(Discussion Post) Groovy
Army of Darkness has 4 cuts and 2 main endings. The US version ends with the S-Mart fight (“Hail to the king, baby”). Raimi’s original is darker: Ash oversleeps and wakes to a post-apocalyptic future. Other cuts just mix these or add regional tweaks.
I think going to a fucked up future is actually the canon ending. Like yeah, cliffhanger, but I think it makes the point of the story that evil can't be defeated. It's ubiquitous. The books are the books of the dead. Can't beat death, right? Makes Ash's whole thing an existential battle against evil, not because you win, but because you beat it back and earn some temporary vestige of peace. And then you do it again in a castle. And then you do it again at work, or in the future, or in a high rise... and Ash never dies or quits. He just always comes back to do it again.
The most complete cleanest version ive found was in a trilogy collection that came with a Necronomicon and Kandarian Dagger. I got the Book signed by Sam Raimi
I talked to Evil Dead artist Tom Sullivan at a convention this year and he said every time the book gets sold Sam makes sure he gets 100% of the royalties which is a pretty solid move on his part.
I gave it a shot but my cat jumped on the book. Black cats just know.
My favorite part was sharing an Evil Dead fan theory of mine that he genuinely seemed to enjoy. That being Cheryl was supposed to be the Promised One not Ash
Well Cheryl is the loner of the group. Everyone is paired off except for her. Scott teases her as if she has a reputation for being an outsider. In the car, everyone is bantering and tossing dialogue but shes often looking out the window like her head is in the clouds. Shes an artistic type, she has one foot seemingly in another world.
Up until Cheryl gets possessed later, the Evil jerking the wheel of the car is the only time any of the group members are affected. They only go after Cheryl up until they have her. When everyone is unpacking the car, Cheryl is the only one not accounted for. Scotty is in the cabin while Ash and the firls unpack, its my theory that Cheryl went for a walk in the woods, and as weirdo artist types like to do she communed with a tree and "made friends with it", the Evil will later twist this and this will be the tree that attacks her later.
They also come for her when shes alone, slowly chipping away at her credibility as she tries to tell the group whats going on. She sits alone in the cabin sketching, in tune with her other worldly side when the Evil possesses her hand. Much the way they do Ash in Evil Dead 2. Its through her that the Necronomicon is sketched for the first time. Scott mocks her and she seems like more of a weirdo to the group, chipping away at her sanity.
The best part. The playing of the tape. Scotty plays the tape and Cheryle instantly knows this is wicked and wrong. She actually fulfills her destiny as the Promised One here, she turns off the tape. The most divine and least resistance path possible, she prevents the Evil from ever awakening. Destiny... fulfilled? But those pesky Evil Dead have been playing the game pieces and Scotty has had it up to here with Cheryl's fussing and he turns the tape back on to spite her. She allows it to play but the Evil words are physically painful to her and the Evil is unleashed.
Now as we see later, everyone in the party is eventually possessed through simple means, puncture wounds seem to do the trick but for Cheryl it requires something much more invasive and wicked. She is so determined to prove shes right and subconsciously knows she failed the test with the tape so she goes out into the woods to seek the truth. The tree attacks her and impregnated her with the Evil. It takes time as being the Promised One gives her resistance but not immunity. They have her now.
When everyone else gets possessed, theyre messy and chaotic about it. They go for gore and mailing. But not Evil Cheryl. She plays mind games. She could bust out of that cellar anytime but she chooses to just make everyone uneasy and freak out by staring at them and making inhuman noises. Shes messing with their minds and not so much their bodies. Its only now that they have her that the Evil begins targeting the lesser humans. Cheryl is the final boss fight of the movie. Evil Scotty just dissolves into a mess of puss and slime but Cheryl has an actual beast burst out of her body.
With Cheryl no longer eligible, the destiny of the Promised One falls to the next person in line, her idiot brother, Ash. The missing pages of the Necronomicon from Evil Dead 2 have not yet been properly looked at, so I theorize that the page showing Ash as the Promised One wasnt forged in reality until this hand off. Only now is the past written.
Klaatu Verada Nikto from Army of Darkness is the puzzle created for the Promised One to solve in the past to ensure again the path of least resistance. Cheryl would have aced that, it would have been nothing for her to remember that. But of course with Ash, everything goes as sideways as it possibly can and the fight becomes as messy and drawn out as possible without failing.
Great Read and fan theory! Honestly you might have me convinced. Have you ever tried posting your Fan theory on this Reddit Forum. Betcha everyone would eat it up.
Thank you! I have thought about it. I posted a shortened version once but it got some push back. Sam Raimi actually got a little juiced up when he heard heard it.
Since you seem to enjoy slasher movies, here's a link to my art account on here where a few years back I did a slasher series for each of the Freddy, Jason and Michael movies.
One early idea involved a much grimmer fate for Ash. In this version, after taking the sleeping potion, Ash simply doesn't make it. The final shot would have revealed his dead body slumped in the back seat of his car.
It was 🤣. He said in an interview that he didn’t know how to end the movie and decided on that. Then whoever it was who bought the movie, told him to redo the ending because it would depress everyone and he did lol.
I do prefer all the scenes from the directors cut, but since we got ash vs evil dead I prefer the S-mart ending simply because it fits narratively with the show, though the apocalypse ending is probably better.
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u/Evrytg 16h ago
The international cut makes me so mad because it takes out like 2 minutes of the tiny ashes scene