It’s that time of year again! Time to celebrate the Resurrection with a weeklong plunge into all things zombie! Here’s the history: In 2008, Dr. Girlfriend and I decided to spend a week or so each year marathoning through zombie films that we’d never seen before, and I would blog short reviews. And simple as that, the Easter Zombie Movie Marathon was born.
For the curious, here are links to 2008, 2009 (a bad year), 2010, 2011, 2012 (when we left the blog behind), 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The sixth episode of Ash vs Evil Dead Season One is entitled “The Killer of Killers” and opens with Ruby (Lucy Lawless) and Amanda (Jill Marie Jones) arriving at the burnt out ranch of the Brujo, just missing Ash (Bruce Campbell) and company hitting the road. But the reanimated burning skeleton of the Brujo recognizes Ruby and attacks, with both of them disappearing into the pyre. This leaves Amanda no choice but to steal Ruby’s car and follow Ash’s mobile home. But where did that pesky possessed hand disappear to?
Oh well. I’m sure it’ll be fine.
The bulk of this episode is a fun as hell Kandarian Deadite diner attack, as Ash, Pablo (Ray Santiago), and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) stop for a stack of pancakes. This was a non-stop, over-the-top gorefest that had me laughing out loud from start to finish. Especially at Kelly as she works out some of her anger issues with a Deadite and a meat slicer.
Perfection.
Plus, Amanda is now on-board as the group heads back to where it all began: the cabin in the woods.
“Fire in the Hole” gives us some insight into Ash’s past, as the gang go in search of a militia camp that Ash’s friend Lem (Peter Feeney) is affiliated with. However, since Lem got Deadited last episode, things are not looking good.
After the high of the last episode, this one was a bit of a letdown overall. Deadite Lem has attacked the militia camp and our heroes just casually wander in, get captured, get separated, and end up bonding a little more. Pablo and Kelly get chased by rednecks with guns, while Ash and Amanda get handcuffed together and have to fight off Lem.
It’s not terrible, and the action is fun, but it wasn’t the greatest use of thirty minutes. At least our heroes are armed to the teeth as they set out for the cabin.
Meanwhile, back at the Brujo’s ranch, Ruby emerges unscathed (but naked) from the funeral pyre and continues her search for Ash and the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. But how in the hell (literally) did this happen? There’s definitely more to Ruby than meets the eye.
We finally return to the cabin in the woods, 30 years later as “Ashes to Ashes” begins, and behind the scenes, Michael J. Bassett returns as a writer for this episode (and I only just discovered she transitioned to MJ Bassett in 2018). And while Ash and Amanda go to face the evil, Pablo and Kelly stumble across what every good Evil Dead story needs: hapless hikers to sacrifice and become Deadites! This time of the Australian variety, as Brad (Ido Drent), Melissa (Indiana Evans), and a pre-fame (in America, anyway) Samara Weaving as Heather, lead our heroes toward the cabin. We get another Evil Dead recast as Ash is tormented by the severed head of his old girlfriend Linda (Rebekkah Farrell) out in the woodshed.
Plus, we get an Evil Dead staple: A doppelganger Ash, this time regrown from the missing severed hand!
Sadly, we have to say goodbye to Amanda – in human form anyway. She’ll probably be back! But before Ash can do anything about Amanda and his double, Pablo and Kelly show up, having ditched the hikers.
These last three episodes could stand alone as a new Evil Dead film, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the initial ideas for a fourth Ash-centric feature ended up slipping into the mix. The single setting allows for a ton of plot to get crammed into them without seeming overdone. As each of these final three episodes move forward, they seem to get bigger and bigger despite sticking to the half-hour format.
Our penultimate episode of Season One, “Bound in Flesh,” leads off with one of those classic sci-fi/horror TV tropes: figuring out which doppelganger is the real deal. This time out, it’s Pablo and Kelly who have to figure out which Ash is real, and which is a Deadite monster! They don’t dwell on it too long and within minutes of starting, we now have two dead bodies to deal with. I guess it’s a good thing those Australian hikers took off!
Oh wait. They’re back.
Ash convinces Kelly and Pablo to take the hikers down a back trail behind the cabin to someplace safe while he dismembers the bodies. Reluctantly they agree, but is that a little romance brewing between Pablo and Heather (Samara Weaving)? And is Kelly a little jealous? Or is she just cautious?
Back at the cabin, Ash goes to work on his own doppelganger, failing to notice that the blood pouring from the corpse is about to come into contact with the Necronomicon, which suddenly begins to speak, arguing that Ash shouldn’t bury it in the cellar. Not wanting to deal with this, Ash puts the book in the refrigerator, but when he returns to start cutting up Amanda, she’s gone!
But she hasn’t gone far. Deadite Amanda attacks the hikers, killing Brad and Melissa (in particularly gory fashion) and breaks Heather’s leg while taunting Pablo and Kelly. Things look grim until Ruby arrives and takes out Amanda.
It’s amazing how acclimatized I’ve become to casual dismemberment over the course of this season. To be fair, I’m a sucker for over-the-top gore – especially when combined with humor – but this show is pulling out all the stops to gross out the viewers.
But wait! There’s more!
We finally get our Ash vs Ruby confrontation, and it’s as fun as one would expect… until we find out who Ruby really is and what her plans are!
Poor Pablo. Things don’t look good for him going into the finale.
Season One wraps up with “The Dark One.” Nothing good can come of a story called “The Dark One.”
Of course, we now know that Ruby is actually The Dark One, the writer of the Necronomicon, intent on releasing hell on earth, but under her rule. I know that Lucy Lawless is married to producer Rob Tapert, and that surely played a big part in her being cast, but she is fantastic in this show. In fact, everybody is fantastic, and this season finale gives everybody some crazy shit to do.
Upstairs, the cabin is doing its best to kill Heather and sideline Kelly, forcing her out the door and locking her out. Dana DeLorenzo is gangbusters and has her rage turned up to eleven. Even the cabin has to take notice. Unfortunately, not before Heather is unceremoniously chewed up and spat out.
On the stairs, Ash is confronted by Ruby and offered a truce. She enters his mind, taking him back to the night he read the Necronomicon back in Episode One, giving him the option of handing over the book and leaving to retire in Jacksonville – Ash’s happy place, where he and Linda were supposed to vacation to if they had gotten out of the cabin thirty years ago. When he refuses, he finds himself back, tumbling down the stairs into the darkness.
Downstairs, things are going to hell in a handbasket. Ray Santiago’s performance here is stellar. Having been possessed by the Necronomicon itself (last episode, Ash carved the face off the book, and it then flew up and attached itself to Pablo!!), he has become a living portal to the underworld, vomiting out hideous, eyeless children over and over in a scene that is one of the most disgusting in the history of the franchise.
The conclusion of the episode lays the groundwork for the already greenlit Season Two, with Ash finally, reluctantly, accepting Ruby’s offer of retirement to Jacksonville in order to save Pablo and Kelly. They’re not happy with his decision, and Ash seems to know that he’s messed up, but is unwilling to admit it. As they drive off to Florida, sinkholes begin opening all over the world and we still don’t know what all of those eyeless children were tasked with doing.
This first season was a delight, with literally only one or two episodes slowing down the mad dash to the apocalypse. Watched back-to-back, Ash vs Evil Dead Season One is a very satisfying return for Ash and a very satisfying expansion of the Evil Dead world. It was a risk, bringing back a character as beloved as Ash after thirty years, but the creative team performed a miracle and not only captured the energy and enthusiasm of the original trilogy, but managed to flesh out Ash’s character in ways that kept him from becoming a cartoon character. He’s a terribly flawed hero, but he’s a hero nonetheless. And with Kelly and Pablo by his side, Season Two should be a lot of fun.