It's perhaps the cheesiest yet most cult-tastic horror film ever made - 1981's The Evil Dead. Meant to be a truly frightening flick, it proved hilarious. Rather than get offended, director Sam Raimi came back with the seminal Evil Dead II, adding slapstick humor to the over-the-top horror (a nod to the Three Stooges) and solidifying the franchise as a horror/comedy hybrid cinematic favorite. Though the last of the trilogy, Evil Dead III, renamed Army of Darkness proved a box office flop, it remains a cult favorite.
Among the stars of the trilogy is that 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale that main character Ash (Bruce Campbell) drives in all three films. It was Raimi's personal ride during his high school days. Boasting a quad-eyed death stare, the car brought Ash and his unwitting friends to their deadly vacation spot in The Evil Dead, traveled back in time in Evil Dead 2 and is transformed into a combat machine, complete with armor and a spinning propeller, in Army of Darkness to battle the Deadites.
In the film, the car meets its own untimely end when Ash spots his lady love and leaps from the car, causing it to crash. Presumably, its twisted remains remain somewhere in AD 1300. But the Director's Cut features an alternate ending that has Ash hides himself and the car in a cave, from which he hopes they'll emerge 600 years later. Too bad he leaves the lights on, sapping the battery.
That alternate ending clears the way for even more Evil Dead fun. And we'll get just that this Halloween night with the premiere of the new Starz! TV series Ash vs. the Evil Dead. According to imdb.com, "Ash has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead until a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind and Ash becomes mankind's only hope."
Oh, yeah! Ash and the Olds' is back. And we can't wait.
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