10 Movies Totally Ruined By Test Audiences

Okay, so this one is a bit of a powder keg among fans of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise, who should really be arguing about whether the superior second film is technically a remake of the first (it’s not, by the way), or whether Fede Alvarez’s 2013 reboot was a worthy addition to the canon (it was).

But the ending of Army of Darkness is another divisive topic among the fandom, with some believing the original denouement was a fittingly funny continuation of Ash’s endless torments and some saying it was about time for our hero to get a break via the producer-approved happy ending.

Raimi’s original ending, as seen by international audiences, has Ash imbibe so much sleeping potion that he is knocked out not just to until his home time of the eighties, but instead to a post-apocalyptic future.

Test audiences balked at the bleak joke and instead opted for an amended version where Ash is finally given a moments peace, but the preceding trilogy has always been about putting the hero through the wringer, and it’s hard to argue the original ending doesn’t fit that style.