Editorials
How “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Proved ‘Evil Dead’ Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving [TV Terrors]
Groovy! For this month’s installment of “TV Terrors” we revisit “Ash vs. Evil Dead“, the three-season television series that aired on the Starz Network from 2015 through 2018.
One of the most sobering moments of “Ash vs. Evil Dead” came in the original introduction by franchise star Bruce Campbell, who explained that the series was made because fans wouldn’t shut up. Indeed, fans had been asking for years for another adventure with Ashley Williams after Army of Darkness, and the team finally obliged in 2015. The climate was right for the return of the Evil Dead at the time as studios and television networks were investing in horror series. Developed by Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi, and Tom Spezialy, Starz’s “Ash vs. Evil Dead” wasn’t just a dry run for fans. The series was a return to form for the Evil Dead series, one that never betrayed its source material despite being broadened for more general audiences.
Right down to the vicious gore and dark comedy, the Raimis and Bruce Campbell gave us what we wanted all along in a brisk episodic format with the short-lived “Ash vs. Evil Dead.”
Its just too bad ratings weren’t strong enough to garner more than three seasons.
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” is set somewhat after the events of Army of Darkness (even though it’s never explicitly stated for the audience). Ashley Williams, after all of his demon slaying, is still just a regular Joe Schmoe working a nine-to-five job at the “Value Stop” as a simple stock boy, alongside his friend and fan boy Pablo (Ray Santiago) and the object of Pablo’s affections, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo).
Ash has seemingly done very little with his life since returning from 1300 AD at the end of Army of Darkness, and at the beginning of the series we see him living in a trailer and drinking alone in bars. As usual, Ash is more interested in picking up women. In an effort to impress his latest fling he introduces her to the Necronomicon and wouldn’t you know it? He accidentally unleashes “The Draft,” the demonic entity that soon begins possessing locals and turning them into Deadites. Left with no other choice but to clean up his mess, Ash must renounce his routine existence and become a hero once more by taking up arms and facing the demonic scum.
When they accidentally view firsthand what’s risen from hell, co-workers Pablo and Kelly decide to join Ash on his quest to save humanity.
What’s so excellent about “Ash vs. Evil Dead” is that it’s a return to form for the franchise that also expands on the mythos of the Deadites and the Necronomicon. The series doesn’t just repeat the same beats we saw in the first three films, this time offering up varieties in settings where the chaos ensues. The writers also introduce us to variations of the Deadites, all of whom vary in shape and size, but are absolutely horrifying (and ugly) to battle. There’s even a hilarious puppet version of Ash Williams introduced to us, named “Ashy Slashy, who we get to know all too well.
Bruce Campbell is as charismatic and hilarious as ever, playing the cocky anti-hero who is ill-prepared this time to battle the Deadites. The writers introduce two new heroes to the fold with the charming Pablo and Kelly, two budding badasses that vary wildly in personality and bring their own skills to the war. Ironically while they are there to play off of Ash and balance out his penchant for irresponsibility, they also are eventually developed to where they become horror heroes as well. Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago are fantastic in their respective roles, playing two Deadite fighters that have come into their own by the time the series comes to a close.
Eventually the series evolves from Ash’s journey to a group effort yet it keeps a lot of the spirit that made the original Evil Dead movies so much fun. The franchise’s trademark dark comedy and vicious violence is maintained while the writers pay big tribute to the original movies. Time and time again we revisit The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, with Ash and his crew even returning to the original cabin. Additionally, Ellen Sandweiss from the original Evil Dead returns as Ash’s ill-fated little sister Cheryl. We also get a firsthand glimpse at the dreaded “Draft,” which was always an unseen entity of doom in the films. The writers also delve into other facets like the mythical Kandarian Dagger, other Deadite hunters, and even Deadite offspring.
More exciting though is we get a glimpse into Ash’s unusual family as we’re introduced to his father Brock Williams (Lee Majors) in season two, and yes, his long lost daughter Brandy Barr, in season three. Season three is where the series really comes into its own as Ash is introduced to Brandy, as played by Arielle Carver-O’Neill. Barr is introduced as the unlikeliest of Ash Williams’ children living a normal life with her mom. But eventually the Deadites come knocking at her door, forcing Ash, Pablo, and Kelly to track her down and save her. She inevitably has no choice but to join in the fight with her father, even experiencing her own confrontations with the Deadites (in the excellent penultimate episode “Judgement Day”) in the process.
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” is loaded with so many surprises and entertaining twists, and lends a wider scope to Ash’s world that makes the series feel more like a line up of great Evil Dead shorts than an episodic premium cable TV show. Sadly, the fans didn’t really turn out for the series, and Starz decided to cancel “Ash vs. Evil Dead” after three seasons. They closed the show on a huge cliffhanger as Ash awakens to an apparent Deadite apocalypse and goes back into the fray alongside Brandy. It’s a shame the show couldn’t have gone even farther out beyond what we knew about the Deadites, as I think we could have seen some new wild variations.
There’s no real explanation for why viewers didn’t turn out for the series, especially after the huge demand all those years for Ash’s return. Despite a circulating petition, Bruce Campbell accepted the fate, explaining: “Ash vs. Evil Dead has been the ride of a lifetime. Ash Williams was the role of a lifetime. It was an honor to reunite with Evil Dead partners Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi to give our tireless fans another taste of the outrageous horror/comedy they demanded. I will always be grateful to Starz for the opportunity to revisit the franchise that launched our careers.”
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” was Campbell’s retirement from playing the character in the live action format, but the series was a great last hurrah for fans and horror buffs alike. We got three wildly different but utterly entertaining seasons that expanded The Evil Dead while also paying great respect to the groundwork Sam Raimi set. After the show ended, the series remained a favorite with fans and the universe has been thankfully kept alive with video games, comics, the much lauded 2013 remake, and the highly anticipated Evil Dead Rise. I think it’s safe to say we’re in good hands, and are going to be visiting the world of the Deadites again and again for a long time to come.
Is It On DVD/Blu-ray/Streaming? You can buy individual seasons or the complete series on Blu-ray for a great price, and you can stream the series on Starz, Netflix, Youtube, and Hulu. The Evil Dead movies are always readily available on streaming or on Blu-ray and DVD.
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank into obscurity.
Can you believe it’s already been fifteen years since 2009? I feel older than Jason’s mother’s head. But never mind all that. We’re going to look into the past in celebratory fashion today and take a month-to-month look at what the world of horror looked like back in 2009.
The dreaded month of January kicked things off in usual January fashion with a forgettable title, The Unborn. A David S. Goyer picture that’s not very memorable but managed to be the sixth most successful horror film of 2009 domestically, raking in over $42 million at the box office.
Right behind it on the calendar was Patrick Lussier’s My Bloody Valentine 3D starring “Supernatural” actor Jensen Ackles. This slasher remake took the idea of January horror and embraced it, making a silly and gory slasher that was the world’s first R-rated film to ever use Real3D technology. Anyone looking for legitimate scares was probably pissed (the film has a 44% Rotten “Audience” rating) but genre fans had fun with it to the tune of over $51 million at the box office (on a $14 million budget).
Next up, releasing on January 30 was the sleepy PG-13 horror flick The Uninvited. For the life of me, I’ll never understand the choice to release a movie called The Uninvited two weeks after a movie called The Unborn; to be fair, most of us are unable to remember much about either of them.
The reboot of Friday the 13th was served up to us for Valentine’s Day Weekend 2009. A slasher movie that made a ton of money and had fans begging for a sequel… that never came. The Platinum Dunes reboot may not be universally beloved, but I know a fair share of fans (myself included) who thought the new Jason, Derek Mears, and team made a film that was both fun and brutal. And it was juicy enough to come in as the number three most successful domestic horror film in 2009 to the tune of over $65 million. Friday the 13th ’09 was nowhere near perfect but it was a damn fun time with some underrated Jason Voorhees moments and a sleek plan to tell Jason’s origin story quickly via flashbacks that some superhero franchises could learn from. Oh yeah, and it starred the other “Supernatural” bro, Jared Padalecki. I’m sensing a pattern here.
‘Last House on the Left’
Next up, yet another remake of a classic horror film: The Last House on the Left. Wes Craven wanted to see what his low-budget horror film would look like with a little walking around money and the results were that we, the audience, got to see a dude get his head microwaved. The critics weren’t huge fans but let’s be honest, it could have been a lot worse given the subject matter and lack of nuance in the 2000s. Last House went on to land itself in the top ten horror box office returns of the year.
March would also feature one of the many notches in Kyle Gallner’s horror belt, The Haunting in Connecticut, a movie with maybe too many generic possession genre moments to make a major dent in the status quo but enough to make it memorable. I’d take it over many of The Conjuring franchise spinoffs of today, personally. Though, they’re all very much alike.
April Horror would conjure nothing for audiences but Sam Raimi would bring the loud, scary, and funny back to the genre with Drag Me to Hell on May 29. This film that was somehow still PG-13 even with a cat murder, flying old lady eyeball, and mouth-to-mouth puke action was a blast to experience in the theater. Audiences agreed as the film ranked #7 on the horror box office of the year, cashing out at $42 million thanks to a loveable lead in Alison Lohman, the forever horror victim Justin Long, and some good old-fashioned, Evil Dead II-type fun.
‘Drag Me to Hell’
July would shock horror fans in a completely different way with adoption horror flick Orphan. The ending may have had all of us feeling super uncomfortable and shocked but the movie itself had adoption groups majorly upset at how the film depicted the dangers of adoption. So much so that the studio had to add a pro-adoption message to the film’s DVD. No matter, the performance of Isabelle Fuhrman would carry the film to a $41 million box office run and later spawn a decent prequel in 2022.
Speaking of collecting, The Collector was also released in July 2009 and was a pleasant surprise featuring a shitload of originality and some scares to boot. Yet another horror success that would make $10 million on a $3 million budget and spawn a sequel. We’re still waiting on third installment, which abruptly stopped shooting several years back under strange circumstances.
The fourth Final Destination film graced us with its predestined presence in 2009 as well with The Final Destination; the 3D one with the race car track opening. The film was (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) a financial success, raking in over $186 million (worldwide) on a $40 million budget.
Rob Zombie went Rob Zombie’ing as hard as he’s ever Rob Zombie’d with Halloween II later that month. He’d Rob Zombie so hard that we wouldn’t see Halloween on the big screen again until almost ten years later with Halloween 2018. And nothing controversial ever happened in the franchise again. *Shuts book* Stop trying to open it! NO! NOOOOOOOO!
‘Halloween II’
Another remake in Sorority Row was the first film to follow Rob Zombie’s divisive stab-a-thon with a schlocky Scream-esque slasher flick that had a good enough time and even boasted a few neat kills. Critics weren’t fans of this one but if you were? You’ll be happy to hear that writer Josh Stolberg just announced he’s working on the follow-up!
Sexy Horror September continued a week later with Jennifer’s Body and an all-new, emo kind of Kyle Gallner. Jennifer’s Body didn’t exactly crush it for the critics or the box office but has success in its own right and is considered somewhat of a cult classic thanks to some hilarious writing and leading performances from Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. Also, shout out to Adam Brody’s band Low Shoulder. Machine Gun Kelly could never.
Part of the low box office for Jennifer’s Body could have had something to do with what came next as Paranormal Activity would rock the horror world a week later. The genius marketing of the low-budget film would feature clips of audiences on night vision cameras losing their minds. Whether it scared you to death or you found the entire concept ridiculous, you had to see it for yourself. Paranormal Activity would bring in almost $200 million worldwide on a 15 THOUSAND dollar budget. I’m no mathematician but I’m pretty sure that’s good. The horror game changer may just be the most remembered of all the 2009 films and it’s one every studio in the world wanted to replicate.
‘Paranormal Activity’
One film’s game changer is another film’s flop as Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster’s space horror Pandorum had the unfortunate scheduling of lining up against Paranormal Activity on that fateful day and in turn, being mostly forgotten.
Spooky Season 2009 kicked off with the beloved horror-comedy Zombieland in October, complete with Jesse Eisenberg’s meta-rules for surviving a zombie apocalypse, Bill Murray, and Woody Harrelson who just wanted a fuckin’ Twinkie. There’s nothing like a good horror comedy and Zombieland proved that all the way to the bank, making $74 million domestically en route to a second film that brought back the entire cast.
It’s only been twelve seconds since I said the word remake, so let’s fix that. The Stepfather remake would follow a week later and be met by an audience getting a little sick of them. Unlike some of the other spirited remakes that surrounded this era in horror (not that they ever stopped), The Stepfather felt like an uninspired retread of the understated but completely messed up 1987 Terry O’Quinn horror cult classic. It’s largely been forgotten over the years.
“Who am I here?” Oh yeah, it’s October in the 2000, there’s bound to be a Saw movie around here somewhere. Saw VI would be released on the 23rd of October and continue the story of Detective Hoffman while adjusting the rates of some shady insurance adjustors. Saw VI would also fall victim to a little bit of Paranormal Activity mania with the film being bested by the continued rollout of its predecessor. Things were looking a little bleak for the franchise at this point. Probably none of us would have imagined that fifteen years later we’d be talking about the same director (Kevin Greutert) returning for the eleventh movie in the franchise.
‘The House of the Devil’
After all these humongous box office successes, sequels, and remakes it would be three memorable indie flicks that would round out October of 2009; the ultra fucked up Willem Dafoe, Lars von Trier sex/horror flick Antichrist, followed by Ti West’s ’70s haunter The House of the Devil and rounded out with some Australian torture horror in Sean Byrne’s The Loved Ones. All three movies each make their mark in their own special ways. What a way to end October.
But it was November that would bring the movie that scared me more than any other on this list: The Fourth Kind. A lot of you are assuredly rolling your eyes right now but this one messed me up on a cellular level despite it being a complete and total fake. The Fourth Kind decided to meld a traditional horror film with the stylings of The Blair Witch Project in an opening designed to make you believe it was based on a true story. An embarrassing attempt but the film itself had me afraid to sleep near windows at night after seeing those found footage abductions. It still messes with me, to be honest. WHY ARE THEIR MOUTHS STRETCHING SO MUCH?!?!
December was too busy doing Avatar and Alvin and the Chipmunks-type family affairs for any horror movies but even without it, 2009 was quite a year for horror. I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention some other memorable films that were released either straight to video, limited or overseas that year including Case 39 (that oven opening!), Exam, Daybreakers, Splice, Dead Snow, The Hills Run Red, The Descent 2, Blood Creek, Cabin Fever 2 and [REC] 2.
What were your horror favorites from 2009? Comment below and let us know!
‘My Bloody Valentine’
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