Ash is the Heart of Evil Dead

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2006)

Whether you watch the entire trilogy every month or only watched this movie because a friend made you, you can pretty much agree that the thing that is really driving the movies is the character of Ash. At the beginning of the story Ash is the calm simple person that we all are (the S-mart employee in this movie) but as the story progresses, he transforms into the chainsaw wielding ultimate badass with a sawed off shotgun that we all wish we could be. The character of Ash is in his prime from the point he says Groovy in Evil Dead 2 until the point he says Groovy in Army of Darkness when he replaces his chainsaw with a metallic hand. The chainsaw hand and the sawed off shotgun are a large part of the character of Ash. So why does Sam Rami decide to give Ash his hand back and make him fight with medieval weapons in Army of Darkness. With out the Ash from the first Evil Dead movies, Army of Darkness seems to be almost a different genre of movie. The final battle seems to be more like Jason and the Argonauts than Evil Dead. Still the movie is not without its moments. The first encounter between Ash and Badash one of my most memorable. (This one actually does involve the use of a shotgun) Also everyone knows the Boomstick line. (I went to high school with kids who could recite the entire monologue) All in all the film is a good one. It is very funny and deserves the cult status that it has achieved in this day and age. Although I personally wanted to see more of Ash in action, I guess I will just have to pray for Evil Dead 4.