Evil Dead

I watched the first episode of Ash vs Evil Dead today, it's really good folks.

For those unaware, Evil Dead is a classic example of low budget horror film making and launched the careers of Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi, a couple names you may have seen at various points in the last couple decades. Evil Dead hit theaters in1981, making older than me now, and is still a pretty good example of a genuinely scary, gory, supernatural horror movie that we don't see too many of these days. The sequel, Evil Dead II, is really more of a remake of the first movie, and tells the same story with a (slightly)higher budget, more fake blood, and a bit more humor an slapstick mixed in with the comedy, it pulls off the combination well and does so without taking the threat out of the monsters and supernatural goings on.
Army of Darkness was the third film, and it pretty much abandoned the horror movie plot and gave us a comedy adventure movie set in medieval times.

The main, and only really important character is Ash, played by Bruce Campbell, in the second and third films, he is the driving force behind the plot, because he manages to screw things up that badly, he's a character who certainly can survive and deliver a one liner, but in most other areas is actually pretty incompetent, it is this quality that the TV series starts out focusing on.

It is thirty years since the events of the movies, and Ash has not grown as a person, he lives alone in a trailer, works at a dead end job where he blatantly uses the awe that the younger employees hold him in for some reason to avoid doing work, and makes up stories about how he lost his hand to pick up women in bars. It is also his fault that the Evil is coming back, and he seems almost relieved to be forced to confront it.

The series feels like watching an Evil Dead movie, the special effects are mostly practical, the monsters look like I remember them, the silly threats and on liners are back, Bruce Campbell gets beaten up by a creepy doll. It's a lot of fun and I have great hopes for the series as it continues.

If you liked the comedy/horror blend of Evil Dead II or other films like Nightmare of Elm Street, you will find a lot to like about this one, I am looking forward to seeing more.