Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2 Episode 5 - "Confinement"

Ash vs. Evil Dead is often chock full of retro references, particularly those of the Sam Raimi variety. In our most recent episode, which just so happens to have been released over the Halloween weekend, we are treated to nods and homages to some other horror touchstones. “Confinement,”  the fifth episode of the second season, bears more than a few parallels to two John Carpenter films: Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing.

After our group is reunited, without so much as a passing reference to Ruby and Kelly's several day absence, they quickly find themselves holed up in the local Sheriff's office. Ash has been arrested for beheading a young woman (silly cops don't know she was a Deadite), but as soon as Kelly, Pablo, and Ruby arrived to bail him out Baal makes his presence known. And with that, our new big bad for the season has been introduced.

The similarities to Carpenter’s work in both plot and setting are obvious. A group of people, trapped in an isolated location, struggle to identify which of them are who they appear to be and which ones have been taken over by a malevolent visitor. Ringing any bells? How about the fact that it’s set in a prison?