Is the Evil Dead remake actually an Evil Dead 4?

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Most of us have probably watched the trailer for THE EVIL DEAD remake about a zillion times by now. Reactions have been surprisingly positive thus far, save for a few naysayers (myself included) who fail to see the point in remaking a classic film (EVIL DEAD) that was kind-of-sort-of already rebooted better in the sequel (EVIL DEAD 2). Get enough drinks in me and I’ll pretentiously prattle on about this… unless you decide to drop the following idea on me: What if THE EVIL DEAD remake was actually EVIL DEAD 4? Our main evidence to support this claim? The presence of the junker you see above in both films. 

Yes, it seems our friendly competition did some detective work and figured out a pretty big connection between the two films: Raimi’s 1973 Delta 88 Oldsmobile, otherwise known to Fake Shemps as “The Classic.” Now, Raimi has been cameo-ing “The Classic” into all of his films since the original EVIL DEAD, so when I saw a shot of it in the trailer I didn’t think anything of it. However, this astute writer did:

This drops a bomb of questions with the two main ones being: is this just an homage, or is this potentially the same vehicle Ash (Bruce Campbell) drove in the original trilogy? This car cameo could actualy mean that the new Evil Dead is a direct sequel to the first film. Could these demons have already feasted on the souls of the characters from the 1981 film? Perhaps it takes place in that universe alone and ignores Evil Dead 2 and Army Of Darkness (if I remember correctly, the car gets sucked in a vortex and goes back in time in those)? And if you look at the below images, the exact same light is smashed!

I’ll be goddamned if he doesn’t have a point. Check out the images below if you don’t believe me.

While this theory could be wild fanboy speculation reading simple homage as the connective tissue of an entire franchise timeline, I gotta say the fever is catching my own view of the remake. Check out a comparison between the cabin from the original film and a screen grab from the new one. Barring a few subtle tweaks (slightly different swing and no chimney top in the remake) they look almost exactly alike, swing and all.

Also, Ash’s signature shotgun makes an appearance. Though it’s the sawed-off “Boomstick” mod that didn’t happen until EVIL DEAD 2, it is possible one of the character’s lops the barrel off sometime during the remake. Then again, the book appears to be wrapped up in the remake shot, so there is room for doubt. Still, worthy of note…

And, this may be reaching, but is one of the characters holding the same necklace/pendant Ash gave his gal pal (and later used to save his own ass) in the original? It’s kind of hard to tell, but perhaps…

Okay, there are some major differences to negate this theory, too. The Necronomicon, while still all gross and fleshy, contains completely different looking pages from those used in the original. And while the Deadites in the original sported glassy, pupil-less eyes, Alvarez and co. seem to be going THE EXORCIST route– yellow eyes, pale skin– with the new design. These discrepencies can be overlooked by pointing to the confused timeline of the EVIL DEAD series, which is tenuous at best, but I’d like to know– are these details simply homage, or was all those times Raimi reffered to an EVIL DEAD 4 was he really talking about a reboot/sequel to the original EVIL DEAD? Talk back with your thoughts on these theories below…