Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films are a huge part of my horror lifeblood. Without them, I wouldn’t even be writing this article. And even though some of the originals have lost their muster (sorry, I don’t love Army of Darkness anymore), they’re truly special films that warm my cockles.
While I really enjoy Fede Alvarez’s 2013 remake, it was a bummer to see the progression of the franchise die, and it return to its straight horror roots (Raimi’s The Evil Dead was not funny). Not only that, but it was like having a new A Nightmare On Elm Street movie made without Freddy Krueger. How the hell do you make Evil Dead without Ash? Well, they did it.
Thankfully, Raimi and Robert Tapert had something up their sleeves – a television series, “Ash vs Evil Dead”, now in its second season (with a third already announced!) on Starz. The series, which is in-canon with the original trilogy, brought Bruce Campbell back to the franchise, along with the same slapstick evolution. The first episode, directed by Raimi, was basically the Evil Dead 4 we’ve been dreaming of. Only, moving further through the season, I didn’t love it. It was okay, I guess, but something was missing. It felt as if Raimi approved the scripts and went off and did something else. I have no idea how involved he was in the production, but the first season of “Ash vs Evil Dead” felt more like fan fiction than a legit followup to Army of Darkness.
I think history has proven that the first season of shows are typically weaker than its successors. Usually the showrunners and writers take a season to find a groove and begin to gel, allowing a series to thrive for a few years (before high contract negotiations eventually derail it). The second episode of the second season of “Ash vs Evil Dead” aired the other night and it was a huge step in the right direction; I would go as far as to say it’s the first time the show felt authentic.
While I’ll refrain from talking about the whole episode, there’s one sequence in particular that had me gushing. In the episode, Ash heads to the morgue to retrieve the Necronomicon from a dead body. There, in classic Ash fashion, shit hits the fan. The above photo makes absolutely no sense out of context – but when you see what’s actually happening, you’re going to lose your mind. As Ash screams in the opening of this exclusive look, “Oh God! Oh God! I’m in the butt!” Yup, Ash gets his head stuck up a corpse’s ass and runs around screaming while the slapstick nature of the show makes things go even worse for him.
But the gem in this scene isn’t just the absolutely revolting, yet hilarious sequence, it’s the one-liner. It’s the “Ash moment” that’s been missing, that’s been forced into many other scenes. Here, he finally breaks free, grabs his double-barrel shotgun and proclaims, “This town is only big enough for one asshole, and that asshole…is me.”
It was a hugely entertaining episode that made me clammer for more, and gave me hope that this season truly is going to get groovy. If the following clip doesn’t win you over, I don’t think we can be friends…
We have learned the sad news this week that prolific horror author Ray Garton, who wrote nearly 70 books over the course of his career, has passed away after a battle with lung cancer.
Ray Garton was 61 years old.
Stephen King tweets, “I’m hearing that Ray Garton, horror novelist and friend, died yesterday. This is sad news, and a loss to those who enjoyed his amusing, often surreal, posts on Twitter.”
Ray Garton’s novels include Seductions, Darklings, Live Girls, Night Life, and Crucifax in the 1980s, followed in later decades by output including A Dark Place: The Story of a True Haunting, Trade Secrets, The New Neighbor, Lot Lizards, Dark Channel, Shackled, The Girl in the Basement, The Loveliest Dead, Ravenous, Bestial, and most recently, Trailer Park Noir.
Garton also wrote young adult novels under the name Joseph Locke, including the novelizations for A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Master and The Dream Child. He also wrote the novelizations for Tobe Hooper’s Invaders from Mars and Warlock, as well as several books for the Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchises.
Other young adult horror novels you may remember the name Joseph Locke from include Petrified, Kiss of Death, Game Over, 1-900-Killer, Vengeance, and Kill the Teacher’s Pet.
You can browse Ray Garton’s full bibliography over on his official website.
He wrote on his website when it launched, “Since I was eight years old, all I’ve wanted to be was a writer, and since 1984, I have been fortunate enough to spend my life writing full time. I’ve written over 60 books—novels and novellas in the horror and suspense genres, collections of short stories, movie novelizations, and TV tie-ins—with more in the works.”
“My readers have made it possible for me to indulge my love of writing and I get a tremendous amount of joy out of communicating with them,” Garton added at the time.
Ray Garton is survived by his longtime wife, Dawn.
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