10 Movie Sequels That Completely Flipped The Original
2. Evil Dead 2 Went From Gory Horror To Looney Tunes Slapstick
Sam Raimi isn’t a director known for resting on his laurels—if there’s one compliment we can play to Spiderman 3 and its trio of villains, it’s not like the flick wasn’t trying to do enough.
So after his feature film debut, the microbudget horror The Evil Dead, was a smash success in 1981, the director wasn’t about to repeat this success when it came time to create a sequel. The first film succeeded by treating its somewhat silly premise with deadly seriousness, and the terrifying flick is famous for offering no comic relief or moments of levity even as its splattery makeup effects devolve into a gruesome Grand Guignol.
Fast forward to 1987, when the film hailed as the ultimate experience in gruelling terror was given a bigger budget sequel, and fans flocked to see—a hilarious, zany condensed remake of the first film centring around a goofy heroic turn from Bruce Campbell, followed by an hour of increasingly cartoony—and awesome—lunacy?
Evil Dead II completely upended the formula which made its predecessor so successful, making for a hysterically funny horror comedy classic and also ensuring the franchise could continue to switch between the tones “silly-spooky over the top” and “nerve-shreddingly horrific” well into the new millennium via Fede Alvarez’ 2013 reboot and TV’s Ash Vs Evil Dead.