Evil Dead is unmistakably one of the most incredible ’80s horror movies in existence, but the Evil Dead timeline is confusing, and Evil Dead Rise doesn’t help the matter. The franchise definitely needs clarification in order to get the full experience from Raimi’s gore-laden, off-the-wall classics, the 2023 movie, and the spin-off TV show, as they’re all canon, even the 2013 remake. The Evil Dead is loved by horror fans because it’s so bombastic, outrageous, and contains weird high-concept plot elements, but that also means that watching the Evil Dead movies in order creates a confusing timeline.
The original series consists of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness. Later, the franchise would continue with the spin-off TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead. However, due to legal reasons, aspects of Army of Darkness couldn’t be mentioned in the series, though the cast and crew still consider the events of that movie part of the canon timeline. A remake titled Evil Dead was released in 2013, but it actually turned out to be a soft reboot that’s also canon. Evil Dead Rise surprisingly doesn’t actually muddle the Evil Dead timeline further, but it brings the franchise into the modern day more than any other movie.
1300 AD: Army Of Darkness
A good deal of why trying to watch the Evil Dead movies in order becomes confusing is down to Army of Darkness. Even by the standards of Ash Williams’ already out-there Evil Dead adventures, Army of Darkness takes things to a whole new level of bizarre gory weirdness. Where the Evil Dead timeline starts is open to interpretation, as the Evil Dead features time travel. However, the start of the third film in the Evil Dead franchise is the beginning of the timeline’s chronology, as, after the events of Evil Dead 2, Ash (Bruce Campbell) is transported back to the Middle Ages.
Ash is taken to a castle after having his weapons and chainsaw confiscated; he is thought to be in league with Duke Henry, who is a Scottish man at war with the English knights, the knights who found Ash after he time-traveled through his Oldsmobile. Ash is speculated to be the answer to a prophecy, which denotes that he will be the redeemer who saves mankind from the Deadites. According to the priest, the only way for Ash to return to the future is to obtain the Evil Dead Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, which contains both spells – the one to return to the present day, and the one to stop the Deadites.
On his way to obtain the book, Ash spawns into an “evil Ash,” which is created through part of his shattered reflection in a mirror. Despite Ash’s attempt to put him down, Evil Ash rises from the grave and ends up uniting the Deadites into an army, the Army of Darkness. Ash unites the people, with Duke Henry, to rise up against the army of Deadites and is victorious. He then uses one of the three Necronomicon books to return to the future.
1981-1982: The Evil Dead/Evil Dead 2
The Evil Dead timeline was convoluted way before Army of Darkness, as, according to Bruce Campbell, there was never supposed to be an Evil Dead 2. Because Sam Raimi couldn’t get the rights to his own movie, Evil Dead 2 was made as a “re-quel”, which means that they essentially remade The Evil Dead with new people. Campbell states that people thought Ash would be dumb to return to the same cabin with different people, but this wasn’t the case. Instead, the first five minutes of Evil Dead 2 is a remake, shot as a recap with different actors, except Bruce Campbell, who reprised his role as Ash Williams.
The Evil Dead is the next part of the timeline. Ash Williams, in this timeline, was born in 1958. He and his friends traveled to the Knowby cabin, where the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (revealed in Ash Vs Evil Dead to be written by Lucy Lawless’ antagonist, Ruby) was discovered by Professor Raymond Knowby in 1981 along with the Kandarian dagger in the ruins of Kandar Castle. In the Army of Darkness timeline, Ash is concurrently hibernating due to a potion in a cave near this very castle. In total, Ash 1 slept for six centuries. The Evil Dead ends with Ash getting attacked and presumably murdered by an unseen entity.
Evil Dead 2 has a few differences here. First, Ash’s hand is possessed and he chops it off, replacing it with the iconic Evil Dead chainsaw arm. Ash, Linda, and Annie Knowby end up discovering what happened to the professor after he discovered the book and read the incantation. Annie also reads various incantations from the Necronomicon; she attempts to force the Kandarian demon to manifest physically and ends up opening a time vortex to banish the demon. Ash ends up being sucked into the time vortex, and ends up traveling through time to 1300 AD, where Army of Darkness begins.
1982: Army Of Darkness Ending
After defeating the Deadites in Army of Darkness, Ash is given a potion that will allow him to sleep until he returns to his own time. He sleeps for six centuries, and then re-awakens in 1982, then gets his job back at the S-Mart. A co-worker gets their ear yacked off about Ash’s time-travel adventures, wherein Ash wistfully muses how he could have been king. Seemingly unable to escape the Deadites, Ash must fight one more after it attacks his store and, after he kills it, he’s praised as a hero once again. After this, he utters the fan-favorite line, “Hail to the King, baby,” and the movie ends.
2013: Evil Dead Remake
Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead does fit into the Evil Dead timeline. Alvarez stated that it continues the first movie, but in a modern setting. According to Alvarez, the coincidences between his version and the original 1981 version are deliberate “dark fates” created by the Necronomicon. As such, when Mia (who was played by Don’t Breathe horror genre star Jane Levy) and her friends arrive at the Knowby cabin, certain things – such as Ash’s car rusting – are apparent.
Likewise, the cabin has already been broken into, just as Ash and his friends did in the first film. Similar events transpire throughout Evil Dead, just as Ash and his friends experienced a gruesome conflict with the Deadites after reading an incantation from the book. There is one distinct difference in that, in Evil Dead, Mia’s parents supposedly own the cabin; this could have been due to the property changing hands over time, and doesn’t necessarily negate the other connections.
Ash Williams also makes an appearance in a post-credit scene of Evil Dead, which confirms that the universes are connected. Campbell and Raimi have both teased a crossover with Ash and Mia that would further establish this connection. The Evil Dead remake links to the original in a number of ways after all, so it would be cool if both the 1980s and 2010s Evil Dead arcs merged fully in the future.
2015-2016: Ash vs. Evil Dead
Ash vs. Evil Dead is set approximately 30 years after the first three Evil Dead films; it was originally meant to be a sequel to the trilogy. Ash Williams is working as a stock boy at Value Stop, which is a department store similar to S-Mart. In the series, a Deadite plague threatens to destroy the world, and Ash must gather new friends to help him fight the evil that he’s already been attempting to stop for decades, though in some capacity, it’s much longer than that.
At the culmination of the series (which was canceled before the story could be properly wrapped up in Ash vs. Evil Dead season 4), Ash takes on a Kandarian demon; the battle ends with Ash killing the demon. In the final scene, Ash wakes up in a bunker after being drug out of the wreckage where the final battle occurred. The show ended on a cliffhanger, with someone claiming that there’s “still work to be done” which means the hero of The Evil Dead franchise might not get to retire yet despite the cancelation of his titular show.
2023: Evil Dead Rise
The fifth movie of the franchise follows Beth (Lily Sullivan), who must protect her nephew and nieces from their mother, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), who has turned into a Deadite. This happens after Danny (Morgan Davies) discovers a book in the bowels of the building that summons demonic flesh-possessing demons. Clearly, this book is one of the three Necronomicon that can be seen in Army of Darkness, the second of which appeared in 2013’s Evil Dead too. Though the apartment building is totally rundown, it’s obvious that the movie is set in the 2020s due to the types of cell phones that the characters use.
Evil Dead Rise is set in the present day, and based on the apartment complex location as opposed to the series’ trademark woods setting, the franchise feels more modern than ever too. Despite the previous movies having many survivors, none of the previous Evil Dead characters return, not even Ash. However, while the movie is extremely linear when it comes to the Evil Dead timeline, Danny also finds records of a priest (voiced by Campbell) from 1923 discussing the Deadites and the Necronomicon. Director Lee Cronin thinks that the Evil Dead Rise priest could be Ash, hinting at more time travel and a possible Ash return.
