A cabin in the woods, demonic possessions, the Book of the Dead. Many movies and TV shows have had all three of these tropes since the 1970s, but none have been as well-known as Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead. In 1981, Ash (Ashley) (Bruce Campbell), his sister, and college friends take a weekend trip to a small cabin in the woods of Tennessee. The vacation turns rotten immediately when they hear noises from the cellar where they find a tape recorder, firearms, and a strange book covered in human skin. Of course, they’re smart and do not read the book. The cabin’s former resident does it for them on the tape as it recites the text.
Spoiler Alert: as would any book covered in human skin, the spell summons a hoard of demons and evil spirits who proceed to possess the entire group. In the end, Ash is forced to kill everybody, the only survivor of the weekend.
The sequel (Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, 1987) reintroduced the first movie with the original events surrounding Ash and his girlfriend’s death at the cabin, but incorporated comedy this time around, which is what hooked me on these movies. Throughout the movie Ash fights the demons, even at one point having his hand possessed and being forced to cut it off, preventing the possession from spreading. Multiple times inanimate objects attack and mock Ash, including a sofa and deer head. While not a fan of gore or extremely scary movies, I realized how much I have become desensitized to it from watching The Walking Dead. Despite being a gore fest, these movies were such at 1980s standards.
Army of Darkness (1993) takes Ash back in time to 1300 where he is jailed. Some believe he is prophesized to save the city from the deadites, the demons whom he has been battling for years. Unlike the previous movies, this film is more of a comedy with horror movie aspects, relying more on bad stop-motion animation from the ‘60s than on gore.
The series returned in 2015 (I’ve chosen not to watch the movie remake, as not only is Ash not in the movie, but the commercials scared the crap out of me during its time in theaters) on television with Ash vs. the Evil Dead. Reprising his role, Bruce Campbell is once again fighting deadites one-handed. Like Army of Darkness, the show relies more on humor, however it sometimes goes a bit overboard on the blood. Despite this, I have found the series (while having watched only slightly more than the first season) a perfect companion to the films and other current horror television shows. Ash still has his outdated catchphrases, unfortunate accidental racism, and chainsaw hand, while the Book of the Dead has more power and its story evolved more over 10 episodes. There’s even a classic Cleveland B-movie reference in the second season.
If you have never seen the original films, and do not have a problem with gory horror movies, I recommend checking them out, along with the TV show. If you get easy scared by demonic creatures and lots of blood, however, I would leave them for another time in your life.