The success ofThe Evil Deadseriespractically ensured thatBruce Campbellwould have a cult following thereafter. While obviously talented and with a gleam-in-the-eye quality, Bruce Campbell has always had a sense of dumb luck to his charming career, a right-place-at-the-right-time feeling. Take regular collaborator, Sam Raimi, who even noted first-hand that Campbell got the main character role ofEvil Dead’s Ash simply because he was the most good-looking of their friends.
Updated: November 2022: To keep this article fresh and relevant by adding more information and entries, this article has been updated by Dylan Reber.
Since the release of the cult horror filmEvil Deadin ‘81, Campbell has gone on to have an above-average career in his own right, headlining weird, off-the-wall pictures that have become cult classics. Campbell supplemented his body of work with fantastic TV roles, too; while the ridiculously popularBurn Noticemight be his most well-known role, Campbell also frontedThe Adventures of Brisco County Jr, with spots inXena,The X-Files,and, more recently,FargoandLodge 49. The actor has worked with the Coen Brothers since their early days, and has directed some ridiculously fun and campy films himself (My Name is Bruce, The Man With the Screaming Brain) before returning to Ash’s life in Starz’s spectacularly likableAsh Vs Evil Dead.
As a self-proclaimed B-movie actor with a jaw that could rival The Crimson Chin’s, Bruce Campbell has done very well for himself. Flirting with his low budget roots inThe Evil Dead, Bruce would go on to play two U.S. Presidents (Reagan and Nixon), and even The King himself, doing a better old-age Elvis than anyone could imagine. WithEvil Dead: The GameandEvil Dead Risecoming soon, let’s take a look at the best Bruce Campbell movies.
10The Spider-Man Trilogy (2002-2007)
This one’s kind of cheating, so we included all three. Playing the roles of ‘Wrestling Announcer,’ ‘Snooty Theatre Usher,’ and ‘French Waiter’ respectively, Bruce Campbell’s scenes in theSam RaimiSpider-Mantrilogymay seem like mere throwaway moments of fun. Don’t shoot down their impact, though;in an interview for CinemaBlend, Campbell notes that his ring announcer was the very first person to give Spider-Man his name (and debunks those Mysterio rumors as well).
9My Name is Bruce (2007)
This is a bit of a weird one. Not only did Campbell star inMy Name is Bruce; he produced and directed it, too. In some ways, it’s a total disaster of a film, but this should not be taken as a reason to write it off completely. For fans of its lead actor and director, it has a lot to offer: a schlocky, silly story in which Campbell plays himself; a rowdy, ironical look back on his career as an actor; and a deliberate, “so bad it’s good” approach to filmmaking. Look at it as a love letter to B-movies as a whole, and you’re sure to get some enjoyment out of it. It’s a must-see for Bruce Campbell superfans.
8Moontrap (1989)
With puppets, bad sets, and rough acting,Moontrapis a ’60s B-movie with 1980s effects. Campbell looks extremely fresh-faced as the co-pilot to (OGStar Trek’sChekov) Walter Koenig’s captain, who discovers an alien pod concealing a robot that requires human flesh to live. With a home base on the moon, the two need to stop these aliens before they can get to Earth and take over the planet.Moontrapisverysilly. With mini-uzis on the moon, alongside an alien sex scene, it feels like some VHS tape you find in the basement that you just know you shouldn’t be watching. It makes for great midnight viewing and has one of the scariest “WTF” moments from Bruce Campbell’s career, which we refuse to spoil here.
7Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)
So this one’s really just delightfully weird. Campbell plays Elvis Presley, who must stop a mummy from killing him and his friends (including a Black John F. Kennedy) and feeding on their souls. Despite its ridiculous,“how did this get made?” feel, Bruce Campbell puts in one of the best performances of his career as a more than believable Elvis facing his twilight years.Bubba Ho-Tepis really silly, but with some good laughs here and there, and some surprisingly moving momentsabout getting older.
Related:Why Elvis Proves the Oscars Should Bring Back the Best Dance Category
6Maniac Cop (1988)
Thanks to the movie’s opener of an innocent woman being killed by a police officer,Maniac Copsits uncomfortably in the current political climate, and may be said to have aged poorly. However, looking at it purely as a schlocky, violent movie,Maniac Copis a gleefully entertaining and twisted flick. The cinematography is superb here, offering a voyeuristic, constantly creeping view of New York’s grimy streets. This is a cheap movie that makes the most of what it’s got, with support from Tom Atkins, and Robert Z’Dar playing the only man in on-screen history able to rival Bruce Campbell’s chin. Today, the always stylish Nicolas Winding Refn is working onan HBO TV adaptation.
5The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
This underrated gem from director duo Joel and Ethan Coen features Campbell in a small but memorable role as Smitty, a goofy reporter with theManhattan Argus. When star journalist Amy Archer gets assigned a story on Hudsucker Industries’ new and wildly incompetent president, Smitty is there to help her along. It’s likely that Campbell was brought ontoThe Hudsucker Proxyat the behest of longtime friend and collaborator, Sam Raimi, who wrote the film with the Coen Brothers. You may have noticed a theme here: that when Sam Raimi comes around, Bruce Campbell is never far behind.
4Mindwarp (1992)
Mindwarpis a little-known ’90s movie that feels likeTotal Recallin the world ofMad Max. Be warned, even in a list of movies featuring everyEvil Deadfilm,Mindwarpis incredibly bloody, with some true moments of watch-from-behind-your-fingers terror. Forgive the “is it all a dream?” twists, andMindwarpis a fun, nasty movie that has to be seen to be believed.
3Army of Darkness (1992)
TheEvil Deadseries went ‘big-picture studio’ here: it’s a movie that retires the cabin setting and transports us back in time to a land of knights, wizards, and skeleton armies.Army of Darknesstakes the franchise into truly unexpected, weird fantasy territory; queue the curses, magic books, and swordplay, coupled with Campbell’s oafish Ash, and you have something so wild it beggars belief.Army of Darknessis a little overlong, but it’s so strange and goofy — with some real bonkers slapstick moments, which shouldn’t work but do — that it’s a bona fidehorror comedy classic.
Related:Bruce Campbell is Down to Voice Ash in an Evil Dead Animated Series
The firstEvil Deadis the seminal dumb-kids-in-a-cabin-in-the-woods movie that the horror genre has been taking notes from ever since.Evil Deadis a masterclass in DIY, low-budget filmmaking, and, unlike its sequel, focuses on pure terror, dreadful “Deadites,” and grotesque physical effects. Its stripped-back and incredibly simplistic premise is efficiently focused like a laser beam.
To raise the money for a feature film, director Sam Raimi and Campbell bought suits and asked any possible investors they knew (with dentists, for example, funding most of it,per Contact Music) to donate based on a proof-of-concept 8mm short calledWithin The Woods.Evil Deadshows Bruce at his most naive, but you can really believe in him as a leading man. He’s gawky, square-jawed, and faces evil head on. The rest is history.
How can a sequel be this good?Evil Dead 2ups the ante in every single way, and adds a brand-new element to the series (and to the horror genre as a whole): the decision to add slapstick comedy to what should be a bleak and horrifying place. The broad comedy here shouldn’t work, but its total reinvention of the first film is inspired. Further, its physical effects are plentiful and at times out of this world (a personal favorite of fans remains the trippy live mirror reflection). But Bruce Campbell’s all-encompassing descent into madness as Ash is what holds the movie together. It also has one of the most iconic “tooling up” montages ever. “Groovy” only covers half of it in this utter masterpiece.
