Evil Dead VS. "The" Evil Dead

[KnightAsylum]

The connection is that they are a Whole series of REALLY bad movies:thumbsdown

 

[Moviefreak]

Good or bad..... a whole group out there loves them!!

 

[CessnaDriver]

I've been in love with them forever.
Just a blast, cult sure, cheap sure, I wouldnt have it any other way. So much fun.
I'll take them over 95% of what comes out of Hollywood these days.

Hail to the king baby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G0Opnwo9Yc

 

[CB2001]

From what I read, the reason why they had the "remake" at the start of the film was because New Line Cinema owned the rights to the first "Evil Dead" and wouldn't give the permission to use the clips from the first film to recap the events for audiences just walking in for the first time. As a result, they had to "remake" the film to explain, real shortly, how Ash got to the cabin and how the evil was unleashed.

I read somewhere a fan was attempting to edit all three films together into one long film, even with the continuity details between the films (like the difference in the cabins between one and two. And yes, they were not the same cabin).

I've read somewhere that Sam and Bruce have announced that there is an "Evil Dead IV" script being worked on. I hope it gets made. Love to see a fourth one (and I've even played "Hail to the King," which actually rocked in my opinion).

 

[MacMantis]

I read somewhere a fan was attempting to edit all three films together into one long film, even with the continuity details between the films (like the difference in the cabins between one and two. And yes, they were not the same cabin).

Did that (in a rudimentary form) a fair few years ago. Ripped the DVD's, and stitched the films together with 'overruns' cut out. I didn't go so far as to edit cabin shots, etc from the second film... but it did produce one (relatively) cohesive unit for me and friends to watch one Halloween. Went with the original ending of AoD. Very tempted to do it again with the Blu versions for this halloween... hmmm....

 

[CB2001]

Did that (in a rudimentary form) a fair few years ago. Ripped the DVD's, and stitched the films together with 'overruns' cut out. I didn't go so far as to edit cabin shots, etc from the second film... but it did produce one (relatively) cohesive unit for me and friends to watch one Halloween. Went with the original ending of AoD. Very tempted to do it again with the Blu versions for this halloween... hmmm....

Yeah. Next to the "Evil Dead" films, many have done a similar edit to the original Halloween and Halloween II. Honestly, I kinda wish the TV version of Halloween II was available on DVD (since Anchor Bay released the "Extended Edition" of Halloween, which includes the extra scenes shot for TV)

 

[Moviefreak]

I will have to check. I think I got a dvd copy of the Halloween II TV version. Not sure when and where I picked it up, but somewhere it was burned on disk.

 

[GeneralFROSTY]

I declined to buy the first Evil Dead on DVD just because the whole thing confuses me too much. I stick with part II just fine.
I would love to see a part 4 - but they better do that pretty soon before Bruce Campbell gets TOO old to do it!

 

[yodakiller1138]

Evil Dead is Sam Rami's student film. Evil Dead 2 is a remake with a bigger budget. Stick with 2+3 and you'll avoid all confusion.:lol

 

[Mola Rob]

Evil Dead is Sam Rami's student film. Evil Dead 2 is a remake with a bigger budget. Stick with 2+3 and you'll avoid all confusion.:lol

Or just watch the first one and avoid seeing the series get progressively worse.

 

[Sigma-LS]

I own Evil Dead on VHS and AoD on DVD but I've never seen the second one. Guess I never caught it on tv.

Guess I need to watch Chiller more closely. It's owned by Scifi right?

 

[MacMantis]

Evil Dead is Sam Rami's student film. Evil Dead 2 is a remake with a bigger budget. Stick with 2+3 and you'll avoid all confusion.:lol

I finally remembered to pick up 'The Evil Dead Companion' and check...

So prepare for quote overload.

Although Sam Raimi Argues against this viewpoint, Evil Dead II can be seen as something like a remake of the original rather than a sequel.

The original idea for Evil Dead 2, and the first press adverts announcing it titled it 'Evil Dead 2: Army of Darkness'. Said Scott Spiegel "Sam was concocting a story which was essentially Army of Darkness... The Deadites, the castle and the time travel idea, but the problem with it is that it was a high-budget sequel to a low-budget, somewhat successful movie, which did just well enough to warrant a sequel... but not an expensive one."

"We tried to get the rights to the footage from Evil Dead to use at the beginning of Evil Dead II" Sam explains. "Unfortunately, because the picture was sold by Irvin Shapiro to so many different countries, and different distributors in each country, we would have had to go to each one - there were probably around fifty - and gotten clearance to use it in their territory. It was a very weird situation - some of the distributors had gone out of business. So we decided that since we couldn't use the footage, we'd just have to reshoot it, to tell the audience what happened, because most people haven't seen The Evil Dead'.

On taking the 5 characters of the original down to the 2 of Ash & Linda "We're just trying to get a shorthand look at the thing - we want to get the audience up to speed to start Evil Dead 2" said Sam.

"...Just show that Ash went up to the cabin with someone, they found the Book of the Dead, it possessed her, and he learned the only way to stop them is through the act of bodily dismemberment - and then we're off and running." He admits with a sigh that those fans who like to see exact continuity between sequels "are very upset with us".

Which is true. First film has 5 people in the cabin to start. The 'recap' in the sequel pairs it down to just Ash & Linda and ends with Ash in medieval times being hailed as a hero. The 3rd film starts with a recap of the second film with a different actress once more playing Linda, Ash going back to Medieval times and being held prisoner.

So in summary. Evil Dead 2 is a sequel to Evil Dead after the first 15 or so minutes which are in essence a reshot recap.

For anyone interested in these films, for whatever reason 'The Evil Dead Companion' is a fun book, full of interviews and snippits, and also a useful source of information to (attempt to) settle discussions such as this. The author is Bill Warren and the ISBN is 1-84023-187-4, if you order it... tell them Ash sent you.

Either Raimi is right, or he's lying to cover his ass. Either way there we have it straight from the horses mouth.

So to Watch it as one semi-cohesive Story...

Watch Evil Dead 1 from beginning to end. Watch Evil Dead 2 from the end of the 'recap' sequence to Ash falling through time. Watch Army of Darkness from Ash hitting the ground in Ancient England. Choose your own ending to that film. :lol

Apologies for any typos... It's 12:35am and I've had a few drinks. :angel

Off to finish my drink and watch Tremors. I own it on DVD... but I'm a sucker for a good B-Movie when it shows up on TV.