FINALLY, viewers on this side of the geoblock divided pond (or at least those of them with a Virgin Media TV package) have a legitimate means of watching the hit TV spin-off from Sam Raimi's Evil Dead horror trilogy.
Conveniently ignoring the events of third film Army of Darkness (and indeed Evil Dead II's climactic set-up for the latter's time-travelling tale), Ash vs Evil Dead catches up with Bruce Campbell's hapless one-handed horror hero 30 years after surviving the second flick's splatterfest of supernatural slapstick.
Now leading a comfortably down-at-heel existence as a trailer park dwelling S-Mart customer assistant/babe-hunting barfly, the dim-witted Ash has unwisely kept the Book of The Dead responsible for Evil Dead II's possession-based carnage.
When he accidentally conjures forth its destructive demons while trying to impress a date, the lantern-jawed jerk is forced to grab his trusty chainsaw and boomstick to do battle with the Deadite hoardes yet again.
This time around, Ash is reluctantly assisted by his young S-Mart colleagues Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago), with disgraced cop Amanda Fisher (Jill Marie Jones) and mysterious Deadite-hunter Ruby (Lucy Lawless) also in the show's mix.
From the original Evil Dead production team of Campbell, Raimi and Rob Tapert, Ash Vs Evil Dead expertly transposes the low budget thrills (now bloodily enhanced via decent CGI) and gleeful horror comedy tone of the second film into manic 30 minute doses of episodic TV fun.
In a word? Groovy.
:: Episodes one to five available now to Virgin Media TV customers via On Demand.
