Now that Halloween and Ultraman are old news we can finally return to endlessly speculating about what's next.
While reading hundreds of guesses in the other thread (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/spooky-2021-game-speculation-thread), I noticed something seemingly unique to Evil Dead / Army of Darkness vs. all the rest:
Evil Dead is the only "spooky" franchise where the iconic figure is the hero, not the monster.
For every other, the star is the villain: Jason, Freddy, Michael Meyers, Ghostface, Candyman, Pennywise, Phantasm guy, Hellraiser guy, etc. For ED / AOD, it's Ash.
Even when enemy isn't a single individual (zombie movies, Predator, Aliens, Terminators, Tremors), the featured attraction is the monsters. And while some of these franchises have heroes that appear in multiple installments (like Sarah Conner, Ripley, Zombieland crew), in none of them do those heroes eclipse the monster as the #1 iconic element of the series.
I'm no movie expert, so please point out any others that fit this at least very rare formula. The closest thing I can think are ones outside of the horror or sci fi genres like Indiana Jones or Die Hard.
EDIT:
I thought of a few others that probably apply. So it's not a unique thing, just an uncommon one.
Funny enough, one of the other frequently requested themes—Scooby Doo—probably counts. These probably do as well (I've never seen them, so could be wrong):
- Blade
- Hellboy
- Spawn
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
And if we extend it to multiple heroes, that opens up others (like Ghostbusters, as mentioned below).