There’s a lot of ballyhoo about Evil Dead recently, specifically because of the remake. A common comment made in regard to it is that Ash IS Evil Dead, and that an Evil Dead film without him, would be a bad thing. Technically, they are correct. It’s impossible to imagine the Evil Dead trilogy without Ash in tow, spitting wisecracks, blasting away deadites with his boomstick, and let’s not forget that amazing chainsaw hand. While the remake doesn’t feature Ash, in a way it would be disrespectful to try to have him in the film in the first place. Unlike the film itself, which can exist outside of Ash, (Evil Dead 1 is a prime example of a movie that doesn’t really “have” Ash in it), Ash cannot exist outside of Bruce Campbell.
Tag Archives: Countdown to Halloween
Countdown to Halloween #3: Pennywise the Dancing Clown
I was about twelve years old when I first read It. As a kid I did not do well with scary stories (I had to be taken out of Men In Black twice in theatres before I could sit through the whole movie) so I’m not sure why I decided a story about a child-murdering space clown would be something I’d be into, but for whatever reason, my curiosity was piqued. In the subsequent decade or so, I’ve lined my bookshelves with a substantial portion of Stephen King’s prolific work, but none of his villains are as iconic or as memorable as Pennywise the Dancing Clown.
Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #3: Pennywise the Dancing Clown
Countdown to Halloween #4: The Romero Zombies
Zombies seem to be everywhere recently don’t they? It’s okay, I did not mean it literally, you can remove the locks of the door now! No, what I meant was that in the last few years the zombie mythology has become firmly embedded in pop culture. With The Walking Dead bringing in huge ratings numbers and zombie films with a heart like Shaun of the Dead, it seems you cannot walk down the street without some form of zombie merchandise in your way. Now zombies have been in cinema for a long time now. Their origins lie in Haitian folklore and they were originally slaves to their voodoo masters.
Continue reading Countdown to Halloween #4: The Romero Zombies
Countdown to Halloween #5: Leatherface
In the world of horror movies, there are certain sounds that carry a somewhat iconic symbolism; the theme song from John Carpenter’s Halloween, the background noise of the shower seen in Psycho, and good ole’ Tommy “Leatherface” Hewitt revving up the family chainsaw to hack into somebody.
Countdown to Halloween #6: Freddy Krueger
“Are you ready for Freddy?” It would appear that everyone is. The offspring of a thousand maniacs is still up and about since his debut in 1984. He has had a similar cinematic arc to his old box office rival Jason Voorhees, complete with its highs and lows. He went from been a stone cold psycho killer to a comedian prankster killer in the blink of an eye, and even though we got tired of his antics, we still loved him. He has survived a post modern turn and a revamp and just barely escaped a run in with Jason Voorhees and Ashley Williams. He is a multi layered killer. But what is it about Freddy that we really like and why does he give us the willies so much?
Countdown to Halloween #7: Ichabod Crane
Ichabod Crane. Who does that name make you think of? Recent audiences associate the name with Johnny Depp’s portrayal in Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow. Rightfully so. Depp added elements to the character that no one else had even considered prior. The truth is there are vast differences between the Ichabod Crane of 1999’s Sleepy Hollow and the original character introduced in Washington Irving’s 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Because of nearly two centuries of interpretation, and the blatant creepiness of the story associated with Crane, he has made #7 on the Grizzly Bomb Countdown to Halloween.
Grizzly Bomb 