Editorial · List
Every Evil Dead Movie, Ranked by Score
By Alan Willey ·
The Evil Dead franchise spans 45 years, from Sam Raimi's scrappy 1981 original to Sébastien Vaniček's 2026 entry Evil Dead Burn. Ranked on the Darkly curator scale, Raimi's 1987 Evil Dead II leads at 8.3 overall, ahead of Fede Álvarez's 2013 reboot at 8.0 and Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise at 7.9. Evil Dead Burn is the goriest chapter the series has produced (Gore 8.6) and the most intense (Intensity 9.0), but at 7.2 overall it ranks last of the five: brutal is not the same as best. Each film below carries its five-axis profile of fear, gore, atmosphere, intensity, and overall.
- 01
Evil Dead II(1987)
Raimi's 1987 quasi-remake is the best film in the franchise at 8.3, and the one where it found its slapstick-splatter identity. Its 8.0 atmosphere still holds up, and it is low on fear by design (3.0), a horror-comedy first. Everything the series became starts here.
- 02
Evil Dead(2013)
Fede Álvarez's reboot scores 8.0. It stripped out the comedy and committed to relentless practical gore (8.5), and it proved the series could work without Ash Williams. This is the bar the modern run is measured against.
- 03
Evil Dead Rise(2023)
Lee Cronin moved the horror out of the woods and into a condemned apartment tower, and it is the scariest entry in the franchise at Fear 7.5. It sits just behind the 2013 reboot at 7.9 overall, and it is the most rounded of the recent films.
- 04
The Evil Dead(1981)
The one that started it all, shot for almost nothing in a Tennessee cabin. Its 8.0 atmosphere is pure claustrophobic dread, and it invented the cabin-in-the-woods template the franchise never left. It scores 7.5, remarkable for a no-budget 1981 debut, if rougher than what Raimi built on top of it.
- 05
Evil Dead Burn(2026)
The 2026 entry, and the goriest (8.6) and most intense (9.0) Evil Dead we have scored. Director Sébastien Vaniček said it might be the least bloody film in the series, and it turned out to be the opposite. At 7.2 overall it ranks last of the five, a relentless and oppressively grim family siege that is nastier than Rise but a step below it.
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Common questions
- What is the best Evil Dead movie?
- On the Darkly curator scale, Evil Dead II (1987) scores highest at 8.3 overall, ahead of the 2013 reboot at 8.0 and Evil Dead Rise (2023) at 7.9. The 1981 original scores 7.5.
- Is Evil Dead Burn the goriest Evil Dead?
- Yes. Evil Dead Burn (2026) scores 8.6 for gore on Darkly, the highest in the franchise, just ahead of the 2013 reboot's 8.5. It is also the most intense entry at 9.0, despite the director describing it before release as the least bloody film in the series.
- Why is Army of Darkness not in the ranking?
- Army of Darkness (1992), the third film, is in the Darkly catalog but not yet curator-scored, so it does not appear in this ranking, which orders films by their Darkly overall score. It is also more of an action-comedy than a horror film, which sets it apart from the rest of the series.