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‘Fire In The Hole’: ‘Evil Dead’ Series Begins To Flame Out

By Joey Click

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 Ash Has Spent The Last 30 Years Avoiding Deadites… And Responsibility

THE REVIEW:

Michael Hurst directs Fire in the Hole with both undeniable enthusiasm but by-the-numbers under direction. While I’ve seen worst direction in television before Ash Vs. Evil Dead’s seventh outing, it’s a mostly stilted motion-picture experience. Which is slightly shocking being as Hurst directed last week’s entry, The Killer of Killers, and while the opening of that episode’s stilted, the second half was extremely accomplished. Sadly, Fire in the Hole is nowhere near the direction of Killers.

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Among the decent direction, if even slight, includes a few nice push-ins (two focused on a building and another on three principle towards the end of the episode), the montage featuring Ruby (with voice over, which was the best part of the episode), the last shot featuring the iconic cabin is solid, and a few decent composition shots. But overall, it’s an episode featuring an all-too silted camera and one which feels like it was either made by someone who doesn’t know direction (which can’t be, given how well made The Killer of Killers ultimately is) or someone who was running out of money and needed to shoot pages regardless.

“Babycakes, I Don’t Know How to Turn It On.” -Ash

While the direction could have used much nurturing in the ‘The Evil Dead’ series’ most recent outing, it’s the script that posses the most problems. Written by Sean Clements, Dominic Dierkes and Ivan Raimi, the script does many things wrong and begins to harm the fun of the series.

For starters, the show begins to be confused in its tone by getting rid of the major slapstick appeal and begins attempting to ground itself in more story. It’s an episode that moves the slowest of the already aired seventh outings, and while the slapstick is still there in one scene (which doesn’t involve Ash…big mistake), its an episode that thinks we are here from dramatic tense- nothing could be farther from the truth.

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Also, the episode makes obvious of The Killer of Killers’ inclusion of a new character and its use as a plot device- I found this annoying. But here’s the reason: Now that Amanda is no long tracking the gang, and has become a “Ghost Beater” herself, the show needed a foe (other than the Deadites). I don’t mind Amanda joining the gang, and actually think it’s a good idea, but it was a move better saved for season two. Doing it too early is a huge mistake.

While I don’t think it was necessary, the showrunner seemingly felt otherwise. The problem is the show makes it obvious that theses new characters won’t last (even before the Ruby montage) and it makes even the ill-advised attempts at dramatic tension come off cheap.

Then, the show splits Ash from Pablo and Kelly. This was a huge mistake and messes with the dynamic of the show, which was working very well. Without this, while it helps the moving story between Pablo and Kelly, the show loses so much of its fun. It honestly feels like a different show and I didn’t like it much, if at all.

Of all the bad, the ending of the show gets the hardcore fans giddy with the inclusion of the cabin and I freaked when I saw it.

The acting is also pretty bad. Of course, not from the four main characters (which is mostly always solid), but the newer self-appointed, more solid characters are terrible. Saved from the main General (Mark Mitchinson), the rest of the mock military members are so bad it’s easy to call this purposeful, but that’s BS. It’s just terrible.

THE VERDICT:

Michael Hurst’s Fire in the Hole is by far the worst episode of Starz’s freshman season of Ash Vs. Evil Dead. A lot of the fun is gone, and in its place, is a story that sludges a lot and ultimately amounts to nothing. It’s not the worst episode, and doesn’t cause for abandoning the series altogether, but Fire in the Hole is without a doubt an outing which could have used more nurturing. But watch it, cause Ash is still Ash and seeing the iconic Evil Dead cabin was amazing. Stay safe Deadites, I’ll see ya next time.

THE GRADE: C

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