The Evil Dead: What's the Best Watch Order, and Is Evil Dead Burn Worth Watching?

The Evil Dead franchise was born in the 1980s—a decade that arguably produced some of the most brutal, bloody, and uncompromising horror films ever made. Just think of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust, whose director was actually put on trial because authorities believed he had genuinely murdered and dismembered his actors, or legendary body horror classics such as The Thing, The Fly, and Hellraiser.

The series was created by writer, director, and producer Sam Raimi, best known to mainstream audiences for his iconic Spider-Man trilogy starring Tobey Maguire. Back in 1981, Raimi and a group of friends made the original The Evil Dead on a shoestring budget. Against all expectations, it became a massive hit, launching a franchise built on four defining pillars: the Necronomicon, demonic possession, outrageous amounts of fake blood and graphic violence, and Raimi's signature brand of dark comedy.

Raimi borrowed the idea of the Necronomicon from the works of H. P. Lovecraft (if you're a Lovecraft fan, be sure to check out our list of the best Lovecraft- and Cthulhu-inspired games). Reading the incantations from the book summons demonic entities known in the franchise as Deadites. Once a Deadite possesses a person, it sets out to slaughter everyone around it with maximum cruelty. The only way to destroy the demon is to dismember its human host, kill it with the mystical Kandarian Dagger, or destroy the Necronomicon itself.

The best way to watch the Evil Dead franchise is simply in release order. There are no prequels or standalone spin-offs, and the story follows a straightforward chronological timeline. Broadly speaking, however, the franchise can be divided into two eras: the original trilogy and television series centered on the iconic Ash Williams, and the modern reboot continuity featuring an entirely new cast of characters.

Today, Ash Williams is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror heroes of all time. But at the beginning of the franchise, he was nothing more than an ordinary college student who found himself trapped in an isolated cabin deep in the woods, face to face with an ancient evil. Ash was played by Bruce Campbell, Raimi's high school friend, in what would become the defining role of his career.

Made on a budget of just $375,000, the original The Evil Dead went on to gross around $30 million worldwide. Despite its modest production costs, the film impressed audiences with its fast-paced story, inventive practical effects, and, of course, its shocking levels of gore. The graphic violence made it difficult to distribute at the time, and the film remains banned or heavily restricted in some countries even today. Viewers who dared to watch it in the early 1980s witnessed dismemberments, shovel decapitations, and countless other gruesome moments. The controversy did exactly what it needed to do—the film became a sensation and generated enough money to fund a sequel.

The sequel loosely reworks the ending of the original film before continuing Ash's story, gradually transforming the franchise into a blend of horror and dark comedy. Ash himself briefly becomes a Deadite, hunts down his own severed hand after it comes to life under demonic influence, and ultimately finds himself transported to the Middle Ages. Not everyone appreciated the shift away from the raw, low-budget horror of the original, but Evil Dead II is where Ash acquired the iconic look that would define him forever: a shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw replacing the other.

Army of Darkness is a direct continuation of Evil Dead II, although it was not originally released under the title Evil Dead 3. By this point, the franchise had fully embraced comedy and fantasy action, leaving behind its roots as an ultra-violent horror series. Graphic gore gave way to large-scale battles between humans and an army of skeletons, while the plot centered on a classic "rescue the princess" adventure. In the end, Ash finally returns to his own time, though the film clearly sets up another sequel that Raimi hoped to make in the near future.

Raimi was unable to secure funding for a follow-up to Army of Darkness throughout the 1990s. He finally returned to the story in 2015—not with another movie, but with a television series.

Thirty years have passed. Ash is older, lonely, working as a stock clerk in a department store, and spending far too much time drinking in bars. But when the Deadites return, he's forced to remember the hero he once was. Once again, Ash finds himself battling ancient Sumerian demons while facing an invasion that threatens the entire world.

The series never achieved the same legendary status as the original films, but it does provide a satisfying conclusion to Ash's story. As for how it ends—that's something you'll want to discover for yourself. Just make sure to watch it after Army of Darkness.

In 2013, Sam Raimi successfully revived the Evil Dead franchise. Rather than returning to the director's chair himself, he chose to bring in different writers and directors, allowing each of them to tell a distinct story set within the Evil Dead universe instead of continuing a single overarching narrative. The reboot also marked a return to graphic violence, while the franchise's trademark dark humor took a noticeable step back.

The fourth film in the franchise is widely considered a partial remake of the 1981 original. Rather than recreating the story scene for scene, it borrows many of its key ideas while packing in numerous callbacks to the classic film—including the chainsaw, the shotgun, the possessed vines, and Ash's cameo after the credits. The story follows Mia, who travels to a remote cabin and discovers the Necronomicon. From there, longtime fans already know exactly where things are headed. The film brings the series back to its roots as a brutally violent horror movie, with gallons of blood, relentless gore, and a heroine who has to fight for every step toward survival.

So far, Evil Dead Rise is both the highest-grossing and one of the most acclaimed entries in the franchise—and arguably its bloodiest. The production reportedly used so much fake blood that it had to be delivered to the set in shipping containers. This time, the action moves away from the familiar cabin in the woods to a rundown Los Angeles apartment building, where a demon possesses the mother of three children. The film has no direct narrative connection to the 2013 reboot, so it can be watched independently and in any order.

The sixth—and newest—installment in the franchise. We'll take a closer look at it in the next section.

Evil Dead Burn weaves the Necronomicon and Deadites into a story about toxic family relationships and domestic abuse—a surprisingly serious theme for an Evil Dead film. The protagonist, Alice, travels to a remote country house following her husband's death to meet his family: his parents, his brother, and his brother's wife. Her in-laws already resent her, and the arrival of a demonic force quickly turns an uncomfortable family gathering into an all-out bloodbath.

That said, don't expect too much from the plot. It remains frustratingly vague right up to the ending—for example, the film never clearly explains what the demons are actually searching for or why. The writers seem determined to make the point that the real demons live within people rather than inside ancient books, but the execution falls short. The characters are difficult to sympathize with because they function mostly as cannon fodder; from the very beginning, it's obvious that most—if not all—of them are doomed to die horribly. As with the other reboot-era films, the story ultimately takes a back seat to the sheer brutality of the violence and the increasingly elaborate ways the characters are killed. In that respect, the franchise has started to resemble Final Destination.

The creativity behind the kills is undeniably impressive. Director Sébastien Vaniček promised the film would be "nasty" and genuinely painful to watch—and he delivers. Expect everything from a brush cutter and a car headrest to a fountain pen being turned into murder weapons. The practical effects and makeup are once again outstanding, while cinematographer Philipp Lozano's work has been widely praised. The film is shot with relentless energy, brutal intensity, and at times almost sadistic delight in making the audience squirm.

Not everything works, however. First, the movie outstays its welcome—the final fifteen minutes feel unnecessary, even if the writers clearly intended otherwise. Second, some of the gore comes across as deliberately excessive. You can almost see the director searching for the most revolting camera angles simply to provoke disgust. Compare that with Martyrs (2008), which relies far less on graphic excess yet manages to be significantly more disturbing. Finally, Burn abandons the dark humor that defined the early entries in the franchise. Fans expecting the gleefully over-the-top camp of the Ash Williams films may find this installment surprisingly grim and self-serious.

So, is Evil Dead Burn worth watching? If you're a fan of body horror, gallons of blood, and chainsaws removing limbs, you probably won't be disappointed. It's a well-made, confidently directed horror film. But it's unlikely to genuinely scare you—unless you're the kind of viewer who recoils at scenes involving molten wax being poured down someone's throat or dentures being licked clean.

The franchise is already set to continue with Evil Dead Wrath, currently scheduled for release in 2028. If you're looking for more upcoming releases, be sure to check out our roundup of the most anticipated movies and TV series of 2026.

Technically, the first entry in the Evil Dead franchise is the 30-minute short film Within the Woods, directed by Sam Raimi in 1979. In reality, though, it's more of a proof of concept—a rough draft created to attract investors. It features the same basic premise and many of the same characters as the 1981 film, but with a much shorter story and far more modest special effects, which is hardly surprising given its tiny $1,600 budget. Fans of the franchise will undoubtedly enjoy seeing where the legendary series first began.

The Evil Dead universe has expanded far beyond film, spawning comic books, a stage musical, a tabletop game, and, naturally, several video games. Over the years we've seen the 8-bit The Evil Dead (1984), the poorly received survival horror title Evil Dead: Hail to the King (2000), and the fairly average action slasher Evil Dead: Regeneration (2005). The most successful—and still the most relevant—adaptation, however, remains Evil Dead: The Game (2022).

Evil Dead: The Game arrived during the boom of asymmetric multiplayer horror games in the early 2020s, when many studios were trying to replicate the success of Dead by Daylight. One player controls the Kandarian Demon, hunting a team of four survivors by possessing trees, vehicles, and even the survivors themselves. The survivors, meanwhile, must locate the Kandarian Dagger and the Necronomicon before they can banish the evil.

Developer Saber Interactive did an admirable job of capturing the unmistakable spirit of the Evil Dead films, from the brutal arsenal and signature dark humor to the inclusion of beloved characters such as Ash, voiced by the original actors. Fans of the franchise embraced the game, but its wider appeal faded relatively quickly due to balance issues and the eventual end of developer support. Still, if you're looking for more great multiplayer experiences, be sure to check out our roundup of the best co-op games on PC and consoles.