The journey to **Army of Darkness** is a little circuitous, so follow me for a moment.
Sam Raimi’s rise to fame is inspiring for all ambitious young filmmakers who don’t mind freezing their butts off at remote cabins, spraying red-colored corn syrup all over their friends. The making of **The Evil Dead** is a well-known tale to horror fans everywhere.
The young filmmaker, alongside his actor buddy Bruce Campbell, wanted to make a horror movie but had no money to do so, being working-class kids from Detroit. They begged just about everyone they knew for funds and eventually scraped together $375,000—juuuust enough to make a spooky, gory cabin-in-the-woods movie. They shot on 16mm film using rented cameras.
The film crawled its way onto screens and made a massive $2.4 million domestically. Overseas, it became a notorious sensation, earning an impressive $27 million! Raimi was on his way.
In 1987, he energetically made a sequel/remake, **Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn**. It had the same story as the first, with Campbell still starring, but it was more comedic and downright sillier. **Evil Dead 2** was made for an extravagant $3.5 million.
Sadly, **Evil Dead 2** wasn’t the sensation of the first, only earning $5.9 million at the box office. Critics, however, liked it, and it’s considered by horror enthusiasts to be one of the best movies of all time. Technically, though, it was a bomb. No one cared that both films slowly made their fortunes on home video.
It was for this reason that the follow-up film, 1993’s **Army of Darkness**, was not called **Evil Dead 3**.
In a 1992 issue of *Cinefantastique Magazine*, Sam Raimi’s longtime producer Robert Tapert talked about **Army of Darkness** and how the “Evil Dead” movies actually proved to be a detriment in terms of marketing. **Army of Darkness** was distributed by Universal Pictures, a major studio, and they wanted the “Evil Dead” associations removed from the title.
**Army of Darkness** will feel surreal to anyone not familiar with the “Evil Dead” movies, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. At the end of **Evil Dead 2**, Ash (Campbell) used a book of black magic to open a portal and suck away all the demons that had spent the film attacking him. Sadly, he was also sucked into the portal and landed, along with his Oldsmobile, in the 14th century among knights and sages.
The story of **Army of Darkness** picks up in the 14th century, with Ash now a total a-hole, demanding the medieval villagers and rulers find a way to return him to 1993. He ends up having to fight an evil doppelgänger and its army of living (rubber) skeletons. It’s one of the funniest movies of all time.
Because of its setting and extensive special effects, **Army of Darkness** needed to be partially bankrolled by a major studio. It cost $11 million to make. While that’s inexpensive for a movie, Universal still wanted to hedge their bets and insisted that the film not be called **Evil Dead 3**.
Raimi himself wanted to call it **Medieval Dead**, which is clever, but still too close to “Evil Dead” for Universal’s comfort.
As Tapert explained, “Universal—and they’re right to do it—said the ‘Evil Dead’ title is a drawback because, based on how it did theatrically, no one saw *Evil Dead II*. It was a flop for all practical purposes, though it did very well on video, far outstripping what it had done at the box office. So they felt that fans would know this is *Evil Dead III*, and the rest of the audience would just see it as *Army of Darkness*.”
Fans did recognize it as the sequel, but there weren’t enough knowledgeable and enthused “Evil Dead” fans willing to trek to a theater to see the new installment. **Army of Darkness** made only $21.5 million.
In 1992, Tapert and Bruce Campbell thought the title change would attract a larger audience. The “Evil Dead” movies were beloved by a cult following, but the very definition of a cult audience meant it was small. Campbell has said in the past, “A blockbuster is a million people seeing a film ten times, and a cult movie is ten people seeing a movie a million times.” The latter usually waits for home video, so box office revenue isn’t as high.
At the time, Campbell was happy to go along with Universal’s title change, saying:
> “We’re real tickled about that. The fact that it’s called *Army of Darkness*, I think is fine. If more people will come and see it, I’m all for it. The first two were limited releases. I think it’s a logical progression.”
Because the movie wasn’t a hit, it didn’t seem to matter. Raimi could have called it **The Medieval Dead** and just as many people would have shown up. It’s hard to sell a horror movie that has the tone of a Looney Tunes short, a bizarre time travel plot, and a pace like a hummingbird trapped in a cup of espresso.
Of course, just like the first two movies, **Army of Darkness** ended up becoming a sensation on home video, making millions and becoming a cult classic for the ages.
The irony is that the “Evil Dead” name eventually gained so much regard that it was remade in 2013. The remake cost a modest $17 million but made $97.5 million at the box office.
It was followed by a Raimi-conceived, Campbell-starring TV series, **Ash vs. Evil Dead**, in 2018 and a sequel to the remake, **Evil Dead Rise**, in 2023.
Currently, **Evil Dead Burn** is in production.
What was once a curse is now a blessing. **Evil Dead** has become a money-making horror franchise par excellence.
https://www.slashfilm.com/1994468/why-sam-raimi-army-of-darkness-dropped-evil-dead-title/
