QWhy are there so many inconsistencies between the 3 Evil Dead films?
AThe real-world reason is probably that when making Evil Dead II, director Sam Raimi did not have the rights to re-use footage from The Evil Dead (as Evil Dead II was produced by another company). So the first 7 minutes of Evil Dead II are effectively a short recap of the entire first movie, featuring Ash and Linda but none of the other friends, to speed things up. The Book of the Dead also looks quite different, and its destruction is missing. This may have been done on purpose, because the makers had developed new ideas for the sequel, forcing them to retcon (retroactively change) the original backstory. In any way, as soon as Ash goes outside and is attacked by the demonic force, the story continues from the first movie. A similar thing happened during production of Army of Darkness: the film was made by yet another production company, who wanted to make it as a stand-alone picture instead of an obvious sequel (the name 'Evil Dead' could not be used anyway due to copyright issues). The writers/director again used this opportunity to change the backstory, for the benefit of a more dramatic beginning of Army of Darkness. This explains why the opening scene of 'Army' is a reinterpretation of the final scene of Evil Dead II. Each of the Evil Dead movies has its own unique perspective, which explains most of the breaks in continuity. It has the added benefit that each movie in the series can be viewed apart, without having seen the other movies.From an in-movie perspective, we see at the end of the second sequel 'Army of Darkness' that the entire story is being told in flashback by Ash to a bored and disbelieving co-worker (played by Ted Rami) back at his S-Mart job. This sequence is included as the final scene of the original cinema version whilst the video/DVD/Blueray release ends with Ash awaking in a post-apocalyptic world but then has him returned to S-Mart in his own time after the end credits. Therefore we must assume the events we see in the last 2 films are based upon Ash's recollection which is likely to be far from perfect given his numerous head injuries, undoubted post traumatic stress disorder and the basic imperfections of human storytelling (simplifying the story, skipping over parts too complex to explain etc).
QWhat are the differences between the R-rated version and the unrated Director's Cut?
ASam Raimi's third part of the Evil Dead trilogy was released both as a R-rated version and an unrated Director's Cut. The latter features more than 100 differences totaling in over 15 minutes of more running time. A detailed comparison between both versions with pictures can be found here.
QWhy is Ash put in the pit if the knights hailed to him at the end of Evil Dead II?
AIn the script for Army of Darkness, though the sequence of Ash shooting the flying Deadite at the end of Evil Dead II is omitted, the knights hailing to Ash is included, as well as Arthur suspecting that Ash could be one of Henry's men. In the script, Arthur doubts the Wiseman's suggestion that Ash is the prophesied one, because according to the prophecy, Ash should not be bleeding. When he says that Ash should be thrown to the pit, it is mentioned that the pit could be a test for Ash.
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