Ash Vs. Evil Dead: The King is Back, Baby
November 1, 2015Ash Vs. Evil Dead, is in many ways, an improbable show.
It’s based on a modestly successful series of low-budget horror films, starring an almost sixty year old self professed B-list actor, and directed by filmmaker who not too long ago was responsible for a series of films that grossed more than a billion dollars.
But the right idea, at the right time, and Ash vs. Evil Dead was born.
The show opens on our favourite one-handed hero, Ash Williams, and his home in a trailer park. He’s getting ready for a night on the town; he heads to a bar, and using what’s probably a well-practiced line, he manages to seduce a barfly into a tryst in the washroom.
Problem? It turns out she’s sharing space with the Evil Dead, which shocks Ash because it’s the first he’s seen of them in almost thirty years. He can’t figure out where they came from; until he sees a bag of marijuana tucked into the Necronomicon (which is left casually on his nightstand at home.)
He recalls a drug-addled night with a girl who said she loved poetry. He apparently took this as a sign and decided to read her some “poetry.” From the book of the dead! You can guess what happened next: possessions, decapitations, much evil.
The horror elements were actually quite a bit stronger than I expected. I believed it would focus more on the comedy than true fright. In that way it’s more of a sequel to Evil Dead than Army of Darkness, which leads to my main (and only real) complaint about the show: it doesn’t seem to acknowledge the existence of Army of Darkness.
Ash still has the book, he only talks about his friends at the cabin, he still has that yellow Oldsmobile, and about thirty years have passed since his last brush with evil.
Perhaps for narrative purposes it was easier than trying to fit in what is admittedly a complicated twist to the story, but Army of Darkness was in some ways the most entertaining of the three Evil Dead films, so it’s a disappointment to say the least.
Bruce Campbell owns the Ash character and it’s hard to tell where he ends and the character begins. Pablo and Kelly seem promising as his sidekicks, and there was enough mystery in episode 1 to make watching episode 2 a must.
If you’re a fan of the Evil Dead series, you’ve probably already watched Ash vs. Evil Dead.
If you’re not familiar with it, that’s okay, the show tells you everything you need to know within fifteen minutes!
If the thought of a one handed guy strapping a chainsaw to his stump and slaying demons sounds cool you, then Ash vs. Evil Dead is one you need to put on your list!