Instead of going down the "gritty drama" route of shows like The Walking Dead or taking the "straight horror" approach of Fede Alvarez' Evil Dead remake, creators Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell fully embrace the over-the-top goofiness and playful tone of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, while still delivering the scares of the first film and plenty (and I mean: PLENTY) of gore. I won't go further into any of the story details (because that would only spoil the fun) suffice to say that his rather irresponsible lifestyle ultimately won't go too well with his duty as keeper of a certain (slightly) dangerous book, and (very!) bloody mayhem soon ensues. These days, he likes to spend most of his spare time either getting wasted in his trailer or picking up random ladies - or both (mostly both). Ash is still the exact same guy we last saw fighting walking skeletons and other ghastly undead things in Army of Darkness, cracking wise and appearing as cock-sure of himself as ever (despite still not being the "smartest cookie in the jar" - to put it mildly). In the show, 30 years have passed since Ash's last encounter with the Deadites, and while he might be well into middle age now, he hasn't matured one bit. At the beginning of the show we meet Ash leading a lazy, but apparently happy slacker life, residing in a run-down trailer and working as a stock boy at a Value Stop (for some obscure legal reasons, the writers couldn't use the name S-Mart from Army of Darkness' iconic last scene). (This paragraph contains some – very – mild spoilers there won't be any in the rest of this review). Instead of a 2-hour film for a sequel, we now get 5 more hours with Ash and the Deadites (possibly more if the show's going to be a success) and judging from what I've seen so far, those 5 hours are going to be an absolute blast. According to recent interviews with the show's creators Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, what was first supposed to be a new feature film and the fourth entry in the franchise, over time turned into an idea for a TV-series, and I believe fans will be very happy with the result. After so many years had passed since Army of Darkness (aka Evil Dead III) came out in 1992, it looked like a direct sequel just wasn't going to happen anymore, yet apparently, the Raimi-Campbell gang had been working on one for some time. Well, we've had to be patient for nearly a quarter of a century to finally see Ash wield his chainsaw again, but trust me: it was well worth the wait.
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January 2023
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