by Chris Vegvary
For those of you who enjoy a good horror film, you may or
may not have seen the original Evil Dead
film, which was released in 1981 and introduced the world to the Necronomicon
ex Mortis (or “Book of the Dead”); the Deadites, which are like zombies,
but possessed by ancient evil spirits; and Ashley J. Williams, who would soon
become our chainsaw-handed, shotgun-wielding, one-liner spouting hero. In the
original film, however, Ash was just one of five unwitting college students
that accidentally released the forces of evil, causing them all to have a
really bad night.
The sequel, Evil Dead
II: Dead By Dawn, was released in 1987. The beginning of the film sort of
retells the first film in a different way, focusing on Ash and his girlfriend
Linda, and leaving out the other three characters from the original movie.
Things play out in a similar way, but then something truly awesome happens. The
so-called “Evil Force” that was released from the Necronomicon already
possessed Ash in the beginning of the film, but he was saved from being a
Deadite by the dawn of the rising sun. Still, traces of evil must remain, because
Ash’s hand
suddenly becomes evil and attacks him, and he is forced to cut it off with a
chainsaw. This decision works out well for everyone in the end, because at some
point after the bleeding stops, Ash uses his engineering skills to attach the
chainsaw to the stump where his hand used to be, and he proceeds to rid us of
the Evil Force, while himself being sucked into a wormhole leading to the
distant past.
In the third film in the series, Army of Darkness, Ash crash-lands (literally) along with his car
into the times of King Arthur. More of a comedy than the horror we’ve come to
expect, Army of Darkness had its
share of slapstick and yuks, sometimes in true Three Stooges fashion. It pits Ash against an army of undead and skeleton
warriors led by an evil version of Ash that was borne out of his own body after
being forced to consume an evil miniature version of himself. It wasn’t the
best film in the series, but it had plenty of interesting parts, and it even
has two different endings, one of which is sometimes shown when the movie comes
on the SyFy channel.
In 2013, a “reboot” of the film came out titled Evil Dead, and it turns out that it
wasn’t just another remake; it was also partially a sequel. Ash’s car that
travelled back in time with him at the end of the second film can be seen
sitting next to the cabin, covered by branches and brush. The Deadites featured
in this film were different than their previous incarnations, in that they
seemed way more vicious, although I’m sure that that’s pretty much how they
would have been if they’d had that kind of technology when the first film was
made. This film featured a female protagonist who is also forced to remove her
hand in the course of the film, and Ash was not seen until the end of the
credits, where he simply says “Groovy.”
Where does the future of the series lie? Supposedly, the
plan is for Sam Raimi to make the film Army
of Darkness 2, which would see the return of Ash Williams, and then for a
sequel to the modern-day Evil Dead film.
After that, the two films would crossover in one final film, where Ash and
whoever survived the modern versions of the film would meet and kill the
Deadites together. Unfortunately, Bruce Campbell seems to be flip-flopping on
whether or not he is involved in any way, and there are both rumors that it IS
going to happen and rumors that it ISN’T going to happen. At this point, my
money says that it probably isn’t going to happen, although it would be like a
dream come true.
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