Monster / Evil Dead

"The first thing I do is remove the tongues. Then I seal up the mouth. I like to hear them moan in agony, but the screaming can be a bit tiresome."

Ash: This is between you and me pal, let the girl go!
Evil Ash: Oh no, this is between the three of us... Once the portal is opened, she will be consumed by the Dark Ones and the crossover will begin. As for you, your death will be my calling card. You see, the Prophecy is actually important to them.
Ash: Oh you mean the Prophecy where I kill you and stop the Dark Ones from coming over?
Evil Ash: Semantics... Either way, we'll all be pleased to see you... Dead.
Ash: Oh yeah right, you think those things will make you some sort of god once I'm gone? I got two words for you pal: you're crazy.
Evil Ash: Not crazy... Just bad.

—Hail to the King

For decades, in various media, Ashley J. "Ash" Williams & company have faced numerous foes, often demons and other supernatural forces, but also many times humans. Here are the worst.

Entries for each group are by approximate release/publication date.

All spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

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Films

Examples

• Army of Darkness: "Evil Ash", taking the form of Ash, is a monstrous Deadite who rouses the Army of Darkness by digging up every Deadite he can. After abducting Ash's lover Sheila, Evil Ash assaults and rapes her while having other women taken off to be violated by his minions. Assaulting Castle Kandar, Evil Ash plots to massacre everyone within and then spread the plague of the Deadites through the land.
• 2013 film: The Taker of Souls is a demonic entity whose evil is so great that he is regarded as the Devil itself by many who face him. Often accidentally summoned by hapless innocents using the Naturom Demonto, the Taker seeks to possess, torment, and kill five people so as to use their feasted-upon souls to summon the nightmarish Abomination to the mortal realm. In one instance of his summoning, the Taker turned a teenage girl into his host and killed her mother, laughing in her father's face about it. In the present, the Taker possesses Mia by raping her, then goes about torturing and maiming her and her friends in horrific ways while picking them all off. The Taker gleefully mocks her brother all the while that Mia and their mother are burning in Hell, and he'll soon join them for daring to defy the Taker.

Comic Books

Army of Darkness

2004 - 2010 run

• Evil Ash is Ash's most consistent and personal nemesis across his journey. Always seeking to subjugate humanity to turn Earth into a world of Deadites, Evil Ash constantly works towards this goal, whether through resurrecting his army of darkness in Egypt or allying with Dracula to kill his "goody two shoes" counterpart. When he's finally released by Evil Sheila, he declares himself Evil Ash Prime and proceeds to Take Over the World, leaving most of it a barren wasteland ruled by the dead. Having killed and enslaved everyone he could before mutating the remaining survivors, Evil Ash spends most of his days raping every woman he can find, with not even his supposed "queen" immune to his spiteful rage.
• "Ash vs. Re-Animator": Doctor Whateley is a demonic entity who seeks to release Yog-Sothoth upon the world to eradicate everyone on it. Seeking a Deadite army for this goal, Whateley removes the conscience of Dr. Herbert West, backing his horrific experiments which leave many people zombified. Beginning the process to bring Yog-Sothoth to Earth, Whateley unleashes the evil force in Arkham Asylum, instantly killing almost everyone within before welcoming his "father" to the world to wipe humanity out entirely.
• "The Death of Ash" & "From the Ashes": Evil Sheila is Sheila's Deadite counterpart and matches her "lover" in horrific creativity. After being released in Castle Kandar, Evil Shelia immediately took it over, converting everyone inside into Deadites before beginning a long-term plan to spread evil throughout the world. Responsible for the acts of Charles Manson as well as several terrorist groups, Evil Sheila also tricks hundreds of people into eating Deadite flesh, leaving them ready to be possessed at a moment's notice, as well as founding the Cult of Death, the cult responsible for cursing Ash to face evil for his entire life. Eventually using a ritual to replace Ash with Evil Ash, Evil Sheila welcomes his subjugation of the world, only turning against him when he begins preferring "human whores" to her.
• Darkman vs. Army of Darkness:
  • The Queen of Darkness is a spirit who possesses Julie Hastings to ravage Darkman's city with Deadites. Having people killed en masse, the Queen plots to use the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis to empower herself and create a worldwide empire of the dead. When her minions fail her, the Queen resurrects Darkman's nemesis Robert G. Durant, and keeps killing to revive the fallen as more Deadite soldiers.
  • Robert G. Durant, revived by the Queen of Darkness as her "field marshall", hopes to rule the empire of the dead with her. To bolster the Queen's forces, Durant beats people to death or severe trauma so they can be crafted into new Deadites. Dispatched to capture the heroes, Durant lures them out by taking over a news station, and threatens to cut a new anchor's fingers off one by one, lest Darkman confront him.
• "The Long Road Home":
  • The Red Demon is the being responsible for the writing of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and thus responsible for all the evil the Deadites have wrought. Reawakening in the present day following Evil Ash's downfall, the demon summons the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, using them to round up an army of slaves and kill any who resist. One by one, he removes his slaves' tongues, stitches their mouths shut, and flays them alive to create a new Necronomicon, all while the slaves are unable to scream in pain. When the new book is made, the demon tracks down Ash, killing everyone in his path, in order to use his blood to summon the Old Ones to destroy Earth entirely.
  • The Big Boss Man, despite being only human, is one of the most monstrous creatures Ash has ever faced. Coming into Cleveland following Evil Ash's subjugation of the world, the Big Boss Man forces people to fight in rigged gladiator matches, having them killed in front of crowds for the profit and adoration it brings him. When the "visitors" inevitably lose, the Big Boss Man has them barbecued and served to himself and the spectators, threatening such a fate on his own team if they break their perfect streak. When Ash escapes his game, the Big Boss Man breaks his own rules by ordering his death, killing one of his own men for speaking out against this; and he simultaneously takes Sheila as his Sex Slave, intending to rape her on the football field while everyone watches.
• "Hellbillies and Deadnecks" & "League of Light, Assemble!": Hell's Prophet is one of the most wicked demons ever, a presence who only appears to herald Hell on Earth when the forces of evil are close to prevailing. Dreaded even by his own kind, the Prophet's MO is to possess The Chosen One of the respective time period and use their bodies to slaughter all their own allies, while massacring hundreds of innocent people for his own amusement along the way. The last time he did this was in Whitechapel as Jack the Ripper, during which he spared an immortal angel named Aron after having butchered Aron's love interest in front of him purely to let him walk the Earth with the torment of having failed to save her. The Prophet manages to possess Ash after a scheme to poison millions of people with tainted water bottles fails, and it wreaks so much damage that Ash is forced to alter time to prevent the Prophet from possessing him.

Others

• Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: Freddy Krueger is the same sadistic child-murdering monster he is in the films, and more. Following the events of the film, Freddy continues his spree of evil by once again manipulating Jason Voorhees into finding the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis to grant him reality-warping powers before sending the Deadites against Jason when he turns against him. He takes things further in The Nightmare Warriors, where upon his return, Freddy takes control of the Deadite army, placing Jason as general. At Freddy's behest, Jason and the Deadites leave death and destruction throughout Washington, where Freddy takes control of the White House where he reveals his plan for "No Child Left Alive" and the carnage he plans on spreading across the world. Revealing himself to be in an incestuous relationship with his daughter Kathryn, possibly due to brainwashing, when she fights with Jason, Freddy admits he plans to kill her when they are finished. Freddy possesses Stephanie to seduce and abduct Jacob, before encouraging Stephanie to kill as a Voorhees. Upon Jason's death, Freddy absorbs his soul as well before boasting himself as a "Dream God". Now desiring power and domination in addition to his bloodlust, Freddy takes his evil from the films to a more grandiose level.
• Danger Girl and the Army of Darkness, written by Andy Hartnell: The nameless Chancellor pushes for General Kage's war against the rebels, to make the conflict worse and to get his hands on the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. With this achieved, the Chancellor intends on becoming a new "Chosen One", using the book to kill the colonel's entire battalion and raising them as Deadites. Intending on having the Deadites slaughter all in their path to devastate the world, the Chancellor plans on converting everything into his Deadite army, even unleashing a demonic Dark One to do as much damage as possible.
• Ash Gets Hitched, written by Steve Niles: "The Faceless Man" was the first Deadite and one of the creator of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, his own face sealing the Book of the Dead. After a failed attempt to spread Deadline influence resulted in his imprisonment, the Faceless Man escapes centuries later and massacres an army of hundreds of knights, flaying most of them alive and leaving their agonized bodies to serve as meat puppets who beg for death. The Faceless Man intends to travel throughout all time and turn everyone who ever has or ever will exist into a Deadite, ushering in Hell on Earth before brutally beating Ash to near-death.
• Ash in Space, written by Cullen Bunn: Robo-Ash is the AI reincarnation of none other than Evil Ash. After his seeming death, Robo-Ash regenerates from Ash's robotic hand and infects a space station, eventually corrupting and damning all but one innocent worker aboard the station. Robo-Ash intends to broadcast the Deadite influence to every satellite and screen in the world, resulting in mass insanity and carnage across the globe as families tear each other apart and people slaughter each other en masse until the the entire planet is a Deadite paradise.
• Furious Road, written by Nancy A. Collins: Evil Ash led the Deadites in his successful scheme to plunge the world in a Deadite apocalypse. Seeking to wipe out Ash and the survivors before they can complete the banishing ritual, Evil Ash has a cathedral slaughtered just to see the looks on the survivors' faces when they arrive. After Dracula rescues his daughter Eva and the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis from Evil Ash's clutches, Evil Ash persuades one of Dracula's brides into killing the other two brides in return for blood, before murdering her and crucifying the three just to spite Dracula, before leading an attack on a monastery with the intent to wipe out all the monks inside and claim the Necronomicon for himself.
• Ash vs. The Army of Darkness, written by Chad Bowers & Chris Sims: Dr. Glen Friedrich is the director of S.M.A.R.T., an organization that defends against supernatural threats, but which Friedrich decides to betray for his own power lust. Using his knowledge of the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, Friedrich slips pages of the Book of the Dead into Alan Shepard High School, turning teachers and students into Deadites that torment and kill others. At the school's big homecoming dance, Friedrich unleashes the full power of the Book, turning the entire population of hundreds into Deadites that Friedrich intends to use to wipe out his enemies and amass even more Deadites under his banner, specifically targeting minors for how easy they are to control.

Evil Dead 2

Examples

• Beyond Dead By Dawn, written by Frank Hannah: Rabisu, the devourer of souls, is a powerful Kandarian demon responsible for the events of the films and the torment of all the victims of the Deadites. Rising to see multiple innocents killed and possessed, Rabisu consumes his victims' souls and holds them within his body in perpetual torment with intent to overrun the world and take the souls of all he can.
• Revenge of Hitler, written by Ian Edginton: Adolf Hitler himself, the genocidal dictator of Nazi Germany who has been resurrected by dark rituals, shows up as wicked as ever, and powerfully supernatural. Terrifying even the dark gods behind the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and the Deadites, Hitler intends to take a Deadite army to raze not only Earth but to destroy Hell itself to take over existence.
• A Merry Deadite X-Mas, written by Georgia Ball: Robbie Dawes is a horror fanatic who feels he is not getting his due in life. Making a pact with the Deadites to see them unleashed upon and destroying the world, Robbie has numerous people at a Christmas event possessed and killed, intending to unleash the Deadites on a class of children so he can live out his ultimate horror movie.

Other Media

Examples

• THQ trilogy:
  • Hail to the King: Evil Ash, born from a reflection of Ash in Dead by Dawn, stands in stark contrast to his medieval counterpart as a cold-blooded mastermind with even greater ambitions in store. Posing as the cowardly Father Allarde to trick Ash into doing the dirty work for him, Evil Ash soon goes back in time to Damascus 730 AD, where he collaborates with a local Apocalypse Cult before disposing of them and revealing his ultimate plan to sacrifice Ash's new girlfriend to the eldritch Dark Ones and let them overrun Earth in return for being rewarded with godhood.
  • Regeneration: Dr. Vladimir Reinhard, Ash's psychiatrist during his institutionalization at Sunny Meadows, developed an obsessive fascination for the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and tested its properties on an ADHD patient for two years. Wanting to abuse the power of the book to reshape the world to his liking, Reinhard unleashed the Deadites in his own asylum and opened more portals to spread the corruption across the world. Becoming increasingly more sadistic, Reinhard changed his intentions to wiping out all of humanity and tried to use Ash's lawyer as a Human Sacrifice to complete his work.
• Ash vs. Evil Dead season 2: Baal, the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire franchise as a whole, was the demon responsible for the Deadites as their creator and father. Intending to allow evil to dominate Earth and enslave or slaughter humanity, Baal has his children turn on their mother and sends them to attack and slaughter humans. Baal then infiltrates the town of Elk Grove by skinning and impersonating multiple people before capturing Ash and subjecting him to mental torture where he traps him in a fantasy, making Ash believe that the entirety of the past 30 years have been an elaborate delusion, intending to use Ash to murder his own friends to destroy a threat to Baal. Upon being sent to the past, Baal has his ex-wife Ruby murdered by her still-evil 1982 incarnation and attempts to kill Ash in a duel, mocking Ash forever thinking he would have intentions of honoring the deal should Ash win. Responsible for the loss of countless lives thanks to the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis and the actions of the Deadites, Baal stands apart from the other Deadites for his ambition and cruelty.

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