‘Evil Dead’ makes it big on the small screen

“Evil Dead” makes a very impressive return to style, even if it is the small screen and not a full length movie like the previous entry in the series.

“Ash vs. Evil Dead” does this by maintaining much of the style and flavor of the movies through the use of practice effects with dummies, prosthetic, makeup, the evil camera that flies through the woods, the heavy use of blood, over the top action, and everything else that one has seen in the movies. Of course, one can’t forget the humor that, together with the horror and the characters, make the first episode of the show very enjoyable to watch.

Naturally the best character is the star of the franchise. Bruce Campbell, playing our hero Ash, does a great job channeling the man we know from the previous movies. But before we reach that point, Bruce does a great job acting as a overweight and wash out of a Ash who is simply hiding from the horrors that have chased and haunted him for three movies.

This aspect of Ash’s character is the main focus of the first quarter of the episode and in many ways it does make sense as part of his character development, reinforcing the effect that his friends Pablo Simon Bolivar and Kelly Maxwell have on him. This is highlighted by Campbell himself in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

“Ash has survivor’s guilt. You could have a heyday with his PTSD. He’s a war vet. He doesn’t want to talk about it, and he’ll lie about that stump on his hand to impress the ladies. This is a guy who’s got some issues,” Campbell said.

The only slight problem with this is the fact that unless viewers have seen the previous movies may not actually understand Ash’s behavior at the start of the season. A problem that could have been avoided if more time was spent on it but considering that this is a ten episode season, I can understand why they wouldn’t want to waste time on it. And even more so, despite the short coming, the episode still does a great job of illustrating that style, humor, and everything that the movies are known for have successfully made the move to TV.

The only other problem is Amanda Fisher’s character, played by Jill Marie Jones, that felt very out of place compared to the rest of the episode- tone wise. Mainly because the previous part of the episode feels very silly, over the top action, and everything that the movies are known for. The sudden change to a cop character point of view felt very odd.

That said, this first part of “Ash vs Evil Dead,” as mentioned before, marks a great return to fashion of the “Evil Dead” movies even if it’s only to the small screens.