By: Heather Seebach
If it is not obvious by now, I am a huge Evil Dead fan. Whenever somebody refers to a deadite as a zombie, I develop an eye twitch. For those unfamiliar with the term, a deadite is a person – living or dead – who has become possessed by the Unseen Force. These creatures are exclusive to the Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series. Zombies, on the other hand, are walking corpses – they are never living and their condition cannot be reversed.
If it is not obvious by now, I am a huge Evil Dead fan. Whenever somebody refers to a deadite as a zombie, I develop an eye twitch. For those unfamiliar with the term, a deadite is a person – living or dead – who has become possessed by the Unseen Force. These creatures are exclusive to the Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series. Zombies, on the other hand, are walking corpses – they are never living and their condition cannot be reversed.
I love zombies, but deadites are really under-appreciated. Can a zombie
turn your friends evil without even touching them? Can a zombie take the
form of your mother and sing your favorite childhood lullaby? Can a
zombie swallow your soul? I rest my case. The following is a list of my
favorites from the ED series, in descending order.
10. Pit Witches, Army of Darkness
When Ash is mistaken for one of Henry’s men, he is tossed into a deep,
dark pit, knowing that the last person who went down there came out as a
geyser of blood. At the bottom of the pit, amidst the skeletons and
fog, Ash encounters one surprisingly fast and limber deadite with sharp
talons. She knocks him around for a while until an old wise man finally
tosses the hero his trusty chainsaw so he can relieve the witch of her
head. Later, a second uglier deadite appears and does an impressive back
flip off the top ridge of the pit. I had to include these witches on my
list because they are among the few deadites I have ever seen do
gymnastics.
9. S-Mart Witch, Army of Darkness
Depending on which versions of Army of Darkness
you have seen, you may or may not be familiar with this deadite. The
theatrical version ends with Ash returning to his own time, telling
stories of his medieval adventure to an unimpressed S-Mart co-worker
(Ted Raimi). Just then, a customer turns into a deadite and tries to
kill Ash’s pretty female co-worker. He springs into action, pumping
shotgun rounds into the old hag from atop of a moving stock cart. “I’ll
swallow your soul!” she promises to Ash, to which he simply replies,
“Come get some.” After incapacitating the witch and saving a store full
of customers, Ash grabs the pretty girl and utters one of his greatest
one-liners: “Hail to the king, baby.” I don’t so much love this deadite
as I love the situation she creates. It’s no wonder so many people
consider this to be the only true ending.
8. “She-Bitch”, Army of Darkness
Rounding out the trilogy of medieval witches, this gal is my favorite
because she is in one of the film’s best scenes. Ash is being fed grapes
and wine by wenches when his hedonism is interrupted by an evil deadite
hag. After levitating and spouting some common deadite rhetoric (“We
shall feast upon your soul” etc. etc.), the witch tries to play dead,
but Ash does not fall for it. "It's a trick - get an axe." Then Ash
pulls out his 12-gage double-barrel Remington and utters that famous
line: “Yo, she-bitch – let’s go.” He fires shell after shell, but the
final shot is one of the film’s funniest moments. As the witch charges
Ash from behind, he lays the shotgun over his shoulder and fires. Then
without even looking back to confirm the kill, he shudders at his own
awesomeness. She was a creepy witch, but mostly I adore the way she
died.
7. Linda, The Evil Dead
The special make-up effects on the first Evil Dead
were not as elaborate as its successors, but makeup artist Tom Sullivan
and actress Betsy Baker still created one very creepy deadite. With
white eyes, a painted smile, and a baby doll giggle, she does not look
like your average deadite, but the effect is the same. Even after Ash
punches her in the face repeatedly, Linda appears unfazed, giggling the
entire time. She cruelly transforms back into her human form just to
torment Ash. But Linda really hits the peak of her creepiness when she
starts singing “We’re gonna get you…” in a childlike voice. That sound
and the image of her later licking blood off a dagger are both forever
burned into my memory.
6. Possessed Ash & Possessed Hand, Evil Dead 2
I chose to lump these two together since they obviously involve the same
person. Even Ash is not immune to being possessed by the Unseen Force.
He is first changed after being dragged alone through the woods, and
again later in the cabin with Annie. This is one of my favorite make-up
jobs from these films, with Bruce Campbell’s features exaggerated to
appear monstrous (i.e., giant chin). But it is Campbell’s hamming that
makes this deadite so great.
Fortunately, Ash turns back to normal, but he was not so lucky when it came to his right hand. His deadite girlfriend’s head takes a bite out of it and the hand attacks him with hilarious results. After Ash chops it off with a chainsaw, it runs around on its own wreaking havoc and generally being a jerk. The hand is hilarious and one of the most memorable aspects of this film.
Fortunately, Ash turns back to normal, but he was not so lucky when it came to his right hand. His deadite girlfriend’s head takes a bite out of it and the hand attacks him with hilarious results. After Ash chops it off with a chainsaw, it runs around on its own wreaking havoc and generally being a jerk. The hand is hilarious and one of the most memorable aspects of this film.
5. Ed, Evil Dead 2
This is another great make-up job by KNB. Ed’s grotesquely oversized
teeth are both scary and hilarious. So is watching Ed trying to take a
bite out of Bobbie Jo and swallowing a mouth full of hair instead. Ed
also has one of my favorite deadite deaths from the series. Ash grabs an
axe with his intact arm and single-handedly (literally) chops Dead Ed
into pieces. As the axe rises and falls, green blood splatters across
the room and Annie screams hysterically. Ed’s deformed hand spasms in
front of the camera as a creepy female voice cries, “We...live...still!”
until green blood finally engulfs the camera lens. This is a brilliant
scene and I love every single thing Raimi did with it.
4. Evil Ash, Army of Darkness
Evil Ash’s conception is a bit complicated. ((Inhale)) So Ash looks into
a mirror, which shatters, and creates a couple tiny Ash’s, and he ends
up accidentally eating one, resulting in him sprouting a second head,
who ultimately becomes a full clone. Ash kills him, but he resurrects as
a rotting, walking corpse who becomes the leader of a medieval skeleton
army that ultimately raids the King’s castle ((Exhale)) Did you get all
of that? What I love about Evil Ash is simply the fact that he has all
the cockiness and one-liners of the real Ash, but he is evil. I think
all fans of this series can agree that one Bruce Campbell just isn’t
enough.
3. Cheryl, The Evil Dead
Cheryl is easily the most memorable deadite from the first film. Ellen Sandweiss was fantastically creepy. Her initial possession is also one of the film’s best moments. While Linda and Shelly are playing a guessing game with playing cards, Cheryl starts naming off the cards in Shelly’s hand without even turning away from the window. As they marvel at her talent, Cheryl spins around looking like a monster and begins to levitate. A demonic voice spouts off threats (“One by one, we will take you!”) before she does the usual deadite opossum trick and falls to the floor. When Linda comes to check on her, she brutally shoves a pencil through her ankle.
Cheryl eventually gets tossed in the cellar, but spends the rest of the
movie peeking under the cellar door – watching, snarling and taunting
the others. At one point she uses her human voice to try and trick her
brother Ash into letting her out. Finally, Cheryl meets her ed
during an excruciatingly long, disgusting meltdown scene.
2. Linda, Evil Dead 2
Linda is the only character besides Ash who appears in all three films.
Each time she is played by a different actress. I already mentioned
Betsy Baker’s eerie portrayal of her in the first film. In Army of Darkness,
Bridget Fonda makes a cameo as Linda in a flashback, but she is not
shown as a deadite. My favorite of the three Linda’s is easily Denise
Bixler in Evil Dead 2. After
she becomes possessed by the Unseen Force at the cabin, deadite Linda
attacks her boyfriend Ash. He is forced to chop her head off and bury
her outside but she won’t stay dead. Her decaying corpse pops up out of
the grave, puts her head back on, and begins to dance.
Later, the severed head falls into Ash’s lap and bites down on his hand.
The next few minutes are hilarious as he tries to pry the head off his
hand by banging it on the wall or hitting it with books. He has to run
all the way out to the work-shed and stick the head in a vice before it
finally lets his hand go. The head takes on Linda’s human form and
pleads Ash not to hurt her, but that doesn’t stop him from taking a
chainsaw to it. As the chainsaw digs into her head, blood splatters
across a lone, hanging light bulb, giving the inside of the shed a red
hue. Linda’s terror stops here, but Ash doesn’t yet know what she has
done to his hand…
1. Henrietta, Evil Dead 2
Henrietta scared the shit out of me when I first saw Evil Dead 2 as
a kid. I remember thinking she looked like a walking fruit cake, which
is fitting considering she was buried in a fruit cellar. It was also
terrifying how Ash was locked down there without a clue until an audio
recording revealed what evil was buried down there with him. Just then,
she bursts out of the floor, worms protruding from her head in Harryhausen-esque
stop-motion. Ash’s subsequent scream still gives me chills every
time I watch this scene. “Come to sweet Henrietta” she utters in a
ghastly hag voice as she lumbers toward him.
Ash manages to escape Henrietta in the cellar, but she turns up again
and again. Like the last two deadites on this list, Henrietta can take
on her old human form in order to manipulate people. In one scene, she
appears in her original form as Annie’s sweet old mother (played by Lou
Hancock). She sings Annie’s favorite lullaby and almost convinces her
daughter to let her out of the cellar. Later in the film, Henrietta
appears again when she drags hillbilly Jake down the cellar and a
waterfall of blood sprays out.
When the witch finally escapes the cellar, she transforms into a bizarre
fat creature with a neck like a giraffe and the screeching voice of a
monkey. It takes both Ash’s chainsaw and his boomstick to finally bring
the bitch down. After lopping its head off, Henrietta utters its
signature phrase, “I’ll swallow your soul! I’ll swallow your soul!” You
can’t help but cheer when Ash then shoves the tip of his shotgun into
its face and says, “Swallow this.”
Because the prosthetics and makeup were so extensive, deadite Henrietta
could not be portrayed by the elderly Lou Hancock. Instead, she was
portrayed by twenty-year old Ted Raimi in a latex suit made by KNB. It
was a grueling experience for Ted. He lost literally pints of sweat each
day and needed a breathing apparatus between takes. In one shot, you
can see Ted’s sweat literally pouring out of Henrietta’s ear hole. For
all his suffering, Raimi was brilliant in the role, and I’ll love him
forever for it.
 | |||
| Portraying Henrietta was so excruciating that Ted needed an oxygen mask between takes | ! |
Honorable Mention: The Laughing Deer, Evil Dead 2
Not sure if the deer (or any of the cackling cabin objects) counts as actual Deadites, but I have to mention it. It is one of my absolute favorite things about ED2.
So there you have it - my favorite deadites. Who are yours?
Be sure to check out the rest of my Evil Dead Week Articles!
Monday: Top 10 Deadites from the Evil Dead Trilogy
Tuesday: The Early Films of Raimi and Campbell
Wednesday: Top 10 References to the Evil Dead Films
Thursday: 5 Reasons to see Evil Dead (and 5 Excuses-Not-To That Are Bullshit)
Friday: My review of 'Evil Dead' (updated)
Saturday: Dissecting 'Evil Dead' Analysis Part 1
Sunday: Dissecting 'Evil Dead' Analysis Part 2
Bonus: Dissecting Evil Dead Part 3
Not sure if the deer (or any of the cackling cabin objects) counts as actual Deadites, but I have to mention it. It is one of my absolute favorite things about ED2.
So there you have it - my favorite deadites. Who are yours?
Be sure to check out the rest of my Evil Dead Week Articles!
Monday: Top 10 Deadites from the Evil Dead Trilogy
Tuesday: The Early Films of Raimi and Campbell
Wednesday: Top 10 References to the Evil Dead Films
Thursday: 5 Reasons to see Evil Dead (and 5 Excuses-Not-To That Are Bullshit)
Friday: My review of 'Evil Dead' (updated)
Saturday: Dissecting 'Evil Dead' Analysis Part 1
Sunday: Dissecting 'Evil Dead' Analysis Part 2
Bonus: Dissecting Evil Dead Part 3
