Editorials
Who Partied With the Deadites Last Night? Let’s Discuss.
If you’re like me, you just wanted your Halloween parties to end so you could go home and watch “Ash vs Evil Dead.” Now that you’ve (hopefully) nursed your hangover and washed the grease paint off your body, let’s talk!
Coming in hot here…did you love it or hate it? Did you just kind of like it? Are you pretending to love it because it’s super in vogue right now?
I loved it. And also I just kind of liked it. But mostly I loved it. Despite how it sounds, there’s nothing complicated about my feelings for last night’s premier of “Ash vs” I loved it because I truly love the Evil Dead franchise. I loved the throwbacks, the call backs, the references, and Bruce Campbell. I love deadites. I think they are truly one of the coolest evil forces in all of horror. And I really, really love Ray Santiago. But the episode definitely had a few misfortunes and I don’t think it should be excused of those simply because the franchise has been aged into the Hall of Cult Classics. For example, the tone shifted an alarming amount of times and so drastically it was almost uncomfortable. The scenes without Ash felt much more reminiscent of Fede Alvarez’s 2013 “Evil Dead,” which is not a bad thing in my opinion (I really liked that film for what it was), but the tonal shifts didn’t sit well with me. To directly quote MrDisgusting from his review of the first two episodes: No matter, Ash is back and I don’t want to appear ungrateful. So I’ll stop there. But how about you? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Need to chew on it a bit?
Does “Ash vs” work as a stand-alone television series or do you need to be a fan of/familiar with the franchise to enjoy it?
I can’t speak to this. Because I am such a huge fan of the franchise. But I’m dying to know…legitimately would love to hear from any of you who are not fans of or familiar with the franchise…does this show stand tall on its own merits or is it dependent on the former films? And if the answer is “yes,” is that a bad thing?
As MrDisgusting pointed out, the show is incredibly unapologetic. It’s going to do its thing whether you like it or not—awesomely campy CGI and one-liners included. So does that work for you?
It worked for me. But I needed that. I needed it to be campy. Or else it would have just been another Alvarez-type take on the concept.
Were you as sad as I was that S-Mart didn’t make an appearance?
While it makes total sense that a department store from 30 years ago would no longer exist, it bummed me out. S-Mart has become iconic in horror. Plus I was truly hoping Ash would revive his catchphrase that comes with the name of his fictional employer of old. But alas, no S-Mart. So, Shop Smart. Shop…ValueStop.
But here’s my honest truth: when Ash pulled back the curtain in his trailer to reveal the silhouette of his chainsaw, when he fought with a deadite to see who could get to it first, or when he plugged in his dentures and gave the world his classic doofy Ash grin, everything fell into place and the atmosphere just felt…right. So even though I said the show’s mishaps shouldn’t be excused because of the franchise’s cult status? Whatever, man.
So what did you think?
I’ll be starting weekly reviews next week. So tune in and circle back to let me know what you thought.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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