Ash Williams is the hero of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead franchise: a hapless everyman who goes to a cabin in the woods, accidentally wakes an ancient evil and ends up with a chainsaw where his right hand used to be. Played by Bruce Campbell for more than three decades, Ash is a horror hero rather than a villain, though the films enjoy beating him up as much as any monster. He grew from a terrified survivor into a wisecracking, shotgun-toting legend, and in 2013 Empire readers voted him the greatest horror movie character of all time.
At a glance
| Franchise | Evil Dead |
| First appearance | The Evil Dead (1981) |
| Creator | Sam Raimi, who wrote and directed the original trilogy (Evil Dead II co-written with Scott Spiegel, Army of Darkness with Ivan Raimi) |
| Portrayed by | Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead, 1981; Evil Dead II, 1987; Army of Darkness, 1992; Evil Dead post-credits cameo, 2013; Ash vs Evil Dead, 2015–2018; voice in several video games) |
| Role | Hero; his enemies are the Deadites, humans possessed by the Kandarian Demon |
| Weapons of choice | A chainsaw fitted to the stump of his right hand and a double-barreled shotgun (his “boomstick”); a mechanical metal hand in Army of Darkness |
Origin story and backstory
In The Evil Dead (1981), Ash, his girlfriend Linda, his sister Cheryl and two friends spend a weekend at a remote cabin in Tennessee. In the cellar they find a Sumerian book of the dead and a tape recording of a professor reading from it. Playing the tape awakens a demonic force that possesses Ash’s friends one by one, until he is the last one left. He burns the book, and in the final shot the evil rushes at him through the woods.
In the original film Ash is no action hero. He is frightened, overwhelmed and survives mostly by luck. The sequels turned him into something else: a cocky, quotable hero whose bravado is as funny as his suffering.
One hero, a tangled continuity
The Evil Dead timeline has never been tidy. Evil Dead II (1987) opens with a recap that remakes the first film with only Ash and Linda, before picking up where the original ended. Ash cuts off his own possessed hand, attaches a chainsaw to the stump and is sucked through a time portal to the year 1300. Army of Darkness (1992) follows him in medieval times, and it has two endings: in the theatrical cut he returns to his job at S-Mart, while the original ending strands him in a ruined, post-apocalyptic future. The Starz series Ash vs Evil Dead (2015–2018) picks up roughly 30 years later, but rights issues with Universal meant season one could not directly mention Army of Darkness. The newer films, Evil Dead (2013), Evil Dead Rise (2023) and Evil Dead Burn (2026), focus on new characters.
Iconic moments
- The cabin (1981): Raimi’s racing, ground-level “evil force” camera chases Ash through the woods and the cabin in some of the most influential shots in low-budget horror.
- The hand (1987): In Evil Dead II, Ash’s own hand becomes possessed and attacks him, a slapstick fight Campbell plays like a silent-film comedian.
- “Groovy” (1987): Ash locks the chainsaw onto his stump, saws off the barrel of his shotgun and delivers the one-word catchphrase that made him a legend.
- “Klaatu barada nikto” (1992): Sent to retrieve the Necronomicon, Ash forgets the last word of the magic phrase and tries to mumble his way through it, unleashing an army of the dead.
- “Hail to the king, baby” (1992): Back at S-Mart, Ash dispatches one last Deadite with a rifle and gets the final line.
- The tank (2018): In the series finale of Ash vs Evil Dead, Ash takes on a giant demon in a tank to save the world.
Appearances
Films and TV in release order
- The Evil Dead (1981)
- Evil Dead II (1987)
- Army of Darkness (1992; U.S. release 1993)
- Evil Dead (2013), post-credits cameo
- Ash vs Evil Dead (Starz, 2015–2018, three seasons), co-starring Ray Santiago, Dana DeLorenzo and Lucy Lawless
- Evil Dead Rise (2023), a brief voice cameo that director Lee Cronin has indicated is Ash
Games, comics and the end of the road
Games and comics: Campbell voiced Ash in a trilogy of games starting with Evil Dead: Hail to the King (2000), and Ash is playable in Evil Dead: The Game (2022) and Dead by Daylight. Dynamite’s Army of Darkness comics include the crossover Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2007), pitting him against Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. Retired: Campbell announced in 2018 that he was retired from playing Ash in live action. An animated revival was in development for years, but in August 2026 he said “Ash is done” and that he will not voice the character either.
Trivia and behind-the-scenes facts
- Raimi, Campbell and Tapert made a short film, Within the Woods (1979), for $1,600 as a proof of concept to raise money for The Evil Dead.
- The Evil Dead was shot in a remote cabin near Morristown, Tennessee, and first screened privately at the Redford Theatre in Detroit on October 15, 1981.
- A rave review from Stephen King helped the first film find an audience. King later brought the sequel to producer Dino De Laurentiis, who financed it.
- Raimi used “Fake Shemps,” a term borrowed from the Three Stooges, for stand-ins who filled in when actors weren’t available.
- Campbell played Ash partly because, as a producer, he was the only actor willing to stay through the entire shoot of the first film.
- “Klaatu barada nikto” is borrowed from the 1951 science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
- Evil Dead II was released on March 13, 1987, through a pseudonymous distributor to avoid an expected X rating for its violence.
- Universal objected to the original, bleak ending of Army of Darkness, and the S-Mart ending was shot for the theatrical release.
- Ash vs Evil Dead was renewed for a second season three days before its October 31, 2015 premiere, and was cancelled after its third season in April 2018.
- Army of Darkness won the 1994 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.
- Empire also ranked Ash the 24th greatest movie character of all time in 2008.