Evil Dead Rise, the latest entry in the long-running Evil Dead series, has proven a big success at the box office, with buzz around the film still going strong in the weeks since its release. Despite its success, the film lacks perhaps the most essential part of the Evil Dead franchise, and that’s the hero character of Ashley J. Williams…or does it? As it turns out, Ash is involved in the story of Evil Dead Rise in a big way, and the movie as a whole ties in rather nicely with previous entries in the franchise.
SPOILER WARNING! THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE EVIL DEAD FILM SERIES AS WELL AS THE TELEVISION SERIES ASH VS. EVIL DEAD. READ AT YOUR DISCRETION.
COLLEGE KID TO DEMON SLAYER
Just who is Ashley J. Williams? Ash is a unique character in the horror genre in that he’s one of the few examples of the hero being just as recognizable as the villains, perhaps more. Despite his larger-than-life reputation, Ash’s journey begins small, with a road trip between him and his closest friends to a secluded cabin in the woods. Joining Ash on this trip are his girlfriend Lynda, his sister Sheryl, and his best friends Scotty and Shelly. What they don’t know is owned by a renowned archeologist who specializes in the occult, and his latest find, the Necronomicon, is in the basement. The book is inevitably discovered, its demons unleashed, and Ash’s life is changed forever.
Ash is thrust into an ordeal that lasts several days, even taking him on a journey across time itself. He not only loses all his friends but is subject to prolonged mental torture by the dark forces of the Necronomicon, who toy with the hapless teen purely for their own amusement. The breaking point comes when Ash is forced to sever his own hand, which he replaces with the chainsaw that later becomes his trademark. At the end of it all, Ash is accidentally transported back in time to the dark ages, where he becomes an unwitting leader to a kingdom besieged by the forces that terrorized him and took his friends. These events all take place over the course of the original trilogy (Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness) and though the releases of these movies span over a decade, to Ash they all take place in a matter of days. The journey leaves him traumatized and cynical, which kicks off a lifelong crusade for the character to avenge his loved ones and destroy evil, often to mixed results.
After several decades on hiatus, Ash would return in the series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which followed the character now in his 50s. Ash has become an outcast in his hometown, who believe he murdered his friends and concocted his stories about the Necronomicon, giving him the nickname ‘Ashy Slashy.’ He’s disowned by his father, kicked out of home, and becomes something of deadbeat working minimum wage jobs. The evil of the Necronomicon seeps out into the world due to his own blundering antics, forcing him back into the role of demon slayer. His journey takes many unexpected twists and turns. Now he has friends to help him out in the form of Pablo and Kelly, two co-workers who become involved in the fight. He also meets Ruby, one of the Dark Ones and one of the authors of the Necronomicon itself. Ash vs. Evil Dead ran for three seasons before it was ultimately canceled, but received a warm reception among fans who have embraced it as a crucial part of the Evil Dead mythos.
EVIL DEAD RISE
Ash has become such a big part of the Evil Dead story that it was once unimaginable that the lore could continue without him. Yet there are two installments that don’t feature Ash very prominently. The first is the 2013 remake of Evil Dead, which many consider not a remake but another story that takes place at the same cabin from the original film. Ash does have a post-credits cameo, but it’s more for fan service than anything else. Evil Dead Rise also pivots the story away not only from Ash but the wooded cabin setting itself, shifting its focus to a family besieged by the Deadites in a high-rise apartment building. Despite being the most far removed from the original since Army of Darkness, it’s Rise that gives Ash a larger role in the overall story.
In the original Evil Dead, the evil is unleashed through a tape recording. In Evil Dead Rise, it’s unleashed when one of the family, the son, finds an old vinyl record containing Necronomicon passages and plays it. It’s through that record that Ash Williams returns to the story. The recordings, created by a priest, detail his attempts to convince several colleagues to allow him to research the book and read its passages. He’s met with resistance, most of which comes from one belligerent member of the crowd who says “It’s called the Book of the Dead for a reason!” This role was played by none other than Bruce Campbell, but according to director Lee Cronin, it’s more than just a fun cameo. It may just be Ash Williams himself. But how does Ash wind up on a 100-year-old recording?
STUCK IN TIME
The thing about Ash is he’s not just a demon slayer. He’s a time-traveling demon slayer, and this is how he factors into the plot of Evil Dead Rise. Army of Darkness marked the first of several trips through time for the character, and it was on one of these adventures where he had a nasty run-in with the book from Rise. It turns out it’s an entirely different book than the one Ash and his friends ran afoul, and the Necronomicon is one of three such texts that have been wreaking havoc all over the world.
Ash finds all three books in Army of Darkness, when he goes to a graveyard to retrieve the Necronomicon. It’s here that he finds an altar that contains not one, but three apparent copies of the evil text. He attempts to take each one in succession and finds one contains a black hole, while another one is a monster that bites his hand and attacks him. It was long assumed that the other two books were decoys, and yet both clearly have supernatural abilities. According to the director, he views all three of these books as real, and Rise deals with one of them. More specifically, the book that creates the terror the family must deal with is the one that comically bites Ash’s hand before attacking his face. Director Lee Cronin had this to say in an interview with Fandom:
It’s the bitey fly-ey one, definitely. And that’s why I gave it the mouth [on the side] in the movie and the fact it kind of absorbs blood. It’s got a little bit of a life force to it. It was definitely that book, although grounded for this movie, if you know what I mean. But yeah, it was Bitey McFly, definitely, [not] the vortex one.
-Lee Cronin
But an even bigger tie-in that brings the story directly back to Ash is the character’s final scene of the series. Ash vs. Evil Dead didn’t give the character a definite conclusion, but it was still a fitting final scene for the character. Ash is forced into a climactic battle against Kandar, the head Deadite and a monster the size of Godzilla. Ash wins the fight, but as in Army of Darkness, he’s transported through time. He lands this time not in the past, but in the future, with a new cybernetic arm and a mysterious stranger waiting to help him. The two ride off into the sunset to continue Ash’s crusade against evil, a crusade that will last perhaps for all time. And here’s the clever part. If that crusade lasts for all time, wouldn’t Ash at some point or another pass through these other stories?
When asked about the cameo, Cronin had this say:
There is a Bruce Campbell cameo, and that cameo potentially is actually Ash Williams. Think about how time works for Ash as a character, and that voice that you may hear is captured on something that was recorded 100 years ago. And the fact that his particular line is a warning showcases somebody that knows more than the other people in the room… I know that sounds very cryptic, but it’s supposed to.
-Lee Cronin
Cronin all but states this is the character, while still leaving it open to interpretation. Evil Dead Rise is obviously a very different film from the goofy Army of Darkness, and yet Army of Darkness is a vastly different story from the original Evil Dead. The sheer variety of the series is one of the reasons it has lasted so long, and to see the entries cross paths in this way not only ties the story to Ash’s adventures but also lets us know that he isn’t the only story. All three books have wreaked havoc on the lives of victims and fighters both. Campbell has hinted he’s open to returning to the character in animated form. Whether or not that happens, and whether or not it will intersect with any of these other stories. remains to be seen.
KEEP WATCH FOR ASH
In many ways, leaving Ash as a mystical figure traveling through time is a perfect ending for him. He started as a normal college kid who just wanted a fun weekend with his friends. From there his life went bad, and he’s been focused only on taking down the forces responsible for the destruction of all he loved, a crusade so powerful that it has unbound him from time itself. I imagine Ashley J. Williams, now something of a time-hopping lone ranger, appearing every so often wherever the books are, until his quest to defeat the evil is one day complete. And while he continues his journey, the family of Evil Dead Rise, though briefly, caught a glimpse of our hapless demon-killing crusader on his unending ride into the sunset.
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