I’ve been an Evil Dead fanboy since the mid-90’s. My friends mocked my obsession with the series and how I quoted Army of Darkness and Evil Dead 2 relentlessly. At the time, I maintained an Army of Darkness website and knew Bruce Campbell’s personal email address. I’d reach out to him occasionally to “interview” him for my site or just tell him I enjoyed watching him in whatever obscure thing I found of his that week.

I attended horror and comic conventions to hunt down the short films Bruce and Sam Raimi made in high school and college, including the short that started it all, Within the Woods. I made friends with fans in other countries who could ship me different versions of the films with small differences from their American counterparts. I bought foreign posters on eBay and hung them around my small apartment in Chicago when I was in college. I dreamed of Evil Dead 4 and the return of Ash, but at some point I had to give up on the dream and realize it’d never happen.

When the series was announced, I felt like a fucking high schooler again. I was just as excited as I would’ve been if they’d have announced Evil Dead 4. Maybe even more excited. Bruce and Sam were involved, and that’s all I needed to know.

The series picked up right where Army of Darkness left off in the sense of tone and pacing. The series makes no mention of AoD of course, but just as the absurdity ramped up through the course of Evil Dead 1-3, the absurdity ramped up an appropriate amount in the series.

While the series takes some missteps (like showing the “force” as it chased Ash’s car through the country), generally speaking I’ve enjoyed the expansion of the mythology and the story of how Ash hasn’t really grown or matured throughout the whole demon-killing process.

Let’s just hope they get back to the cabin soon.