10 Film Franchises That Became Something Else Entirely
9. Evil Dead
In 1981, Sam Raimi announced himself on the horror stage with The Evil Dead, a film all about the dangers of reading.
Five college students come across a version of the book of the dead and inadvertently summon a group of demonic Deadites hellbent on taking them all down.
Survivors Ash and Linda make it into the next movie, Evil Dead II, although Linda gets binned off after about fifteen minutes. This sets the stage for Ash, played by Bruce Campbell of course, to become a solo horror icon.
Evil Dead II and its follow-up Army of Darkness lean much more into comedy than the movie that started it all. Ash really gets into his action-hero one-liners and there are for more comical moments peppered throughout their respective runtimes.
By the time of Army of Darkness rolled around, Raimi fully embraced the laughs, setting the whole thing in the Middle Ages after Ash accidentally travelled back in time.
The 2013 remake got things back on the spooky path, but nobody really cared all that much. Evil Dead is one of the best examples of comedy horror out there, and there's nothing wrong with that.