Welcome to another daily horror digest from Creepy Catalog. I’m mixing thing up a little today and starting with birthdays, because there’s a person born on this day who is iconic in the horror world, and is of particular importance to me as a fan.
We start birthdays today with horror royalty! Hail to the king as we celebrate Bruce Campbell, born on June 22nd, 1958. You all know what Bruce has starred in. His horror resume is stellar, and he’s an icon of the genre. The Evil Dead (1981) is one of my top-four favorite movies, and I’d argue that the Evil Dead franchise is the most consistently entertaining horror film series ever. Without Bruce Campbell, the franchise wouldn’t be as legendary as it is.
Also born today, on June 22, 1987, is Oh Yeon-seo. She’s a South Korean actress whose horror highlights include a small but memorable role in the movie Voices (2007). She played a student who attacks the main character in the nurse’s office of their school.
And finally, German filmmaker Uwe Boll was born on this day in 1965. Most people probably know Boll from his penchant for adapting video games into movies of questionable quality. As much as I don’t ever want to watch most of his films, House of the Dead (2003) is one that I enjoy for how terrible it is, but in a fun and funny way.
Ridley Scott’s Alien was given its first wide theatrical release in the United States on June 22nd, 1979. The enduring influence of this film is obvious, and it’s always a great one to revisit.
Also on June 22nd, in 2007, 1408 starring John Cusack was released in theaters. It’s based on the short story of the same title by Stephen King, and the film is notable for having multiple endings.
Ranking the Evil Dead Franchise
Rather than talk about what I watched last night, I thought that today, in honor of Bruce Campbell’s birthday, I’d do a quick ranking of the Evil Dead franchise. Bruce is obviously a huge part of the series. Not just because he stars in three of the films (and has sneaky cameos in the other two), but also because he’s been involved behind the scenes since the beginning.
Also, it’s quite possibly my favorite horror franchise ever. I’m only ranking the movies and not the Ash vs. Evil Dead series though. It’s great, but I need to revisit the series to get a better handle on how I feel about it within the context of the overall continuity. With that out of the way, here’s my ranking, best to least best (I love them all, so even last place is still amazing).
- The Evil Dead (1981) – I’ve seen this movie more times than I can count. I love it because it’s rough, fun, and brutal in multiple ways (the incessant noise, the flowing of various fluids, the pace rarely slows down, etc.). You can see the passion and talent that went into making it, and some of the struggles work their way onto the screen. It also has a darker tone than the movies that immediately followed it, and I prefer that.
- Evil Dead (2013) – Speaking of dark tones, Fede Álvarez built his version of Evil Dead upon the original, and he did so amazingly well. The violence and gore are top-notch, the pace is unrelenting, and the twists on ideas started in the 1981 movie are expertly executed. This is how remakequels (or whatever you want to call it, I’m not going to debate you, probably) should be made.
- Evil Dead II (1987) – The comedy ramped way up which is why I don’t like this quite as much as the first movie, but still like it quite a lot. Ash’s battles with his severed hand, Ash and all the items in the cabin laughing, Henrietta, the rotten apple head at the end. It’s all incredibly fun. And what an ending. Best ending to any movie in the franchise.
- Army of Darkness (1993) – Again, I love it, but I rewatch this much less frequently than the movies above it in this list. That said, pretty much all of the quotes from Ash that are in my head daily come from Army of Darkness. One of my favorites, at least at the moment, is “it’s a trick, get an axe.” I will say, if the movie had used the Rip Van Winkle alternate ending, it might be ranked higher.
- Evil Dead Rise (2023) – I really enjoy how the movie transposes the classic “cabin in the woods” scenario into an apartment. It works well, and the Deadite stuff in this movie is a ton of fun. Specifically, Alyssa Sutherland is amazing. If anyone else had played her role, I’m not sure the movie would be as good as it is.
In the News
For those interested in box office reports (I’m only marginally interested, but yesterday was a slow news day), Deadline reports that 28 Years Later made $14 million on Friday and in early previews. Deadline says that sets the film at a pace that should make more than $30 million over its opening weekend.
The Hollywood Reporter recently posted an interview with Allison Williams who plays Gemma in the M3GAN movies. It’s a good conversion that includes the tease that there has been “a lot” of thought about making M3GAN a trilogy.
Nothing is confirmed, obviously, but (and this is me talking) if M3GAN 2.0 does well, then I feel like it’s a guarantee that we’ll see another movie in the series. They’re already doing a riff on Terminator 2 though, so what could be after that? Rise of the Machines seems redundant.
That does it for today. Go watch your favorite Bruce Campbell movie or show today to celebrate his birthday! I’ve watched The Evil Dead recently, so I might go for Bubba Ho-Tep (2002) today. I have a physical copy, but if you want to stream it, you can find it on Prime Video.
