"Hail to the king baby" How can you not like Ash? The Evil Dead movies where the cornerstone of cult horror films. When i found out they were making a TV show about The Evil Dead. I jumped on board immediately. The season finally brought back some nostalgia, whether that was the cabin in the woods, or the ending. It all seemed really familiar, but not in a bad way. The attention to detail is amazing, it really brings you in to that world like non other can. I cannot wait for Season 2 to see what happens!
10 Reviews
What will Ash do?
BA_Harrison27 January 2019
This Ash vs Evil Dead season one finale sees Ruby trying to release all evil, over which she intends to have full control. In order to stop Ash from getting in her way, she promises him what he wants: a life of bliss in Jacksonville, Florida, with Pablo and Kelly and all the gas money he will need. Does he accept the deal: hey, this is Ash we're talking about... what do you think?
Although not quite as great as episode nine, The Dark One is still a cracking way to round things up, while still leaving room for further blood-drenched adventures. Director Rick Jacobson certainly doesn't scrimp on the violence, best bits being Heather (Samara Weaving) getting what she deserves for having such an annoying scream and Pablo puking up a demonic child that gets blown apart by Ash's boomstick.
8/10. I can't wait for Season Two to hit Netflix. I might have to stump up cash for a physical boxset.
Although not quite as great as episode nine, The Dark One is still a cracking way to round things up, while still leaving room for further blood-drenched adventures. Director Rick Jacobson certainly doesn't scrimp on the violence, best bits being Heather (Samara Weaving) getting what she deserves for having such an annoying scream and Pablo puking up a demonic child that gets blown apart by Ash's boomstick.
8/10. I can't wait for Season Two to hit Netflix. I might have to stump up cash for a physical boxset.
"You know the news. Always depressing."
Hey_Sweden5 September 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The first season of this sadly short-lived series draws to a close, picking up right where the last episode left off. Ruby, her real role and purpose now revealed, drags poor Pablo, still with the Necronomicons' face attached to his own, into the basement, for more incantations and rituals. Ash steels himself for the big confrontation, having to combat a demon-child as well as a possessed Pablo. Kelly ends up stuck outside the cabin, before she finally contrives a way to get back inside. And Ruby does her damnedest to seduce Ash into giving up the fight. This leads to him making a fateful decision, one which we all know is NOT going to end happily for the world, no matter what Ruby says.
'The Dark One' is directed with gusto by Rick Jacobson, who, in this slightly elongated episode (35 minutes as opposed to 26 or so), scarcely gives us a chance to breathe. There's lots of action, and the plethora of gore that we've all come to expect from, and love about, this franchise. The demon-child is pretty creepy, and one of the best antagonists in this series so far. With Ruby dropping any sort of pretence, it allows Lucy Lawless to be deliciously - and seductively - evil. Bruce Campbell is fantastic as always, and his fellow regulars Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago are likewise in fine form.
There are, of course, goodies, for die hard horror fans to find; the corpse of a character from "Evil Dead II" in that accursed basement, and the reappearance of a certain glove from a certain other franchise.
The ending may not be satisfying to some viewers, but, in any event, it does serve its purpose in setting up the second season.
One hilarious moment of movie criticism: Ash dismisses "The Godfather" with the words "Too long. Too boring. Not enough boobies."
Eight out of 10.
'The Dark One' is directed with gusto by Rick Jacobson, who, in this slightly elongated episode (35 minutes as opposed to 26 or so), scarcely gives us a chance to breathe. There's lots of action, and the plethora of gore that we've all come to expect from, and love about, this franchise. The demon-child is pretty creepy, and one of the best antagonists in this series so far. With Ruby dropping any sort of pretence, it allows Lucy Lawless to be deliciously - and seductively - evil. Bruce Campbell is fantastic as always, and his fellow regulars Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago are likewise in fine form.
There are, of course, goodies, for die hard horror fans to find; the corpse of a character from "Evil Dead II" in that accursed basement, and the reappearance of a certain glove from a certain other franchise.
The ending may not be satisfying to some viewers, but, in any event, it does serve its purpose in setting up the second season.
One hilarious moment of movie criticism: Ash dismisses "The Godfather" with the words "Too long. Too boring. Not enough boobies."
Eight out of 10.
Ash vs The Evil Dead
The-Social-Introvert6 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
The series' first season bows out with what I consider to be the best episode of them all. I'm serious. It was a truly cracking finale to the season. It's scary, funny, exciting and inventive. The whole season should have maintained this level of excellence.
It begins with Ruby taking Pedro- I mean, Pablo, who still has the Necronomicon attached to his face, to the dreaded basement. Ash takes off after them whilst Kelly and the Australian chick are left upstairs.
The direction is sharp and on the nose – Rick Jacobson does well to keep the episode going at a frantic pace. The show is also, for the first time, genuinely scary. There are some good jump scares in the basement and after Pablo pukes up a hideous child demon thing (the scariest creature in the series so far), all hell breaks loose as Ash is constantly terrorised by the "little sh**."
Back upstairs and Kelly and the other chick are being constantly harassed by the evil dead. It ends up throwing Kelly out of the house whilst it deals with the other girl who, let's face it, we all knew would be a goner from the moment her and her happy-go-lucky crew appeared in the series. Shame, really – she was starting to become likable and could genuinely have become a part of the team until she had NAILS STABBED IN HER HANDS AND TOES, and heaven knows what else happened to her in the cabin before her mutilated body was spitted out of the front door in several different pieces. Damn, what a harsh way to go.
Pablo is also abused with some harsh treatment in the finale. When he's not puking up blood and begging Ash to end his life, he's strangling Kelly against his will (I was secretly cheering during this scene). Keep your eye out for a Freddy Kruger cameo too!
There's a particular creepy segment where Ash's flashlight is moving in the dark and Kelly calls out to it. It moves closer and close and then goes off. And then the little sh** screams right up in her face. The only downside to this episode is the odd conclusion, which sees Ash apparently agreeing to let Ruby have control over the book and unleash evil upon the world in exchange for a trip to Jacksonville and some gas money, all for the same of bringing balance, or something. It's not fully explained and it's difficult to buy Ash being so easily seduced when he was able to resist the temptations previously. I suppose we'll have to wait until the second season, so bring it on Raimi and Campbell!
It begins with Ruby taking Pedro- I mean, Pablo, who still has the Necronomicon attached to his face, to the dreaded basement. Ash takes off after them whilst Kelly and the Australian chick are left upstairs.
The direction is sharp and on the nose – Rick Jacobson does well to keep the episode going at a frantic pace. The show is also, for the first time, genuinely scary. There are some good jump scares in the basement and after Pablo pukes up a hideous child demon thing (the scariest creature in the series so far), all hell breaks loose as Ash is constantly terrorised by the "little sh**."
Back upstairs and Kelly and the other chick are being constantly harassed by the evil dead. It ends up throwing Kelly out of the house whilst it deals with the other girl who, let's face it, we all knew would be a goner from the moment her and her happy-go-lucky crew appeared in the series. Shame, really – she was starting to become likable and could genuinely have become a part of the team until she had NAILS STABBED IN HER HANDS AND TOES, and heaven knows what else happened to her in the cabin before her mutilated body was spitted out of the front door in several different pieces. Damn, what a harsh way to go.
Pablo is also abused with some harsh treatment in the finale. When he's not puking up blood and begging Ash to end his life, he's strangling Kelly against his will (I was secretly cheering during this scene). Keep your eye out for a Freddy Kruger cameo too!
There's a particular creepy segment where Ash's flashlight is moving in the dark and Kelly calls out to it. It moves closer and close and then goes off. And then the little sh** screams right up in her face. The only downside to this episode is the odd conclusion, which sees Ash apparently agreeing to let Ruby have control over the book and unleash evil upon the world in exchange for a trip to Jacksonville and some gas money, all for the same of bringing balance, or something. It's not fully explained and it's difficult to buy Ash being so easily seduced when he was able to resist the temptations previously. I suppose we'll have to wait until the second season, so bring it on Raimi and Campbell!
The Dark One
lassegalsgaard10 July 2022
For a whole season, I was wondering where they were going to take this. It seems like they were planning to end this on a note that would put a lit on the whole franchise and maybe give the character of Ash Williams some kind of finality. Especially when they decided to go to the cabin again and bring it all back to the roots of the franchise. There was a lot that signaled that this was going to be a one-season show and I was honestly fine with that. I've been in love with this franchise ever since the first time I saw the first film. After seeing all three films, I fell more in love with Sam Raimi and his crazy mind. He hasn't been that onboard as a writer/director on this show, with the exception of the pilot, but I actually think the show has so much of him in its DNA alone that it doesn't matter. It feels like a Sam Raimi show, and with these last few episodes, I've felt that even more. So, I was excited to see how they would finish this season of television and if they were actually going to continue after this season. It's clear that they were never gonna resolve the story by the end of this season, which leads into one of the most excited half hours of television I've ever seen. This season finale was everything I could have imagined and brought me straight back to the feeling of watching "Evil Dead II."
The big appeal of that original film was its limited budget. It's clear that Starz has provided the creators with a bit more money this time around, but they still manage to stay true to that low-budget feel of those films. The limited budget forces the creators to do interesting things with the camera and with make-up and they succeed at that in spades in this episode. There are some gory stuff happening, and in all its "Evil Dead" glory it made me cringe in disgust, but still shout out in amazement because of the commitment to the practical.
A thing that's also kept from the original films (and was sorely lacking from the 2013 remake) is the humor. If Bruce Campbell is in your product, you better use him and his comedic abilities. He has had some iconic lines throughout his tenure as Ash, but this episode cranks that up even more, giving him a wonderfully horrific scenes where the tension is cut with a knife due to a fun wisecrack before something terrible happening. That's this character in a nutshell, and the show completely gets that and utilizes that thing at every chance they can possibly get.
I've loved how engaged the actors get to the material. We all know that Campbell is incredible, and he hasn't missed a beat since starting this show, but it's an absolute joy to see the entire supporting cast come into it and be incredibly into the material. Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo are both amazing as their characters and seem to have formed a bond in real-life as in the show. Lucy Lawless is a Raimi-regular and kills it in this role, a very mysterious character that still needs some explanation, which we'll hopefully get in the upcoming seasons.
The ending of the episode left me with a lot of questions. I'm still not entirely sure how it will all lead into the upcoming seasons and if there's going to be some kind of time skip. It doesn't seem like a realistic end point, but for some reason, it works perfectly for this show. It's an unexpected ending, yet one that feels so true to the character who makes a certain decision. Again, it's a great indicator that the creators know these characters and also how they can use them to flip our expectations on its head to great effect.
"The Dark One" puts a great cap on the first season of this show and sets up a lot of interesting things to come. I love how the creators are handling these characters and this episode featured some of the most exciting horror and some of the funniest comedy of this franchise since "Evil Dead II."
A thing that's also kept from the original films (and was sorely lacking from the 2013 remake) is the humor. If Bruce Campbell is in your product, you better use him and his comedic abilities. He has had some iconic lines throughout his tenure as Ash, but this episode cranks that up even more, giving him a wonderfully horrific scenes where the tension is cut with a knife due to a fun wisecrack before something terrible happening. That's this character in a nutshell, and the show completely gets that and utilizes that thing at every chance they can possibly get.
I've loved how engaged the actors get to the material. We all know that Campbell is incredible, and he hasn't missed a beat since starting this show, but it's an absolute joy to see the entire supporting cast come into it and be incredibly into the material. Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo are both amazing as their characters and seem to have formed a bond in real-life as in the show. Lucy Lawless is a Raimi-regular and kills it in this role, a very mysterious character that still needs some explanation, which we'll hopefully get in the upcoming seasons.
The ending of the episode left me with a lot of questions. I'm still not entirely sure how it will all lead into the upcoming seasons and if there's going to be some kind of time skip. It doesn't seem like a realistic end point, but for some reason, it works perfectly for this show. It's an unexpected ending, yet one that feels so true to the character who makes a certain decision. Again, it's a great indicator that the creators know these characters and also how they can use them to flip our expectations on its head to great effect.
"The Dark One" puts a great cap on the first season of this show and sets up a lot of interesting things to come. I love how the creators are handling these characters and this episode featured some of the most exciting horror and some of the funniest comedy of this franchise since "Evil Dead II."
good ending
Abdulxoxo5 October 2020
It's gory, it's evil and it's diabolical. This is an action packed finale with a lots of throwback of the original movies, only new things are added, which makes it even more refreshing. it ended in a good way for the next season.
More Cabin in the Woods than Army of Darkness
cherold9 January 2016
I like Ash vs. Evil Dead because it has been, like Army of Darkness before it, basically a comedy with some horror in it. In the final episode of season 1, this is reversed, resulting in a horror show with some comedic moments.
I suspect this episode will appeal a lot to people who liked the first movie, Cabin of the Woods, which I thought was abysmal. I'm not a horror movie person, and I like this series because it's silly and weird and because the horror elements are too cartoony to gross me out (usually).
But this episode, and, to a somewhat lesser extent the one preceding it, is strictly for horror buffs.
Then there's the ending, which was a real let down. The final episode of a season is supposed to make you want to watch the next season, but that ending makes me doubt how worthwhile it was to even watch *this* season. (Although yes, I will watch next season, and hope it's more like the first 8 episodes).
Super disappointing. It's a half-hour show and I seriously considered fast forwarding to the end (didn't).
I suspect this episode will appeal a lot to people who liked the first movie, Cabin of the Woods, which I thought was abysmal. I'm not a horror movie person, and I like this series because it's silly and weird and because the horror elements are too cartoony to gross me out (usually).
But this episode, and, to a somewhat lesser extent the one preceding it, is strictly for horror buffs.
Then there's the ending, which was a real let down. The final episode of a season is supposed to make you want to watch the next season, but that ending makes me doubt how worthwhile it was to even watch *this* season. (Although yes, I will watch next season, and hope it's more like the first 8 episodes).
Super disappointing. It's a half-hour show and I seriously considered fast forwarding to the end (didn't).
A suitable capper
Mr-Fusion17 October 2016
I've gotta admit, I didn't find 'The Dark One' to be the satisfying ending to the season I was hoping for. To be fair, it goes a long way in wrapping everything up nicely, but it also leaves room (a lot of it)for the next season. And I do think the ending is typical of Ash, so it's staying true to the character. I guess what's really important is that there is a second season, and that I'm completely on board.
'The Dark One' goes almost full-on horror, complete with Deadite Amanda, possessed Pablo and buckets of blood. I felt sorry for Heather, the innocent hiker whose only job was to be terrorized by the cabin) but also really liked Ruby, who's taking to being the Big Bad quite nicely.
I've seen better finales, but again, let's keep this gravy train rollin'.
7/10
'The Dark One' goes almost full-on horror, complete with Deadite Amanda, possessed Pablo and buckets of blood. I felt sorry for Heather, the innocent hiker whose only job was to be terrorized by the cabin) but also really liked Ruby, who's taking to being the Big Bad quite nicely.
I've seen better finales, but again, let's keep this gravy train rollin'.
7/10
Hits the mark
Leofwine_draca26 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
And so we have the final episode of season one and it's as riotous as you'd expect. Pretty much wall-to-wall action with gore and FX work constantly on the screen. It's maybe not quite as crazed or inventive as some earlier episodes, particularly the excellent demon summoning, but it still hits the mark.
Whenever you think about us, you might want to forget this part!
tenshi_ippikiookami5 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
Ash vs Evil Dead delivers a satisfying enough finale for season one, but with a little bit too much filler and not much of coherence.
It all starts with the Dark One taking Pedro... Pablo, downstairs, and Ash going too trying to save him, while Kelly and fodder-camper stay upstairs. From here we have Ash playing in the dark while Kelly and Heather try to survive against the house.
The episode offers more than enough action, but it wanders too much. Ash stays a couple of minutes doing nothing in the dark, and the Dark One's offer part in Ash's head could had been faster and better. Also, upstairs, there's too much shouting and running at nothing, and when we started caring a little bit for I-just-can-shout Heather, there goes the show and kills her. Good enough than no one seems safe, but it is starting to seem that Kelly and Pablo are in Ash-safe-zone and everyone else's out, which is not good for the tension. The two women upstairs were actually making a good team, and after introducing Heather, as before Amanda, it seems a little bit too casual the way they are disposed.
The last part, with the fight, underwhelms a little bit. The dialogue is OK, but how Ash gets the knife and everything... Well, they just seem to be stretching it.
Talking about this. The end of the season puts everything for Ash and the Team vs Deadite in the Apocalypse. Which sounds good enough, but, at the same time, seen and done before. I can even picture the start of season 2, with Ash at Jacksonville taking the sun and with a girl at his side, which suddenly becomes a deadite. Let's hope it's not like this.
It all starts with the Dark One taking Pedro... Pablo, downstairs, and Ash going too trying to save him, while Kelly and fodder-camper stay upstairs. From here we have Ash playing in the dark while Kelly and Heather try to survive against the house.
The episode offers more than enough action, but it wanders too much. Ash stays a couple of minutes doing nothing in the dark, and the Dark One's offer part in Ash's head could had been faster and better. Also, upstairs, there's too much shouting and running at nothing, and when we started caring a little bit for I-just-can-shout Heather, there goes the show and kills her. Good enough than no one seems safe, but it is starting to seem that Kelly and Pablo are in Ash-safe-zone and everyone else's out, which is not good for the tension. The two women upstairs were actually making a good team, and after introducing Heather, as before Amanda, it seems a little bit too casual the way they are disposed.
The last part, with the fight, underwhelms a little bit. The dialogue is OK, but how Ash gets the knife and everything... Well, they just seem to be stretching it.
Talking about this. The end of the season puts everything for Ash and the Team vs Deadite in the Apocalypse. Which sounds good enough, but, at the same time, seen and done before. I can even picture the start of season 2, with Ash at Jacksonville taking the sun and with a girl at his side, which suddenly becomes a deadite. Let's hope it's not like this.
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