Though Marvel’s official title is “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnes” I prefer to call the new Dr. Strange movie “Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange”. In this movie review, I’ll explain why. Warning: this review contains spoilers. Though if you haven’t seen the film yet, what are you waiting for?
Sam Raimi is known in the Marvel Universe for directing the first incarnation of the Spider-man films starring Tobey Maguire. So, it’s no surprise that he was tapped to direct the new Doctor Strange movie with his previous work with Sony. However, he is also the director of a cult horror movie and television series centering on one Ashley Williams. Who? Ashley or Ash for short is the main protagonist to the Evil Dead movies, and the spin-off series that came after it. The actor who plays Ash is Bruce Campbell. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe his face will. Bruce Campbell has made cameo appearances in both Spider-man, and now ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’. This is like a standard occurence for Raimi as he loves putting Bruce in minor roles on his other films. It gets better. Evil Dead, and Ashley Williams are very much referenced in this new Doctor Strange movie in more ways than just the Bruce Campbell cameo as a pizza ball salesman.
In ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, the evil book that causes all the trouble is called the Darkhold. In the ‘Evil Dead‘ universe, the evil book that haunts Ash’s life is called the Necronomicon. It’s curious to note that the Darkhold is the Marvel equivalent of Lovecraft’s Necronomicon. More to the point, the Necronomicon was derived from the Shiatra Book of the Damned…another name for Darkhold. I find it too much of a coincidence that these two books take prominent roles in both movie franchises. As such, I can safely postulate that ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ is ‘Evil Dead’ in super hero form. And, there’s more to prove that point.
Furthermore, in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’, Stephen finds a dead version of himself from another universe through his contact with America Chavez. In order to combat Wanda who has gone all Scarlet Witch mode, Stephen used dreamwalking with the aid of the Darkhold to possess his dead alternate universe self. So there you have an undead Dr. Strange created by the Darkhold. Now in the ‘Evil Dead’ series, particularly in ‘Army of Darkness’, Ash also encounters an evil undead version of himself created by the Necronomicon. Undead Ash meet Undead Doctor Strange.
There’s also a part in ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ where Bruce Campbell’s cameo character had his hand animated by Stephen Strange, and it started flailing at Bruce Campbell till the end credits of the movie. This same event happened to Ashley Williams in ‘Army of Darkness’ which forced Ash to cut off his hand otherwise it would have killed him. Hence you have the groovy, and iconic chainsaw hand.
I’m quite sure Sam Raimi had a laugh after reading the script for this movie. It combines his two loves: super-hero, and horror movies. And, he just had to add Bruce Campbell to the mix to really stress on the homages he was making to his ‘Evil Dead’ horror universe.
So yeah, ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ is more Sam Raimi than it lets on, but that’s fine with me. I’m just happy that Raimi got to play his horror tropes within the limits of the House of Mouse. More reason to watch Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange while it’s still in theatres.