give up 30 class ago today , Evil Dead II is still the funniest horror movie ever made , as well as one of the greatest revulsion sequels . Far more than the first Evil Dead moving picture , it launched the calling of conductor Sam Raimi and star Bruce Campbell , and it has influence countless splat - reefer films that matched gore an jape in equal bar . Here are our favorites .
1) The Cabin in the Woods
Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon ’s vastly enjoyable station - up of slasher picture show borrow from a lot of horror that get along before . But its setting — a Greco-Roman chilling movie “ bad position ” so iconic it ’s enough to shape the movie ’s total title of respect — owes a debt to the first two Evil Dead motion-picture show , while its ability to be simultaneously scary , double-dyed , and screamingly comic is a heartbeat to Evil Dead II specifically . And while The Cabin in the Woods ’ big reveal that the animal menacing its college - kid protagonists are actually controlled by techs who have the cabin under surveillance is an musical theme unique to the film , the theme that malevolent ancient forces are one bungled forfeit ( or one irresponsibly speak Book of the Dead incantation ) off from wipe out all of humanity is not .
2) Army of Darkness
We might as well get this obvious but utterly beloved entry out of the way early . The saga of Ash Williams , the Deadites , the Necronomicon , and Ash ’s darling Delta 88 continued — this sentence with fourth dimension travel!—in this 1992 sequel to Evil Dead II . Transporting Ash to the Middle Ages makes the pic even more of a Pisces - out - of - water comedy , though it still has plenty of body snatcher and gore to go with its illusion component . An Evil Dead 4 was often discussed over the old age ( with some mad idea on the table , including sending Ash to the time to come ) , but the Evil all in reality eventually spawned a not - shitty remaking of Raimi ’s original moving-picture show , as well as the gleefully blood - soaked Ash vs Evil Dead TV series alternatively .
3) Shaun of the Dead
Like Peter Jackson , Edgar Wright has made no secret of his admiration for Raimi and his malevolent Dead age group . In 2007 , while making the round for Hot Fuzz , he tell The Telegraph :
“ Evil Dead 2 is the motion-picture show that rig me off on my career , ” say Wright . “ You could easily pick holes in the dialogue and the plotting , but it ’s all about the director running riot with the form .
“ The 45 - second midsection has just one character being rag , and not only by the flavor in the news report but by the director and the camera , too . It ’s as if the camera is a character within the pic – that ’s what ’s so imaginative about it . Most repugnance films are about people being picked off ; Evil Dead 2 is about one actor being picked on .
“ Orson Welles sound out a movie studio apartment was the best gearing set a boy could have . In Evil Dead 2 , Sam Raimi is like a small fry smashing up his train set , making it go faster and quicker until it crashes . ”
Wright ’s breakout feature , 2004 ’s zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead , has a lot of Evil Dead II ’s harebrained heart and exuberantly gushing blood , even if it has a whole lot more characters and locations . Adding an even deep level , the telly show Wright made with Shaun stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost , Spaced , was satiate with pop culture reference , include outcry - out to the Evil Dead celluloid .
4) Bubba Ho-Tep
Obviously , director - screenwriter Don Coscarelli ( Phantasm ) and origin - material author Joe Lansdale both had a huge hand in creating Bubba Ho - Tep , one of the greatest cult movies ever . But would Bubba Ho - Tep have been nearly as memorable without Bruce Campbell ’s performance as an elderly Elvis Presley , live incognito all these year in a nursing home that suddenly finds itself beset by a soul - give suck mama ? The Evil Dead movies — especially Army of Darkness , which ends with Ash declaring “ Hail to the King , baby”—really laid the base for Campbell to just outright play Elvis in a motion-picture show one day . And Bubba Ho - Tep bright ask vantage not just of Campbell ’s forcible resemblance to the medicine caption , but his Ash - honed part as someone who can keep his swagman while battle supernatural beasties .
5) Dead Alive
Peter Jackson has often praise Evil Dead and Evil Dead II — movies made by a guy his age , with nothing to go on but raw gift and a 16 millimeter tv camera — as being hugely motivating for his own film calling . In aninterview with Fangoria , Jackson explained :
malign Dead was a movie that was memorable for me in the sense that beyond the qualities of the film itself , which is that it ’s a quite entertaining , suspect , gratifying plastic film , it just made me consider , “ God , I could do that , ” because I was old enough . I had a 16 millimeter camera when Evil Dead come out and Evil Dead II a few years after , and I was right on the cusp of want to make a 16 mm film , and then here come a horror motion picture that somebody else of a alike years as me made in 16 mm . It really helped me get lead on Bad Taste , which was my first film , and so it was one of those inspirational moments . The type of musical note in Evil Dead II was a little bit more like what I enjoyed , which was this rollicking over - the - top sputter movie . That combination of feeling is what regulate me as I was get into my first features .
That ability to deftly mix humor and horror is something that ’s very apparent in 1992 ’s Dead Alive , and it ’s something Jackson has carried over into his late celluloid , too — even the Lord of the Rings series has a bit of that flavour .
6) Dead Snow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19KagZyU40
Because sometimes , there ’s not an undead beldame chained in the cellar of that isolate cabin you ’ve declare company HQ for the weekend . Sometimes , there are flash-frozen Nazi zombies buried deep within the Norwegian ski slope just outside your door . In either event , you got ta do what you got ta do , with whatever ’s on handwriting in the middle of nowhere , to hear and live . line : no matter your foe , chainsaw always come in in ready to hand .
7) Ghosthouse
The unholy conjugation of managing director Umberto Lenzi ( Cannibal Ferox ) and manufacturer Joe D’Amato produced this “ unofficial ” 1988 sequel to Evil Dead II , which is sometimes called La Casa 3 , after the Italian title for the Evil Dead series ( with Lenzi credited with the in question alias “ Humphrey Humbert ” ) . Ghosthouse is a rip - off patchwork of the highest order , though as you may see from the trailer , Evil Dead II is n’t one of the immediately obvious influence . However , there is a horrifying goofball bird that should probably make out with a trigger warning as well as some variety of creative - permit fee to Poltergeist .
8) My Name Is Bruce
Years before Ash vs. Evil Dead took a facial expression at what “ El Jefe ” had been doing with his lifespan with since that journey to the Middle Ages , Bruce Campbell maneuver and starred in this meta - comedy that pokes fun at a like topic . He plays an magnified rendering of himself who begrudgingly accord to help a pocket-size town contend off a furious daemon that ’s appear in their thick . The cast also includes Evil Dead series alums Ted Raimi , Ellen Sandweiss , and Dan Hicks . And if it ’s not quite the cult classic that it aspires to be , My Name Is Bruce offers the serious evidence to date that Campbell and Ash ’s personality are essentially standardised .
9) Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
A very funny twist on the genre , in which two proficient ol’ boys who just happen to savour being in the wilderness ( in their very malefic Dead - ish dilapidated cabin ) get false for a twain of hillbilly maniacs by the college kids who ’re camp out nearby . There ’s nothing supernatural in Tucker and Dale vs Evil , and it get fun of movies like Wrong Turn more than anything else — but it ’s so cleverly done , and there are enough similarities there , that it would make an excellent backwoods double - feature with Raimi ’s classic .
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