Ashley J. Williams
Ash is a Character from the Evil Dead Franchise. He is a Hero who is portrayed by Bruce Campbell and first appeared in Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead.
Though he only appeared in 3 movies, his adventures have carried on through countless comics and other media.
Although not a slasher, Ash is certainly a Horror Icon and has stood the test of time as a memorable Horror Character, even going toe to toe with the likes of Freddy, Jason and even Herbert West.
Fictional biography[]
Ash is in his early 20s and usually lives a "normal" life. He is employed at the superstore, S-Mart[1] (where he works in the housewares department), and had a girlfriend, Linda. When Ash was born, he was a child that had been touched by the light of God which made him the chosen one. A cult which worshipped the Necronomicon, tracked him down and cursed him to be tormented by the deadites. According to Ash, he claims he doesn't remember but always felt there was something wrong even when he was a kid.
The Evil Dead[]
Ash being attacked by his Sister, Cheryl
In The Evil Dead, Ash, his girlfriend Linda, sister Cheryl, and friends Scotty and Shelly all stay at a log cabin in the woods. There they find the "Naturon Demonto" (renamed or possibly translated to Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in the sequels), the book of the dead, along with a tape recorder. The tape is a recording of the owner of the cabin, who was translating a passage of the book. By playing the tape, Ash and friends awake the evil spirits who can now possess the living. Ash's friends and sister are consequently possessed and killed one by one. It isn't until he's the last survivor that he finally destroys the Necronomicon by throwing it into the fireplace, and in doing so, the possessed bodies of Scotty and Cheryl rapidly decay and 'die'. The evil appears to be driven back, however the film ends with Ash attacked (or possibly overtaken) by an evil spirit.
Dead by Dawn[]
Ash cutting off his own hand with a Chainsaw
Evil Dead II continues the story from the previous film after a stunted recap in which the audience is only introduced to Ash's girlfriend Linda (Sam Raimi was unable to acquire footage from the original Evil Dead. He tried shooting some scenes featuring the other characters but they were abandoned. This was mentioned in the Evil Dead II audio commentary) and Ash himself, to the point where the evil spirit attacks Ash. From this point, the film continues the story from where the first film left off. Carried a good distance by the demon, Ash is slammed hard against a tree and falls in a puddle of water. From here he becomes a deadite but shortly afterwards is released from the spirit by the coming of dawn, only to pass out. Ash regains consciousness moments before sunset. Deciding to get out of there as fast as he can, he climbs into his car and drives to where the bridge was, only to find it completely destroyed by the evil force. As the sun quickly sets, said force starts climbing up the cliff, and Ash hops into his car, driving away as fast as he can and as a result, crashing right into a treestump that sends him flying through the windshield.
Ash being sucked through a Vortex
With the evil close behind him, he runs into the cabin and through it trying to hide, and ducks into the trapdoor, waiting until the evil force leaves. After it does, Ash comes out, only to find himself stuck at the cabin with the spirits of the Evil Dead for yet another night. Later, the cabin owner's daughter, Annie and three more people arrive. It is near the end of this film that Ash gets his famous chainsaw in place of his right hand. The film ends with Ash being sucked into a vortex and traveling back in time to 1300 AD, where the locals claim, according to their prophecies, that he is "The Hero from the Sky" who will save them from the Deadites. The film ends zooming out from Ash, who is shouting "No, No, NOOO!", to reveal hundreds of soldiers chanting their alliegance to Ash.
Army of Darkness[]
The next film continues the story from there (though he receives far less of a warm welcome than the end of the previous film suggests). Ash has to defeat his alter-ego known as Bad Ash/Evil Ash who is leading the Army of Darkness to steal the Necronomicon. In this movie, Ash constructs a mechanical prosthetic hand out of a gauntlet from a suit of armor, using it throughout the film in place of the chainsaw (though he still carries it with him). The movie has two different endings, one where he returns to his own time and defends S-Mart from a possessed woman, and another, the director's cut (or Japanese version entitled "Captain Supermarket"), where he ends up in a post-apocalyptic future.
Army of Darkness and beyond[]
Following the events of Army of darkness, Ashes battles with the deadites would transced within the past, present, and future. His adventures would include him traveling to Egypt to defeat Deadite Ash, going into the future, being trapped in a mental asylum, fighting with classical monsters, being killed and ending up in another universe before finally going back to the destroyed present. {C}Although not shown on screen Ash has continued his adventures in various comics.
Starting in 2004 Devil's Due Publishing released two miniseries detailing the further adventures of Ash. Army of Darkness Ashes 2 Ashes: Picks up after the end of Army of Darkness (4 part series)
Shop 'Till You Drop Dead: Picks up After the end of Ashes 2 Ashes - Ash is fired from his job due to damages from the initial Deadite incursion and has to once again defend the store. (4 part series)
Marvel Zombies Vs The Army of Darkness (5 part series) picks up after a brief visit to the afterlife. The necronomicon transports Ash to the Marvel Universe, where he meets the likes of Captain America, Spider-man, The Avengers and the X-men. In this time a zombie from the afterlife' world Ash was in was also transported to the Marvel world and began devouring the citizens. Normal humans simply died or were consumed but the superheroes bitten by thumb|left|link=File:Ash_and_spider-man.jpgzombies became zombies themselves complete with their super abilities intact. Ash joins forces with The Dazzler and The Scarlett Witch and heads to Latveria to Find Dr. Doom who is in the possession of the Necronomicon. With the help of Dr. Doom and a dimensional gateway Ash escapes that world but enters another world in which the Marvel heroes are no longer zombies, but werewolves. (At one point the arc also shows the untimely demise of a certain 'hero' at the jaws of a zombified Howard the Duck).
2006 saw the creation of a mostly standalone run of AOD/Darkman. (4 part series)
Ash's adventures have also crossed into many related 'Verses, usually due to the meddling of the Necronomicon. Including:
Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash - A new S-mart store opens in Forest Green (aka Crystal Lake), and Ash is brought in to run the Housewares department. Little does he know is that Freddy Krueger has resurrected Jason Voorhees again, this time to obtain the necronomicon so that he himself can be resurrected. Ash using his skill, (simple) wit and trusty boomstick helps to protect the (even more) dimwitted employee's of S-Mart and find the necronomicon before Freddy and Jason do. Ash is successful and banishes Freddy to the deadite dimension while leaving Jason frozen in Crystal Lake.
A sequel to this arc was also published by DC/Wildstorm, Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash - Nightmare Warriors. It picks up where the first series ended with the murder of Ash's live in girlfriend just before her parents arrive for a BBQ, like the previous title this is an adult oriented comic and as such is much more violent and contains more adult language than the Dynamite or DDP comics. It is set to run for 6 issues, two of which have been published to date. Ash travels to ashington to do battle with his previous enemies and a whole army of Deadites.
A battle in Washington
Army of Darkness Vs Xena - Why Not? (4 part series) Wherein One of the mini Ashs from ancient England finds his way to the Xena'verse and wreaks havoc.
Army of Darkness Vs Xena - What Again? (4 part series) Following the events of the original crossover the Necronomicon once again meddles with space/time.
There are also several one-shot comics:
Tales of Army of Darkness - 5 new stories
Ash's Christmas Horror - Ash must save Christmas from Evil Ash
In addition to the still running ongoing series from Dynamite and the sequel to Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash a new four part series entitled Ash Saves Obama is also being published by Dynamite. (The series generally mocks the rampant whoring of Obamas' image in Comics during the last year or so)
Ash saves Obama!
Video Games[]
Evil Dead: Hail to the King (video game) Hail to the King follows the events of Army of Darkness (following the original ending not the director's cut) where Ash finds himself back in his own time. 8 years after Army of Darkness, Ash and his new girlfriend Jenny, return to the cabin to confront his past. Unknown to Ash his amputated hand is still in the cabin and it plays Prof. Knowby's tape, yet again summoning the Evil. Jenny is taken and eventually dies and Ash must survive encounters with both the deadites and a reincarnated Evil Ash.
Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick (video game)[]
Following Hail to the king, Fistful of Boomstick is set 3 years after the events of the previous game. It starts with Ash sitting in a bar bitching to the barkeep. The bartender informs Ash that he's sorry about Jenny, a topic that seems to bother Ash. It is now the television is showing, tuned into a late night sceptics show. The TV presenter announches that she has a treat instore and invites on a Professor, who was a colleague of Knowby, who then plays the tape from the cabin Trisha got while investigating the Knowby case which, unsurprisingly, awakens a bunch of Deadites who start to attack the town and yours truly must send back to hell.
Eventually Ash rescues the professor and the Tv presenter (who he flirts with), and discovers that a stone tablet should dispel the evil. So, after fighting through the local museum, Ash brings the professor the tablet. When translating the tablet the Prof shows his true colours, whisking back in time with an army of deadites. Ash follows him through several periods of time, meeting his distant relative Williams the blacksmith and aquiring weapons such as the flamethrower and gatling gun which replace his chainsaw hand. Finally, in columbial times, he defeats the Professor and returns to town to discover it has become a hell on earth under the command of the TV presenter and Ash must again brutally kill the new woman in his life.
Variant incarnations[]
Bad Ash/Evil Ash[]
Evil Ash in Evil Dead II.
Ash's dark side manifests itself as a separate entity first in Evil Dead II, where he hallucinates his reflection tormenting him over dismembering 'their' girlfriend with a chainsaw, and then proceeds to try and choke him (only for Ash to realize he was choking himself). This side of him later splits off his body in a drawn out painful event in Army of Darkness (unlike the original, having both hands intact), becoming 'Bad Ash' and getting first blown away at point blank range by Ash's shotgun, then cut to pieces, and finally buried (though even in this state he still 'lived').
Bad Ash in Army of Darkness.
When Ash blunders and accidentally awakens the Army of the Dead, Bad Ash re-emerges from the grave quickly piecing himself together as the decayed 'Evil Ash' and takes command of the undead troops, even corrupting Ash's then-love interest Sheila into a deadite-like hag. He battles the original Ash as he makes a bee-line for the Necronomicon, and gets lit ablaze by a torch, only to re-emerge as 'Skeleton Evil Ash', a much more agile and dangerous version. As Henry the Red's troops arrive to assist in the battle against the undead and break their ranks, Evil Ash ironically has his right hand holding the Necronomicon chopped off by Ash, and is then catapulted into the sky riding a lit sack of gunpowder to be blown to pieces.
He returns in Evil Dead: Hail to the King after Ash's possessed hand releases the evil force once more into the world by playing Knowby's tape recording, emerging from the mirror in the cabin (a la his first appearance), tossing Ash aside and taking off. Unlike before, Evil Ash is closer in appearance to a zombified version of Ash, and has the ability to launch fireballs and shapeshift . Ultimately he was destroyed once more by the original. Beyond this, Evil Ash has appeared in comic spin-offs, appearing more akin to his decayed Army of Darkness version. In the comics as he is the evil side of Ash separated, this leaves Ash as "the purest soul on Earth". He is one of the central antagonists in the A.O.D. comic books and is obsessed with defeating the original.
Being referred to in the film as "the evil", it is suggested that, in addition to Ash's dark side, he is the evil from the first two films, who was also sent back in time and was chasing Ash before the smaller Ashes appeared from the mirror.
Deadite Ash[]
'Deadite Ash' is another story. In Evil Dead: Regeneration this version is referred to as 'Evil Ash' (and Sam calls him 'Bad Ash' in the game). Deadite Ash is Ash himself possessed by a Kandarian demon and turned into a monstrous version of himself with greatly increased strength and brutality. In Evil Dead II, sunlight and the memory of Linda seems to drive the demon out (or possibly just 'back') and reverts him to normal. In Evil Dead: Regeneration , Deadite Ash actually is shown to be a complete berserker, attacking anything in his path (namely the deadites) and with Ash having some degree of control, later on, over his actions, though the effects are short-term. Enemies in the last area of the game speak of how Ash is 'already one of them', possibly a reference to this. The shotgun and chainsaw are augmented during this period also, the gun notably firing bolts of energy.
Ashley G. Williams[]
This Ash Williams is native to the Marvel Zombies universe (Earth-2149). A lowly employee of S-Mart, Ash takes up arms against the zombie superheroes. However, while distracted by seeing Ashley J. Williams, he is attacked and eaten by the zombie Howard the Duck (who said his brain tastes like chicken). Unlike regular Ash, this version apparently never got involved in the events surrounding the cabin or the Necronomicon, as he has both hands and lacks the regular's facial scars. Instead he feels that he was meant for greater things but in the world of super-heroes was never considered much in the public eye and stayed at S-Mart, seemingly living alone; this outcome is most especially decided by the fact that the Necronomicon, in the Marvel Zombies Universe, is kept
in the private library of Doctor Doom . Like Ashley J. Williams, this Ash used both a shotgun harnessed to his back and a chainsaw. It is uncertain just how much he managed to do before Howard killed him, though he is shown encountering a zombified and duplicated Multiple Man , and dismembering Hulkling 's remains with his chainsaw.
Terrordrome[]
Ash in Terrordrome
Ashley J. Williams is one of several Horror characters to appear in the fan-made PC game Terrordrome.
Filmography[]
- The Evil Dead
- Evil Dead II, Dead by Dawn
- Army of Darkness: The Medieval Dead
- ↑ It is revealed that Ash works at S-Mart in Army of Darkness