expected demonic carnage. It features the franchise’s signature practical effects and relentless intensity, with the Kandarian dagger playing a notable role and references that further tie the expanded stories back toward the original lore (including research connected to Professor Knowby). The film keeps the modern entries’ darker, more serious edge while delivering the mean, nasty gore fans expect. It confirms that the Deadites—and the books that summon them—can strike anywhere a copy of the Necronomicon surfaces.

Ash vs. Evil Dead and the Larger Picture

    The 2015–2018 Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead continues Ash’s story decades later, keeping the original trilogy’s tone of chaotic humor and escalating supernatural threats. Across the films and series, the three-volume concept provides a clean way for different protagonists and settings to exist side by side: Ash and the classic cabin stories with one book, the 2013 film with another, and the Rise/Burn lineage with the third.

Why It Still Works

    The Evil Dead endures because it treats practical effects as creative challenges rather than limitations, understands that horror and excess can share the frame, and keeps finding new ways for the Book of the Dead to ruin lives. Whether you prefer the pure cabin terror of 1981, the anarchic comedy of 1987, the medieval pulp of 1992, the grim intensity of 2013, the vertical apartment nightmare of 2023, or the family-from-hell brutality of 2026, the series remains essential. The books are still out there. The Deadites are still coming. And the franchise shows no sign of staying buried.

Sources:

Álvarez, Fede, director. Evil Dead. TriStar Pictures, 2013.

Cronin, Lee, director. Evil Dead Rise. New Line Cinema / Warner Bros., 2023.

Egan, Kate. The Evil Dead. Wallflower Press, 2011. (Cultographies series)

“Evil Dead Rise Director Talks Necronomicons and How the Film Fits into the Evil Dead Universe.” Flickering Myth, 12 Jan. 2023, www.flickeringmyth.com/evil-dead-rise-director-lee-cronin-talks-necronomicons-and-how-his-film-fits-into-the-series/.

Macias, Gil. “‘Evil Dead Burn’ Director Sébastien Vaniček on Making the Franchise’s Most Brutal Chapter Yet.” LA Weekly, 9 July 2026, www.laweekly.com/evil-dead-burn-director-director-sebastien-vanicek-on-making-the-franchises-most-brutal-chapter-yet/.

Minton, Matt. “‘Evil Dead Burn’ Director on Practical Effects, Post-Credits Scene.” Variety, 12 July 2026, variety.com/2026/film/news/evil-dead-burn-director-practical-effects-post-credits-scene-1236808969/.

Raimi, Sam, director. Army of Darkness. Universal Pictures, 1992.

---. Evil Dead II. Rosebud Releasing / De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1987.

---. The Evil Dead. New Line Cinema, 1981.

Riekki, Ron, and Jeffrey A. Sartain, editors. The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise. McFarland, 2019.

Vaniček, Sébastien, director. Evil Dead Burn. New Line Cinema / Warner Bros. Pictures, 2026.

Warren, Bill. The Evil Dead Companion. Titan Books, 2000.