Erratic Viewings: Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2

Hey gang. I could bore you with details on why we had such a short week. Let's just say a few things cropped up and I would rather not go in to extravagant detail. Instead how about we see some aimless direction. An irregular course if you will. Planning the week out gets to be a huge pain in the tuckus and frankly other than the makers of Preparation H, who needs it?

Today we catch up with as Bruce Campbell described him as 40 percent action hero and 60 percent bone head, Ashley J Williams as he battles the forces of darkness, downs a few brews and maybe even get a little sugar along the way. This is Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2.

Man this girdle really keeps the gut in.

A pact is made in order to save his friends Kelly (Dan DeLorenzo of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Californication, Impress Me, The Mad Ones and Ash vs Evil Dead) and Pablo (Ray Santiago of Girlfight, Meet the Fockers, Dirty Deeds, My Name Is Earl, Raising Hope and Ash vs Evil Dead) and to fulfill his life long dream of being in Jacksonville Florida??? Seriously? Nothing against the town but surely there could have been more out there. Ruby Knowby (Lucy Lawless of Hercules and the Amazon Women, High Tide, Xena: Warrior Princess, Tarzan, Eurotrip, Vampire Bats, Justice League: The New Frontier, Battlestar Galactica, Bitch Slap and Spartacus: War of the Damned), daughter of the late Professor Raymond Knowby and Henrietta, sister to Annie has found herself in quite the pickle. As her spawn of Baal decided they don't need momma anymore, she drops the truce, says the magic words and Ash is back knee deep in the cow crap. Deadites attack Ash and gang in Jacksonville but they are quickly dispatched as one of them hints to Ash's hometown in Elk Grove Michigan.

Still gotta work with that Campbell clod.

Armed with boomstick, chainsaw and even the Kandarian dagger, Ash is ready to lay waste to more demons and deadites but not all set from the less than warm welcome as he is referred as Ashy Slashy, an acquitted but still highly suspected serial killer and the town never lets him forget it. He still has friends and family in town like his drunken bar-tending pervy pal Chet (Ted Raimi of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, Darkman, SeaQuest 2032, Wishmaster, Xena: Warrior Princess, Spider-Man, Evil Dead: Regeneration and Drag Me to Hell) his bitter skirt chasing pop Brock (Lee Majors of The Big Valley, Owen Marshal, Counselor at Law, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy, Raven, Raising Hope, Wild Bill Hickok: Swift Justice and Dead Rising) and the girl that got away, Linda (Michelle Hurd of ER, Gossip Girl, Girl Most Likely, 90210, The Glades, Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Blindspot and Ash vs Evil Dead).

Honey, you got real ugly.

Local law enforcement used to be a kid Ash tormented in high school thinks all the sudden craziness is directly linked to our favorite knucklehead and well, he isn't all that off but dammit let the hero have a brew, a girl and the odd doobie. Ruby reluctantly teams up with the deadite slayers in the hopes that they can prevent to return of Baal (Joel Tobeck of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Young Hercules, Xena: Warrior Princess, Cleopatra 2525, Power Rangers DinoThunder, Little Fish, Ghost Rider, 30 Days of Night and Accidents Happen), say the right words and keep him back in the Underworld where the little Marlyn Manson coiffed prick needs to be.

Can Ash stop this impeding pile of preternatural poltergeists!?! Will Kelly and Pablo get a real life again??? Can Ruby ever not be foxy???

Fun facts now. Auckland, New Zealand is the place of the Ash vs Evil Dead stomping grounds. This filming area may sound familiar as it has been used for: Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, the 2013 Evil Dead, King Kong, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and 30 Days of Night.

That damn Oldsmobile Delta 88 is the exact same make, model and even color from the original Evil Dead trilogy. The original car of course belongs to writer,director and creator of The Evil Dead Sam Raimi who always tries to sneak that clunkasaurus into almost every film he directs. The original composer for Evil Dead Joe LoDuca (The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, Moontrap, Army of Darkness, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Young Hercules, Jack of All Trades, Cleopatra 2525, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, Alien Apocalypse, My Name is Bruce and Ash vs Evil Dead) returns to compose for the madness that is still Raimi's creation. With writer/producer Tom Spezialy (Weird Science, Desperate Housewives, Chaos, Zero Hour, Manhattan and The Leftovers) working hand in hand with Sam and Ivan Raimi, you know you are in for one-liners, gross outs, gore and general grooviness. If you loved the flicks, you'll enjoy the show. Hey if you only know Bruce from Brisco County or Burn Notice, you'll enjoy it but... better have a strong stomach. Still blood, guts and the naughty words.

Ash, Deadite slayer and chainsaw bear sculpter.

Evil Dead Games: The Evil Dead for Commodore 64

Welcome followers of sugar and the boomstick to Day 1 of Evil Dead Games. I had to do quite a bit of digging for our first game in question. From the British video game publisher and developers of 8-bit joy that is Palace Software (Cauldron, Cauldron II: The Pumpkin Strikes Back, The Sacred Armour of Antiriad, Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior and Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax) comes a game that was linked to the UK's 8-bit personal computer known as the ZX Spectrum as well as the Commodore 64. This is The Evil Dead Commodore 64.

Terrifying graphics of doom!!!

Now there are many young readers that have no clue what these antiquated computer systems are. Well shush youngsters, and you may learn something. Commodore 64 was created in January 1932 by Commodore International which outsold the IBM PC and Apple at the time. That 64 stands for 64 kb of RAM and 20 kb of ROM and required 5.1 Floppy drives, dot matrix printers and a CIA 6526 joystick (2 of them usually came with) and it sold over 17 million units. Palace Software is the first officially-licensed publisher to tackle today's game in question and being it is based on then deemed a "Video Nasty" it became known as a "Computer Nasty" and did not have that wide a release in the states.

The game of course is low res 8-bit in the cabin for The Evil Dead took place in the film. You, the player get everyone's loveable, cheeseball goof Ash. Ash must close the cabin windows up in order to prevent monsters from entering the cabin. Yup, a bookcase against shutters keeps evil at bay. Who knew? You are also required to gank the monsters already in the cabin. As you defeat the monsters, there are a variety of weapons (shovels, shotguns and axes) to dispatch some accursed Evil Dead. As Ash's energy levels start to wain he can pick up new weapons in order to increase his energy in order to slap the baddies about. Ash has to get his mitts on The Book of the Dead and destroy it in order to send the evil back from hence it came from.

Must...get...shovel.

The controls are a bit jerky, this is a single-player adventure-survival horror game that honestly felt like you were slaying the monsters or just shooing them out of the cabin. The window shutters pop open over and over and over again. There are dangerous poisonous clouds??? It simply looked like dirt-infused gusts of wind but hey I didn't write or program the game. The emulator was easy enough to download as many of the few existing copies for the Commodore 64 are very scarse.

I hate to say this but this was fun for about 5 minutes and you know I love me some old school games but the repetition is daunting. The intro sounds like a cross between Castlevania and Legend of Zelda as you get this weird text scroll crawl across your screen telling you the being of the story... in case you missed the movie. Thankfully the tinny music does not continue when you start playing but it has all the hallmarks of the boops and bleeps of the day. Better luck next game I hope but again for its day it is a piece of cinema history.

Also keep in mind this is one of the few 8-bit games that was horror related like the Atari 2600 Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now why don't those games get a reboot love huh?

Let's see what tomorrow has in store for me when we tackle the Playstation game Evil Dead: Hail to the King.

Guess he didn't like the porch swing anymore.