Ash vs Evil Dead - S01E02 Bait (2015)

El Jefe

Review

After the mobile home that dripped blood Ash is up for getting out of Dodge in a hurry. Unfortunately Kelly has other ideas and steals Pablo's bike, zooming off home to see what the hell is going down with Mom returning from the grave. Ash doesn't believe Mommy dearest is back for one second but is soon in hot pursuit after Pablo informs him that Kelly took the book of the dead. Just when it's on the road again Ash's former boss, Mr Roper, puts in a backseat appearance as a Deadite with its own game plan. Queue much splatter as Ash and Pablo battle their unwanted hitchhiker. Meanwhile Special Agent Amanda Fisher has made the trailer park scene and notes a business card enscribed with "Books From Beyond".

Having fought off the demonic Mr Roper Ash and Pablo make Kelly's parents' place, where Ash doesn't for the minute believe Mrs Maxwell is back from the dead. A humungous battle ensues with the results changing Kelly's life forever as the chainsaw revs and the boom stick rocks. Agent Fisher has found the book emporium the business card directed her to, guess that's a show down for next week as Ash and crew are headed there next.

The first episode might have indicated we're definitely into splatter stick fun time and episode two really brought home the bacon on rivers of blood. We're talking mass mayhem, a huge budget being spent on blood balloons, and more individual death and injury than you could expect on a war movie that isn't pulling its punches. This doesn't mean we are heading downtown gorenography, the blood might flow but it's happening in such an over the top fashion that you are dragged along by the whole absurd nature of what you are watching. Naturally this follows the tradition of the Evil Dead movies, which drench the screen in blood but do so in a slap stick fashion to good effect.

If you can handle the blood flow, and we're talking some gory deaths, then you will have a good time with the accompanying humour. Bruce Campbell is playing Ash to the hilt, hitting the one liners, dealing out violence to demons, and being completely unaware of how much of a douche he is. A middle aged hero for the rest of us Bro. His interaction with Kelly's Mom over the dinner table rocked the house down as he tries to flip her disguise and reveal the demon within. Backing up Ash's never ending repertoire of self-aggrandisement is Ray Santiago's Pablo, who is so completely naïve and worshipping of his El Jefe that he completely overlooks the whole causing the demonic plague part of Ash's luggage. Pablo drops some pretty good one liners of his own and doesn't seem capable of getting anything right. So in effect we have Falstaff with his own Falstaff, now that's some solid script writing right there.

Splatter stick is high on the agenda, and they ain't bringing CGI to the party

There was a general concern out in horror land that with Sam Raimi giving up the director's chair to other folk the show would suffer. Concerns laid to rest folks, new director Michael J. Bassett rocks it out nailing the Evil Dead vibe in quite some style. Okay we may not be talking chills running down your spine, there's a lot of water under the cabin in the woods bridge since the original movies, but we still have the same maniac over the top violence and splatter stick comedy going down. Director Bassett gets the requirements for the show but unfortunately for all involved the horror audience have moved on down the highway and what was once shocking and frightening is now no long shocking in the days of arse to mouth Human Centipede shenanigans.

While I really dug the episode I'm still not totally taken with the Kelly character, who didn't in the slightest seem like the offspring of her whiter than white parents. No doubt some plot rocking will eventually revolve around Kelly but I'm currently seeing her more as filler and less like an integral part of team Ash. Okay I'm swinging on the character, she rocked in episode one not in this one so much. Pablo on the other hand is a hoot and plays well off Ash, slurping up the whole Ash schlock while not realising his idol is always going to take the easy way out. Even in this episode Ash wasn't about to help Kelly deal with her mom till Pablo stacked the deck somewhat to ensure home invasion central went down. Similarly I'm digging Agent Amanda Fisher who looks likely to take a bigger part next episode. Ruby remains an enigma at this stage of the season but will no doubt move center stage as things progress.

Quick call out to Mimi Rogers (Suzy Maxwell) who absolutely nails it as Kelly's Mom, before going all Deadite and causing absolute havoc at the dinner party. Rogers is across the role, nails the requirements, and has one of the best scenes thus far this season with Bruce Campbell asking a dozen questions. Seems Ash vs Evil Dead isn't above dialling in some acting talent in cameo appearances to keep things interesting. Going to rock on to Electric Avenue to see who else makes the scene during the course of season one.

Bait is having a whale of a time with the Deep Purple back catalogue, here we get Highway Star blasting out, which had me happy as a Deadite in a new body. Two thumbs up for the choice of soundtrack listing, we're getting some cool tunes happening, which for mine keeps the show rocking like a bad night up the Cross.

We're into regular season runtime, half an hour, and surprisingly I think it works for the show. The pacing was rocking right from the get go, and besides some cuts to our local Agent everything was fairly frenetic as Ash and team faced bucket loads of gore, no CGI kids, and Deadites galore. The episode doesn't ask much from the audience, this is horror comedy, but sure delivers a thrill ride to keep us fixed in the boom stick seat. I'm having a lot of fun with this season and highly recommend you read from the book of the dead here, Ash is back baby, hail to the king!