‘Evil Dead’; in respect to ‘Evil Dead 2′;Main Character Personality Differences From the Original to the Remake’Evil Dead’; and ‘Evil Dead 2’; are both late 80’s horror movies starring Bruce Campbell as Ash, a quiet guy in his early 20’s that ends up hacking to death his demon posessed friends to avoid death.
In the original ‘Evil Dead’;, Ash tends to run from any of the daemons and scary things that come his way, until there is no one left and he is forced to protect himself. In ‘Evil Dead2’;, Ash Starts out as a quiet guy, but when evil things start happening, he swings quickly into action. From slicing up his girlfriends possessed head to chopping off his own possessed hand, he never seems timid around danger. To accurately compare these two films, it needs to be known that ‘Evil Dead’; and ‘Evil Dead2’; are the same movie. ‘Evil Dead2’; is not a sequel to ‘Evil Dead’; but rather a remake of the original. The original let the impression of Ash being killed at the very end of the film.
The remake, ‘Evil Dead2’;, allowed the making of the sequel, ‘army of darkness’;. In ‘Evil Dead’;, Ash, his girlfriend, and 3 other friends rent a run-down cabin in the middle of a deserted forest for a couple nights as a vacation. Ash seems to be the easy-going push over type. He does what everyone says without question.
Shortly after a tree sexually attacks one of the girls in the group she becomes possessed and attempts to kill ash’s girlfriend. While this is happening ash is standing 4 feet away with an ax, yet he is too scared to do anything. The other man in their group has to take action and lock her in the basement. According to the remake, this is unusual behavior for Ash.
In ‘Evil Dead2’;, Ash’s Girlfriend is the first individual possessed and he barely thinks twice before taking her head off with an ax and then cutting the head in half with a chain-saw. In ‘Evil Dead’;, one of the characters tells Ash that ‘there’s something out there’; but ash refuses to believe. On the contrary, in ‘Evil Dead2’;, ash tries to convince some visitors to the cabin that people are possessed and they end up locking him in the basement. In the second version of the story, Ash is made out to be a hero.
A man who defeated evil with a chainsaw and a shotgun. In the original, he is made out to be a survivor. Someone who coped with evil long enough to survive until morning. Even when morning comes, evil attacks one last time before the movie closes and you are left not knowing weather he lives or not. In the original ‘Evil Dead’;, he kills for fear and survival. Yet in ‘Evil Dead2’; he has some tendencies to act out on revenge and/or anger.
This is more similar to how I picture Ash. It gives him more depth of character. Even in low-budget horror flicks characterization is an important part of the movie. Although Ash seems to care for his girlfriend more in the first movie, it doesn’t seem to take much away from the second when he shows less emotion at her death. The similar stories with similar characters have differences that make Ash seem like two completely different individuals.
Part of that difference is situational. Some of the sub-plots were changed from story to story. But I believe the majority of the difference to be from the character himself. The way he reacts, the way he displays emotion, even the way he looks around has changed from the original. And changed for the better.
