Star Wars, The X-Files, James Bond, Jurassic Park—what year
is it? A bit of temporal displacement is understandable given how much of our
pop culture has turned nostalgic, recycling and updating ideas that worked
before for a new generation. Why not turn to one of the best, most beloved
horror franchises of all time for the next spin on the nostalgia dial? After
decades of false starts, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell have finally reunited for
“Ash vs. Evil Dead,” a weekly series on Starz, which allows them to get as
gory and crazy as they want to be, for better or worse. There are times when “Ash
vs. Evil Dead” mimics the gleeful insanity of films like “Evil Dead 2: Dead by
Dawn” and “Army of Darkness,” but there are also times where it feels a bit
desperately eager to please. “Remember when you loved this? Please love it again!” It settles down a bit in the second
episode, especially in a great dinner scene with Mimi Rogers, and there are
plenty of “Well, I haven’t seen that on TV before” moments to keep one
entertained. All in all, after two episodes, I hope it becomes more of its own
thing instead of reminding me of things I liked in the past, but I’m willing to
take the journey to see if it gets there.
Ash (Bruce Campbell) was the sole survivor of an attack of
the undead on a cabin in Michigan. He lost his hand after “it went bad,” and
has been telling tall tales ever since. He picks up ladies at the bar by
convincing them he saved an 8-year-old boy from the path of an oncoming train,
thereby losing his hand. Ash is the same old Ash. S-Mart has been replaced by
Value Stop, but he’s the same schmuck who picks up a box of light bulbs and
watches them crash to the floor. He’s the awkward hero, the guy who lives in a
double wide and makes minimum wage, but also wields a shotgun like a comic book
icon. When he needs to be, Ash is as bad ass they come.
And he will need to be. After he gets stoned with a young
lady, he chooses to read from the Necronomicon after she mentions her love of
French poetry (which is a hilarious way to kick off the show if you think about
it). Before he knows it, he’s having visions of the Deadites (people possessed by
white-eyed, head-spinning demons from the other side) coming to get him.
Meanwhile, MI State Trooper Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones)
is called into the scene of a brutal crime with her partner, and soon
confronted by a vicious Deadite. The action scene that follows, with its
impalements and shotgun blasts, is an impressive one, proving that Raimi, who
directed the first two episodes, brings something that your average TV director
doesn’t to the proceedings. Even if you don’t know who Ash is, fans of something
like “The Walking Dead” should check this out. It’s intense. And it sends
Fisher on a collision course with Ash as she investigates what the heck is
going on, and runs into a mysterious woman named Ruby (Lacy Lawless). Ash gets
some partners of his own in Value Stop co-workers Pablo (Ray Santiago) and
Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo).
“Ash vs. Evil Dead” follows the visual template of the Raimi
films—extreme close-ups, canted angles, ridiculous zooms, etc. Even the cheap
special effects have been mimicked, including a great scene where it looks like
someone just threw a camera at Ash’s trailer and he bounced around as if it was
being rocked. What’s great about a movie like “Evil Dead 2” is that these “cheap”
special effects are still effective. They connect in a way to which we can
relate, and the film is further grounded by the great work from Campbell. “Evil
Dead 2” is a blast, and I’m happy the producers of the upgrade made a very
clear decision not to “upgrade” the proceedings too much. Things still feel
tactile. When the buckets of blood pour, you can feel the stickiness.
The supporting cast is good here too, especially Santiago
and DeLorenzo. The former gets a great scene in episode two involving an attack
in a car. And then Mimi Rogers shows up for that aforementioned dinner scene,
one in which Ash is convinced she’s a Deadite and no one else is, and “Ash vs.
Evil Dead” lives up to its comedy-horror potential. That scene sealed the deal
for me (although, if I’m being honest, it was really an episode one bit in
which Ash is attacked by a child’s doll possessed by the devil). When Ash
spouted one of his typically goofy, posturing lines to tag the scene, it almost felt like no time
had passed since “Army of Darkness.” Looking at the rest of pop culture, I
could be forgiven for thinking it really hasn’t.
