Editorials
[‘Evil Dead’ Month] Meet The Deadites!
One of The Evil Dead series’ greatest assets is its host of Deadites, possessed humans who want nothing more than to possess more humans through vague, ever changing means. Some are humanoid, some are monstrous, some are trees, and some are goats. But all of them are awesome. And while they don’t make much sense and lack consistency even within individual films, we love them all the same. Especially the goat. Here is our rundown of Deadites from the entire Evil Dead series, excluding all videogames, comic books, and fan fiction. But including Drag Me to Hell because c’mon.
Head inside to Meet The Deadites!!!
Cheryl:
Cheryl turns into a Deadite after being raped by a tree. Once she becomes a deadite she stabs Linda in the ankle and it looks extremely painful. After this, Scotty locks Cheryl into the basement. Later she escapes and beats Ash with a fireplace poker until he throws the Book of the Dead into a fireplace, after which her body rapidly decomposes.
Shelly:
Shelly gets possessed when a demonic force breaks through her window and abducts her. After scratching Scotty’s face and basically riding him into the living room, Shelly falls face first into a fireplace. Aghast, Scotty pulls her from the fire only to be attacked again. Eventually Scotty begins cutting Shelly’s hand off with a knife, a job she finishes with her teeth. Even down to one hand, Shelly keeps causing problems until Scotty cuts her into a billion pieces with an axe while Ash just watches like a gigantic coward.
Linda:
Ash loses Linda through the pencil wound in her ankle. More than anything, the Linda Deadite is memorable for laughing in a door frame and generally scaring the shit out of me. Ash stabs her to death and buries her, but she rises from the grave and only ceases to be a problem once he beheads her with a shovel.
Scotty:
Scotty suffers many tortures, so it’s unclear which wound shoves him full of Evil Dead action. Once he is possessed, however, Ash thumbs his eyeballs out and dispatches him along with Cheryl by throwing the Book of the Dead into the fireplace.
Linda II:
Linda II turns into a Deadite when a demonic force breaks through her window and abducts her. After comically punishing Ash for a while, he cuts her head off with a shovel and buries her body. Somehow her head comes back, however, and bites Ash on the hand before he cuts it up (along with her equally animated headless body) with a chainsaw.
Ash’s Hand:
Possessed thanks to Linda’s bite, Ash’s hand attacks Ash with comical violence and rude gestures until Ash cuts it off with a chainsaw. It should be noted, however, that Ash’s Deadite hand never actually dies.
Ash:
Deadite Ash looks like Bruce Campbell but with clouded eyes and an even bigger chin. Ash is able to repel him on two occasions: Once thanks to the power of sunlight, and once thanks to the power of love.
Deer Head:
It’s a mounted deer head. It can’t do much but laugh at Ash. Because it’s a mounted deer head.
Henrietta:
Henrietta is one badass Deadite. Throughout Evil Dead 2, she changes forms many times, going from nice old lady to turtle-headed demon, to full on Ted Raimi depending on the situation at hand. Ash kills her by cutting off her arm and head, then blowing off her face with a shotgun blast.
Ed:
Ed gets possessed after Henrietta smashes his head into a lightbulb. His head can spin all the way around and he likes to eat hair. The Ed Deadite meets his end when Ash cuts him into a million pieces with an axe. After that, he went on to host his own QVC show.
Tree Deadite:
We knew the trees were possessed as well, but this is the only one bad enough to get its own face. Ash cuts its eye up with a chainsaw before it is sent to another dimension.
Flying Deadite:
Ash makes its head explode with a shotgun blast.
The Army of Darkness:
I’m not sure if these skeletons even count as Deadites since they don’t really have Deadite features. It’s here just in case.
Cellar Witch:
The Cellar Witch appears to be trapped in a cellar with tons of spikes into which Arthur throws his enemies as a form of corporal punishment. She beats Ash up a great deal, but he ultimately kills her with his chainsaw.
Cellar Monster:
This Deadite also lives in the Cellar, emerging out of a wall as Ash is about to escape. Ash cuts its hand off and leaves it to be crushed by enclosing spiky walls. Somehow, the Cellar Monster Deadite manages to escape the Cellar, but Ash shoots him back down with his newly obtained shotgun.
Cauldron Witch:
The Cauldron Witch shows up just long enough to tell everyone that they’re doomed and kill a couple people. Ash shoots her with his shotgun.
Little Ashes:
These guys comically torment Ash. He kills a couple of them in return, but eventually they tie him down so one can dive down his throat.
Evil Ash:
Evil Ash splits off from regular Ash after regular Ash swallows an evil mini-Ash. At first, the two Ashes are identical. But then Good Ash shoots Bad Ash in the face with a shotgun and buries him. Later, when Bad Ash screws up his safe words while retrieving The Book of the Dead, Evil Ash comes back and leads the Army of Darkness against all medieval humanity. Eventually, Ash blows him up with a sack of gunpowder.
Deadite Book of the Dead #1:
This one flies. And bites.
Deadite Book of the Dead #2:
This one is a black hole.
Flying Deadite II:
This ugly guy carries Sheila off to her wedding with Evil Ash. Regular Ash tries to catch it, but he’s way too big an idiot.
Evil Sheila:
Abducted by the flying Deadite, Sheila gets possessed after kissing Evil Ash, making her real ugly. Ash de-possess her by throwing her off a castle.
S-Mart Deadite:
Even though Ash saved the day and everything should be peachy, this Deadite appears at his S-Mart store. Ash shoots her to death.
The Goat:
Best Deadite ever.
Seance guy:
Throws up a kitten. Cool, but not as cool as the goat.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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