Horror TV is as alive and well as it's ever been, even if not all of the characters involved are so lucky to be breathing. On Starz's hilariously gory Ash vs. Evil Dead, star Bruce Campbell is constantly dealing with all manner of dead things, and when CinemaBlend spoke with the permanently groovy star about the show ahead of Season 2 being released on Blu-ray today, I'd asked if any of the insane scenes managed to creep him out. And he talked about just such a corpse-ified sequence.
No heebie-jeebies, but I thought Ash getting his head pulled up a dead cadaver's ass was pretty much the top. That's about the top insult...Originally, it was just a fight.
Anybody who watched Ash vs. Evil Dead Season 2 knows exactly what Bruce Campbell is referring to, since even in this envelope-pushing series, there aren't exactly multiple episodes where Ash's head was pushed through a dead body's rectum. Or even a living person's rectum. No, the gutsy signature sequence from Episode 2, "The Morgue," is the kind of over-the-top madness that will likely never be replicated in the rest of human history, such is its mastery of concept and special effects.
While most shows would keep a scene like this held off until later in the season, Ash vs. Evil Dead followed up its blood-soaked Season 2 premiere with Ash and Kelly heading to the town morgue to get the Necronomicon out of the dead body that Ruby hid it in. Any scene on this show set in a morgue is obviously going to get gross, but it can't possibly get more epic than Bruce Campbell's head shoved up into a carcass' inner sanctum, with the body's dong flopping in his face, as Ash has to literally do battle with an anus. And it's a battle that doesn't end well for said anus.
During our chat, Bruce Campbell talked more about the scene, and how we probably shouldn't expect anything quite like it next season.
Then our twisted producer Rob Tapert. Mr. Creative Producer, was like, 'Nope, this is not...We haven't finished this sequence yet.' So we had to go back and shoot something a little more over the top. I give him credit. You know, when it aired, it was one of the most talked about sequences, so...But you can't always play, 'Can you top this?' You still have to tell a story. Season 3, which we just finished, is much more into the mythology.
Because I would just be an asshole for talking about the scene without offering up some visuals, you can watch part of the VERY NSFW scene below, assuming you're away from children and bosses. And probably your grandparents.
Ash vs. Evil Dead Season 2 is out now on Blu-ray, allowing you to relive TV's most intestinally fortitudinous scene ever, and you can hear even more about the scene via the audio commentary on "The Morgue." (There are five other episodes with commentary tracks as well, and they're all golden.) PLUS, there's an extra devoted entirely to creating the gross-out effects for that episode. The Ash vs. Evil Dead set has a ton of other gut-busting featurettes, too, including ones focused on the classic Delta 88, on the show's kick-ass women, on Henrietta, on the Puppets and much more.
We still don't have a locked-down release date from Starz for Ash vs. Evil Dead Season 3, but we know it's coming, and we've got more news on the way for what to expect from the third season. (Though don't expect a bigger spect-A-hole than what we've just discussed.) Check out what Bruce Campbell told us about the good and the bad side of Ash's hand situation, and then head to our summer premiere schedule and our fall TV schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way.
