Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin’” steals the opening scene of Ash Vs. Evil Dead, the sci-fi rock song prefacing Ash’s return to the franchise via a 10-episode television series. Bruce Campbell brings back the character of Ash Williams, and all of his sexist, machismo charisma that follows.
The series is a result of the original ‘80s film The Evil Dead, which has seen its fair share of remakes, parodies, adaptations, and, as of recently, Broadway. Basically, in the original film, a group of teens find themselves getting drunk in a cabin in the woods and, after finding an audiotape that says a few creepy things in a made-up language, accidentally release an army of flesh-starved demons.
Campbell, who acted in and executively produced The Evil Dead, returns as the executive producer and star of Ash Vs. Evil Dead, alongside of executive producer Sam Raimi, who was the original film’s writer, director, and producer.
The Ash Vs. Evil Dead pilot, “El Jefe,” opens with Ash, a now middle-aged, trailer park resident with one arm and a job at the local hardware store. Ash immediately hooks up with a woman he meets at a bar – one that fell for a loosely paraphrased sob story and repulsive sexist rhetoric. The two hook up in the bathroom of a near-empty, small town bar, where Ash has his first encounter with the literal demons of his past.
As Ash wonders why he is being re-acquainted with the demons from that old cabin in the woods, he recalls that, while he was getting stoned with a female friend the other night, he found out that she had a thing for poetry and decided to impress her by reading out of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, which is also known as The Book of the Dead, thus releasing the demons that once terrorized his existence.
Meanwhile, thanks to Ash, the town is being taken over by deadites – any life force that is possessed by the Kandarian Demon. Ash realizes he can’t escape, and after a close encounter in his trailer, he recruits his co-workers, Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), to help him fight back against the deadites.
Other promising characters are introduced throughout the episode, including Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones), a police officer that survives a close battle with a deadite in an abandoned house.
Another pleasant surprise is the appearance of Xena: The Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless, who provides a very brief yet enticing line of advice to Amanda in the middle of a restaurant. Her appearance only lasts a few seconds, though foreshadows her addition to the show.
Ash Vs. Evil Dead is quirky, funny, and full of totally ridiculous special effects that only combine horror and comedy in the most perfect way possible. Head-spinning, ceiling-crawling, chainsaws and gore drawn from kitchen condiments drape the show’s first episode with everything that makes Evil Dead irresistible to horror fans. In the span of a 40-minute pilot, Raimi manages to re-introduce an iconic franchise lead, set the stage for new and intriguing characters, and satisfy the needs of expectant gore-hungry fans. Though action-packed and fast-paced, the first episode runs as smooth as Ash’s pickup lines, and, by the end of the episode, manages to leave viewers well-fed, yet full of the perfect amount of suspense.