S1:
Groovy! Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell are finally back with the franchise which made them well known and famous; the Evil Dead trilogy, which recently got a remake, has gotten a sequel into the form of a television series, and it delivers the goods.
As is well known, the series first started quite serious with the first part which remains my favorite. However, Evil Dead II and in particular Army of Darkness turned up the humor factor by large portions, and in present time, Ash vs Evil Dead is a terrific horror comedy.
Ash Williams, our favorite hero equipped with a shotgun and a chainsaw for an arm, mistakenly unleashes hell again after a cozy trip, some naughty words are spoken. The Necronomicon unleashes the Deadites, the zombie like demons we all know and love to hate, and the show is on.
Together with a new supporting cast including Pablo and Kelly, they will have to figure out on how to undo the spell which summoned the evil. Throughout the episodes, Ash bombs a lot of effective sarcastic one liners again the demons, and it certainly made the it all more enjoyable.
The makeup, gore and special effects are my favorite part of Ash vs Evil Dead, as several get their heads chopped, guts ripped open and eyes poked out, while the victims taunt the humans with their devilish voices.
Scare wise, these range from playing victim, to charming humans, to humiliating them, to attacking them, to crawling and jumping around, to roaring and licking like animals and to turning towards the camera/characters and scare the hell out of you/them!
Trademarks of the franchise include of course Ash himself, the Necronomicon, the arsenal, the heavy gore, the fast moving first person scenes, the evil clone, the hand and best of all, the journey ends at the wooden cabin where it all started.
Well, there's not much else to say about this. It's obviously fanservice and somehow, Bruce Campbell still shines here in perhaps a redundant story line, but you can't beat old school horror roots which was all at first just a cult classic, and now look how it has grown into massive popularity.
S2:
After Ash, Pablo and Kelly seal the Deadites and Ruby away, the latter “somehow” loses control over her demonic children, and she hides the Necronomicon away.
Season 2 is about going on a quest to recover the unholy book, while the scares, the gores and the demonic humour are intact. The original car gets possessed, a new villain named Baal takes over, some scenes are delicious gore and utterly nasty, and the one liners plus of course Ash return, as well as the cabin itself!
S3:
The cast expands with Ash’s daughter getting involved, while the Deadites and Ruby work together to summon the Dark Ones, who are like the progenitor of the Necronomicon and the Evil Dead.
The tropes of horror and comedy return, but some of the other miscellaneous scenes were dull. And with a cliffhanger of an ending, I'm sorry to announce that the series got cancelled after this. Have we seen the last of Evil Dead?
Overall rating: 7.0
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