Grab your boomsticks, Bruce Campbell and Evil Dead fans, because the new “horror sitcom” for Starz is Ash vs. Evil Dead, where he returns to battle the numberless, ravening hordes of the abyss!
If you haven't seen the original quadrilogy of cult films, beginning with The Evil Dead (1981) and products of the unholy team of Bruce Cambell, director Sam Raimi, and producer Rob Tapert, the return of this “hero” and his narcissstic, shallow awfulness may not (yet) fill your heart with warmth. But more bad things have happened to Ash than anyone else who's survived dancing with the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. For each time he asks for “some sugar,” he suffers, and mightily. Think of him like the Homer Simpson of horror, with a chainsaw for an arm, and get ready to enjoy the delighful despair of having only an over-the-hill, capital-L-loser and blowhard to champion all of humanity.
Promising good things, the team's back together for this series, and Sam Raimi will direct the first episode as well as writing for it. Jill Marie Jones, who you may recognize from Sleepy Hollow, will play Michigan State Trooper Amanda Fisher. Ray Santiago, Dana Delorenzo also star, along with Lucy Lawless who plays a mysterious figure named Ruby who blames Ash for… well, every terrible thing that's happened. Really can't blame her for that. The series premiere is October 31, 2105—natch.
Are you as jazzed as I am for the return of The Chin?