Ash vs. Evil Dead – A Gang of Evil Dead by Ted Raimi
Ted Raimi
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“Just when I thought I was OUT, they pull me back IN!”
“This whole trial is outta order!”
Wait, not the first part, or… just the first part and not the second.
I’m not Michael Corleone, but I am in a gang that keeps calling me back.
It’s the Evil Dead gang. That sounds like something that belongs with the Dead Rabbits and the Pug Uglies. It’s neither – we don’t live in New York in the 1850s – we’re from Detroit, we bathe and we don’t really kill people. But we do pretend to kill people – all the time.
When Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell decided to reanimate the Evil Dead franchise for Starz, I was thrilled for them. Those three have had a great chunk of deserved success after the original picture was released: successful movies and television shows, books – even Oscar nominations. Their talent is immense and undeniable.
Since the time the first Evil Dead was released in 1980 (think The Cars, Blondie for you Millennials), it’s been some kind of a juggernaut – two sequels, books, comics and more action figures than you could pose in a lifetime. I was in those sequels and lived the fast-lane life of an Evil Dead gangster: conventions, book signings, you name it. I was just a soldier doing my duty for the bosses – and I was in.
But it was all too much.
I wanted to go straight. I really did. I wanted a normal actor/writer/director life full of sweet movie openings and pleasant edit sessions and call times that started after 9:00 AM with no gore EFX folks to glue prosthetics to my face and hook blood pumps to my nostrils.
Years passed, and I mostly forgot about the thing as I had TV shows and movies of my own to do. I was a peaceful Hollywood citizen going about my pleasantly gory business… But Rob, Sam and Bruce decided it wasn’t over yet. I owed the gang, and I was going to pay – with a TV show.
So I’m back in the gang with “Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 2 playing Chet Kaminski – Ash’s old buddy from Detroit (it’s a part I know well). Maybe the soft, double-decaf Frappuccino Hollywood life I lived was a dream – because now I’m awake – in the land of Deadites!
And you know what? I’m really glad – and darned lucky. Here’s to the undead gangster life.
It’s going to be an awesomely bloody year.
– Ted Raimi, Hollywood, CA
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