The Evil Dead finds new life on the small screen
Brush up on the lore before watching Ash vs. Evil Dead
Ash Williams, that swaggering, sexist, aging antihero with a chainsaw, is as outrageously badass as ever in Ash vs. The Evil Dead.
It’s also, however unlikely, one of the best new shows you’ll see on fall TV.
That is, if you happen to like flying eyeballs and demonic possession with a heaping side of snark.
Creator Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series is three decades old. And his formula for comic-horror-tragedy remains remarkably vivid, perhaps translating better in the serialized world of the small screen than on celluloid.
The premiere episode is directed by Raimi, and it’s a mini-masterpiece — leaving you alternately laughing and gasping at the sheer, overbearing grossness and stupidity of it all. This is a show that never forgets that it is about spectacle.
And it leaves nothing on the table. No head goes unsevered. Raimi’s skill at making a once kindly grandmother an object of revulsion has not faded.
When we first revisit an aging Ash — still played by Bruce Campbell — he is putting on his girdle and dentures. He is living out of a trailer. But, not unlike 30 years ago, he accidentally reads from the Necronomicon book that summons the evil from the underworld.
True to form, he is still underachieving as a stock boy. He teams up with two employees Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) in a quest to stop the evil dead from taking over the world.
But, first and foremost, he is still a tool.
“If we get this done quick enough we might be able to stop for churros,” he tells Pablo. “That’s not a racist thing. That’s just dessert.”
Pablo tells him he’s not Mexican, to which Ash responds, “That’s the spirit.”
In case you’re just joining the franchise now — or it’s been a while since you’ve seen Evil Dead — here’s a primer. The movies The Deadites shall rise again. And again. Because it’s hard to keep a good horror sequel down. The Evil Dead, written and directed by Sam Raimi, was released in 1981. The original plot had five college students vacationing during spring break. They find a tape recording of incantations that, when played, releases evil spirits. The show spawned two sequels written and directed by Raimi, including Evil Dead II in 1987 and Army of Darkness in 1992. A fourth movie, Evil Dead, produced but not directed by Raimi in 2013, was a reboot of the franchise. The show Now comes Ash vs. Evil Dead, a television series that picks up 30 years after Ash has his life changed following that blood-drenched night in the woods. It premieres Saturday at 10 p.m. on Superchannel. Who is Ash Williams? Ash is played by Bruce Campbell, director Sam Raimi’s childhood friend. Three decades later, Ash hasn’t matured one bit and is likely America’s oldest one-handed (from an earlier battler with Deadites) stock boy. Necronomicon Ex-Mortis The Book of The Dead, bound in flesh and written in blood. It contains passages that if spoken will awaken Kandarian demons. Deadites Kandarian demons can possess humans or inanimate objects, turning them into Deadites, beings with horrific strength. They can only be killed via bodily dismemberment. The Canadian connection Set designers were sure to put in one of Raimi’s trademarks, his favourite T-shirt. Be sure to look out for that Camp Tamakwa logo in the TV series. Raimi used his own Tamakwa T-shirt from the Algonquin Park camp in Evil Dead 2.