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…
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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