It's a trick. Get an ax.

[6744641b08b30Kolya]

Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi return for a new series on Starz that continues the Evil Dead films. And apparently it's actually good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unnLg1TPCYM

[6744641b08c9dValet2]

Groovy!

[6744641b08decvoodoo47]

never gets old.

[6744641b08f5ficemann]

I absolutely love those movies. Hell even the video games were good (except for the ps1 game).

The character he played in Hercules + Xena was quite similar also.

[6744641b091deJDoran]

Bruce Campbell was good as Sam Axe in Burn Notice too, a drama/slight comedy TV programme about an ex-government agent (NOT an ex-spy, as he wrongly refers to himself*) who is confined to his home town and spends most of his time fighting crime whilst trying to find out who framed him. IF you watch it, try to start from the beginning (season one, episode one), as like other great programs, such as Supernatural, and Fringe, the program starts out OK, but gets much better when they start adding story-arcs into the mixture.




* They don't wrongly say this as a joke, it seems to be either a genuine mistake on the part of the writers, or (far more likely) the writers know that Michael Westen is not a spy, but is an operative, but the writers describe him as a spy , since TV, especially American TV, likes to pander to peoples' ignorance rather than correct it.

Anyway, the difference is, a spy spends ideally a very long time (often decades) acting a part, and does nothing to destroy their cover as they are far too valuable as a trusted/respected/valued/unsuspecting/etc plant in a foreign land/company/army/etc to do anything that might compromise their cover. Therefore, if a government, acting on information recieved from a spy, decides that something must be done, they don't get the spy to do it, they send in an operative, who is expendable (so if the operative dies, then the spy is still unsuspected and can go on leaking information back to his/her goverment) and usually better trained in destruction/assasination/etc than the spy is.

James Bond is an operative, not a spy.

[6744641b09421Kolya]

Interesting piece of trivia. Anyway I watched the first few episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead, so here's the good and the bad:

First off I was glad to see that Bruce Campbell is in all of them, not just the pilot. The name of the series certainly suggested that, but you never know. Secondly I think that the theme lends itself to a regular format. There's no end to what you can come up with when you have all of hell as adversaries. It's also really good to see Bruce and Lucy Lawless in action again, although the latter's role remains underdeveloped so far (S01e06).

Since this is a net-distributed series (by Starz) they give in to use a lot of swearing and display of drug usage though no nudity so far. This is kind of neutral and depends on your preferences but as a Euro who has no problem with swearing I feel it's overdone here.

Ash's character appears completely unchanged to how he was in the movies. They poke some fun on that he's old and slightly overweight and that's cool. But whenever he gets to talk with any female his macho talk becomes as cringeworthy and embarrassing as watching your dad hit on your friends. He's a relic and he's proud of that.
This also determines his relationship with his two co-stars of which the male looks up to him in such an obedient fashion as I haven't seen since Howie and Colt Sewas (The Fall Guy). Also Pablo's hair.
Whereas the female companion reacts irrational then becomes possessed by a demon acting more irrational (and sex driven) and then overreacts when killing a deadite. Meanwhile she makes stupid mistakes like letting the cop go. But chicks tend to do that right?

Then they show the searching Evil that hunts the woods as a wall of green animated fog which was definitely a low point after showing it had been avoided in the movies to great effect.

On the good side again Ash speaks with his lizard while on a mezcal trip and lots of deadites get chopped up in creative ways. Still after six episodes I'm wondering where this is supposed to go. The series doesn't seem to have found its modus yet.

[6744641b09539Kolya]

Oh yeah, resurrecting Evil by speaking some lines from the Necronomicon because you had a few joints? That seemed too stupid even for a stupid guy like Ash. He lost his girlfriend and his hand to that after all.
I guess it doesn't matter in the end, but it kind of threw me out.

[6744641b09a1eJDoran]

You sum it all up very well, and I'd only add that the program (though true enough to the films in most ways) is a little slow and there's not as much humour as I'd like. Still well worth watching though, but you do have to wonder when they're going to ramp up the action as if it stays like this then people might lose interest, I think I might.

Oh yeah, resurrecting Evil by speaking some lines from the Necronomicon because you had a few joints? That seemed too stupid even for a stupid guy like Ash. He lost his girlfriend and his hand to that after all.
I guess it doesn't matter in the end, but it kind of threw me out.

Yes, I did think that wasn't done as well as it could have been. There's no way Ash would have deliberately read from the book, even when stoned, but if they'd made it so that Ash was reading from a real book of normal poetry, whilst high and in an attempt to impress the girl, then he dropped the book, picked up the wrong one by mistake and read a few lines from the Necronomicon before realising, in horror, what he'd done, then it would have been more convincing.

Even more convincing (since the Necronomicon is too large and heavy to be easilt mistaken for another book, even by Ash) would have been if, say, Ashe had left the room for some reason, and the stoned girl had say gone looking for some roll up papers for the joint, found the Necronomicon, and read aloud a few lines in amusement and bemusement, since she'd think it was either just a joke horror book or not be able to decide what it was at all, and Ash returns to see her doing this, stops her, and assumes that since no demons appear in the next few minutes, then nothing bad has happened, so he and the girl get stoned, and the story continues like in the TV series.


Anyway, regardless of all this, if you like good horror with some comedy bits, then you really should watch the TV series Supernatural, but make sure you start from season 1 episode 1. It's slow to start, and does have a few not-too-great (but never awful, IIRC) episodes, but it gets better as it goes, and at it's best it's superb. Plus most of the regulars are really likeable, which always helps a program.

[6744641b09b62Kolya]

2nd October the second season starts. There's an election themed promo site here: http://www.ash4president.com

[6744641b09c85JDoran]

Thanks for the heads up, mate.

[6744641b0acf0Drone-Dragon]

You wouldn't believe the effort I have to go through on dialup just to post a damn meme.



I don't think I've ever gotten over the discord between the first and second Evil Dead movies. I mean, it is obvious that the first movie was intended to be a low budget 'pure' horror flick...hell there was even 'tentacle rape' in it, no surprise really given that at the time a lot of horror movies were including creepy monsters/demons/aliens/mutants raping women...because humanity is disgustingly perverse .

Then as Sam and co transitioned into the second movie it is like they just decided to go from an under budget horror series to a campy horror comedy...horrerdy? Granted it worked out for them, and Evil Dead 2(laughed my ass off ) and Army of Darkness are all the better for it...but still, that first movie feels so out of place at times. Also Ash's personality changed drastically between the first two movies...for the 'better' of course, so to speak, lol.

I can't help but wonder if they could have remade that first movie with the right amount of money, but back then they didn't have the budget and Bruce and the original cast are too old for a remake now obviously .

Interesting piece of trivia. Anyway I watched the first few episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead, so here's the good and the bad:

First off I was glad to see that Bruce Campbell is in all of them, not just the pilot. The name of the series certainly suggested that, but you never know. Secondly I think that the theme lends itself to a regular format. There's no end to what you can come up with when you have all of hell as adversaries. It's also really good to see Bruce and Lucy Lawless in action again, although the latter's role remains underdeveloped so far (S01e06).

Since this is a net-distributed series (by Starz) they give in to use a lot of swearing and display of drug usage though no nudity so far. This is kind of neutral and depends on your preferences but as a Euro who has no problem with swearing I feel it's overdone here.

Ash's character appears completely unchanged to how he was in the movies. They poke some fun on that he's old and slightly overweight and that's cool. But whenever he gets to talk with any female his macho talk becomes as cringeworthy and embarrassing as watching your dad hit on your friends. He's a relic and he's proud of that.
This also determines his relationship with his two co-stars of which the male looks up to him in such an obedient fashion as I haven't seen since Howie and Colt Sewas (The Fall Guy). Also Pablo's hair.
Whereas the female companion reacts irrational then becomes possessed by a demon acting more irrational (and sex driven) and then overreacts when killing a deadite. Meanwhile she makes stupid mistakes like letting the cop go. But chicks tend to do that right?

Then they show the searching Evil that hunts the woods as a wall of green animated fog which was definitely a low point after showing it had been avoided in the movies to great effect.

On the good side again Ash speaks with his lizard while on a mezcal trip and lots of deadites get chopped up in creative ways. Still after six episodes I'm wondering where this is supposed to go. The series doesn't seem to have found its modus yet.

To be honest, they are probably trying too hard to recapture the feeling of the past movies with how the two co-stars act. The girl for instance seems to be cliche of how female characters in most movies of that time acted which was portrayed as oversexed or helpless or stupid. Then again, they could just be portraying her as a stupid teen.

The green fog thing sounds stupid. They should have just left that alone and left the mystery. This is one of the few things I feel works better when you don't know. It especially works since Evil Dead seems to portray demons as evil spirits that possess and twist bodies into the stereotypical demonic/abomination form. So it would make sense not to be able to see anything, or at least anything clearly, as Ash obviously sees, at least somewhat, what he is running from in the movies.

As for the series finding its modus...did the movies ever really have a modus? I mean, besides evil things getting hacked to pieces, fake blood spraying everywhere, and comical murderous skeletons and hilariously laughing possessed props?

Although the series could make an actual story out of all the stuff and have Ash and co fight the forces of evil to save the world...involving complicated rituals, hidden relics, ancient monstrosities...wait, that sounds like Buffy with a chainsaw for a hand and more blood everywhere.

I'm not sure whether that is sad or awesome.

Also Ash or some male main character in this series not destined to die totally needs to date some hot Sumerian/Babylonian mythological monster woman that totally helps them fight deadites and other demons...

...why are you looking at me funny?

You sum it all up very well, and I'd only add that the program (though true enough to the films in most ways) is a little slow and there's not as much humour as I'd like. Still well worth watching though, but you do have to wonder when they're going to ramp up the action as if it stays like this then people might lose interest, I think I might.


Yes, I did think that wasn't done as well as it could have been. There's no way Ash would have deliberately read from the book, even when stoned, but if they'd made it so that Ash was reading from a real book of normal poetry, whilst high and in an attempt to impress the girl, then he dropped the book, picked up the wrong one by mistake and read a few lines from the Necronomicon before realising, in horror, what he'd done, then it would have been more convincing.

Even more convincing (since the Necronomicon is too large and heavy to be easilt mistaken for another book, even by Ash) would have been if, say, Ashe had left the room for some reason, and the stoned girl had say gone looking for some roll up papers for the joint, found the Necronomicon, and read aloud a few lines in amusement and bemusement, since she'd think it was either just a joke horror book or not be able to decide what it was at all, and Ash returns to see her doing this, stops her, and assumes that since no demons appear in the next few minutes, then nothing bad has happened, so he and the girl get stoned, and the story continues like in the TV series.


Anyway, regardless of all this, if you like good horror with some comedy bits, then you really should watch the TV series Supernatural, but make sure you start from season 1 episode 1. It's slow to start, and does have a few not-too-great (but never awful, IIRC) episodes, but it gets better as it goes, and at it's best it's superb. Plus most of the regulars are really likeable, which always helps a program.

To be honest Ash should have buried that damn book somewhere no one could find it...like a lava river. Also, didn't the book get destroyed in the movies? There were only some pages left if I remember, and those were pretty much thrown every which-a-way when demonic trees attacked the cabin. It has been a while since I've watched the movies, so my memory might be foggy. If he still has that thing, shouldn't he put it somewhere it won't get mistaken for another book/horror fiction book and read at all...or stolen by thieves who accidentally end the world? As it stands the actual 'unleashed the apocalypse because high' thing is damn campy to the extreme...then again maybe that nostalgia train is part of what they are riding .

As for Supernatural...it was okay. At times it was obviously trying too hard to be World of Darkness, but other than that I could never really get that into it. I guess it never really grabbed me because it seemed a bit too modernized, when I felt they should have either fallen back on old standbys when needed or changed more of the myth's and legend's actual details in the show's reality to be more...different? After a while of watching I got the feeling the show was trying to be less a horror series and more a dark drama. I haven't watched it in ages, so I've forgotten more than I remember.



P.S. Ash vs Evil Dead is on Starz...STAARRZ...get it? Reside-nevermind.

[6744641b0aed5icemann]

I'm a huge fan of Supernatural. Damn good show. It was better when it was going more in the X-Files and Buffy direction (seasons 1-3) rather than the heaven and hell angle that's dominated the show ever since. Still great viewing.

Totally agree that they really should have redone Evil Dead 1 back when they had the chance, before all the actors got too old for it to be believable. It doesn't really fit with the second movie, plot wise. I mean, it does sort of, but then there are other bits that don't. Hmm.

The second movie is my all time favorite. It has the horror from the first one, and the comedy from the 3rd. All 3 are a weird mix though. The first is pure horror, second is a horror comedy and third is just a comedy (of Xena/Hercules level). As awesome as Army of Darkness is (it has some of the best one liners ever) I'll always wonder what the movie would have been like if they'd gone with how the medieval era stuff looked like at the end of the second, rather than the direction Army of Darkness ended up taking it.

I really need to get around to watching the TV show. Want to finish off Freddy's Nightmares (early 80s TV show) first.