Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick

Ash Williams, the matchless main character of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy, never lacked for what the Spanish call duende. The renowned schlock-trouper Bruce Campbell played him brash and loud and yet blunderous, imbuing the character with a charm and magnetism that proves inexhaustible through repeated screenings of the films.

Could this charisma transfer from the cinema to the home console? What would it be like to take control of Campbell’s bumbling, iron-jawed quipster and maneuver him through the over-the-top gore and pandemonium wreaked so wantonly by the Deadites? Would it make for that peak horror experience—that sublime feeling of appalling delight—which the French call frisson? The developer/publisher combo of Heavy Iron Studios and THQ apparently thought so, releasing Evil Dead: Hail to the King for PlayStation and Dreamcast in the year 2000. Set in and around the archetypal cabin from the first two movies, the game took the survival-horror approach, complete with pre-rendered backdrops as per Resident Evil, and it did not impress.

The venerable Bruce Campbell 

THQ, as indefatigable as Ash himself, took another crack at the Evil Dead license, with VIS Entertainment assuming development duties for this second attempt. Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, released in 2003, shifted from survival horror to hack-and-slash, a genre hypothetically better-suited for the series' carnage and comedic stylings. Things look and sound promising from the outset. We are greeted by Bruce Campbell's familiar bluster, its cadence somehow both smooth and nervy, overtop some sleek graphics to boot, at least in the cut-scenes. The in-game graphics, however, rely on thick, cartoony character models that seem more befitting of, say, Backyard Wrestling: Don’t Try This At Home. The plot is not unforgivable, as it involves the infamous Necronomicon tape from the movies getting played on the airwaves of long-suffering Dearborn, Michigan, subsequently unleashing the dead upon the town. The enemy horde shambles around like zombies, however, giving said dead a vibe that is less Raimi and more Romero. The gamer may never get a good look at the enemy, however, as the camera is atrocious, swinging wildly about. You'll feel empowered, albeit briefly, by the fact you can fire your eponymous boomstick over your shoulder to get the dead slinking up behind you. Ash's chainsaw is also alluring, but once the enemies converge, you've got limited time and limited maneuvering. Maladroit though he may occasionally be, Ash could still wreak unequivocal havoc with the chainsaw in the movies, and we should expect nothing less, since the chainsaw is actually a part of his body. Be that as it may, the game has no sense of chainsaw, or what the Germans call kettensägen. You will die quickly, and you will die often. As such, A Fistful of Boomstick quickly becomes repetitive, restart after restart returning you to the same old waves of enemies, thereby establishing that the slapstick magnetism of Ash-cum-Campbell is indeed exhaustible, at least in terms of gaming.

All told, A Fistful of Boomstick is more than a little appalling, and not in a delightful way. Not even Ash's endless jests (including intermittent 4th wall-breakers) can save it. Nonetheless, those most dedicated to the series will still feel compelled to buy it and put it on their Halloween playlists, as they are, inexorably, what the English call neckbeards.