If you watch enough horror movies, you’ve seen it before. The odds are stacked against our hero and his/her friends. The characters we’ve come to love and rely on are individually being dispatched or wounded and the only person left to fight back has, hitherto, been hiding in the corner avoiding confrontation. All hope is lost. But wait. What’s this? Something triggers inside this coward’s head and he/she fights and fights hard. Where did this come from? How can someone who apparently never raised a fist in anger kill with such ease? My friends, you have just witnessed The Ash-ian Transition.
Maybe it doesn’t play out exactly like that, but the key elements are there. A seemingly wimpy, unstable, or just unknowledgeable character who is of little help to anyone in danger. Imminent threat. Shockingly abrupt turnaround into a heroic killing machine. Those are the basics. In addition to them, the character can’t be settling a score with just one enemy. He/she has to take it upon him/herself eliminate the danger. Mercy and remorse are for the week. At least while there is business to attend to. Also, there is usually some sort of physical transformation. Broken glasses, severed hand, shirtless, etc. You know, just so you know something's different, you know?
While not confined to the realm of horror, The Ash-ian Transition most often resides there (few genres offer as many opportunities for consequence free murder). If you dig, I’m certain you will find examples in war and gang/gangster films. It’s like a violent version of The Grapes of Wrath where Tom Joad kills the “cop beatin’ up a guy” and others taking advantage of the poor. Even better, it’s the horror equivalent of the ugly girl with glasses in a romantic comedy that turns out to be a stunning prom queen. Oddly, it’s not found much in Westerns, which focuses more on the fallen warrior or the killer in retirement. These men always have it in them; they just aren’t using it anymore. Wherever it pops up, though, it is always welcome and always awesome.
Now that you have an idea of what to look for with The Ash-ian Transition, let’s look at a few examples and variations of it.
The Evil Dead Trilogy
The series that gave The Ash-ian Transition its name. While not the first to portray this phenomenon, it is arguably the most dramatic portrayal in cinema history. The main character, Ash (played by The Chin himself, Bruce Campbell), goes from being unable to fight off a fallen bookshelf to leading an army against the undead in the span of two weeks, tops (and I lean more towards one week, but I don’t want to be accused of exaggerating). In The Evil Dead, he is completely useless (“We can’t bury Shelly, she’s a friend of ours.”) through most of the film until he is left alone to fight off the scourge of deadites.
In the Evil Dead II, which can kind of be spliced with the first to act as a continuation (the door to the fruit cellar becomes an issue doing this), Ash gains a lot of confidence once he cuts his hand off. Perhaps he’s trying to impress his new visitors. Regardless, by the end, he’s seeking out the deadites, even choosing to “go into the fruit cellar and carve [himself] a witch]. This is day two.
Finally, in Army of Darkness, he turns into Superhero Joe, building bombs, organizing and training an army, sword fighting like a pro, and turning the Classic (his car) into a destruction machine. Sure, he still seems a bit of a sniveling coward at times, but this Ash has a confidence that the Ash from the first film couldn’t dream of.
Straw Dogs
This highly controversial film by Sam Peckinpah is notable for a lot more than an Ash-ian Transition (it’s responsible for my most heated film-related argument to date, which was with a not-argumentative person), but that doesn’t diminish the greatness of said Transition. This is the only non-horror film on the list, unless you count personal horror, which I don’t. Dustin Hoffman plays a mathematician (NERD!) whose uneasiness with his wife’s past in his new town bubbles beneath the surface, barely concealed. He is a man of the mind, impotent and filled with rage at the dominance of his wife’s former lover and his pals, but he tries his best solve his problems without confrontation (with them at least). Finally, when his home and those dwelling within are under assault, his survival instincts kick in, accompanied by a blistering bagpipe soundtrack chosen by him, balls-to-the-wall mayhem ensues, with giant bear trap. Regardless of one’s opinion of this Straw Dogs, this scene is something to behold.
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Aside from The Ash-ian Transition, this film has another, more bizarre and jarring transition: from uncomfortable brutality in the first half to silly spaghetti western in the second half. Both of these changes occur at the same moment. Doug Bukowski, a non-entity up to this point, is out to find his kidnapped daughter, which he does, but not before encountering mutated hill-people. With the aid of a Morricone-esque score, he dispatches his assaulters and saves his child. I have no idea where this came from, but it’s the highlight of the film. Having not seen the original, I don’t know if anything similar happens, but I hope so.
The Descent
This film is interesting because the main character, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), is an adventurer at heart, but personal tragedy broke her spirit so she battles personal demons that withdraw her from the group. Her transformation is less a rising to the occasion to fight for her and her friend’s lives than the final plunge into a long-coming madness. She has nothing to lose and circumstances (being lost in a cave system with monsters/friends dying one-by-one) put her over the edge. Not only does she do some monster smashing while covered in blood, she turns on a “friend” who previously betrayed her. Depending on which ending of the film you saw, her madness saved her or trapped her.
28 Days Later
Another variation of The Ash-ian Transition. The bulk of the action in this film is spent running from the speedy, infected threat. It’s about survival, not fighting back. It’s not until we get to the military outpost that anyone needs to stand up to the threat, which it turns out is completely different than what our heroes thought it was. Every attack prior to the cadre of survivors endure en route to the outpost they are mentally prepared for. It’s only when they get to “safety” that they let their guards down and the threat becomes palpable. Jim (Cillian Murphy) is separated from the women and sent to his execution. Due to minion foolishness (always bites the bad guys in the ass), Jim gets away, determined to rescue his friends by any means necessary. He moves like a ninja, avoiding the infected, sneaking through the mansion, squishing eyes in their sockets (had to be an Evil Dead reference), and killing every soldier that the infected man he let loose doesn’t kill. It’s a massacre and we can barely tell if he’s human or infected.
Shaun of the Dead
I’ll finish up here because Shaun (Simon Pegg) is slightly different from the others. From beginning to end, Shaun is a pub-going everyman. While initially terrified by the zom… sorry, zed-words, along with his buddy Ed (Nick Frost), they overcome outright fear enough to fight back an learn to kill them (though Ed is desperately unhelpful most of the time). Shaun takes it upon himself to try to rescue not only his mom, but his recently anointed ex-girlfriend, too. While he shows initiative to beat this menace, he gains the confidence commonly associated with those who go through The Ash-ian Transition (though he may act like he has it). Shaun’s transformation is actually immense personal growth that plays out over one day. Yeah, he takes out a bunch of the undead along the way, but what he really did was learn how to live his life and be a better person and all it took was the deaths of nearly all of his friends and family.
Now that I’ve introduced you to The Ash-ian Transition, keep your eyes peeled. And if you have any that I missed, I’d love to hear about it.
You might have answered this and I just missed it, but do you think that the Ash-ian Transition is an actual transformation in that it involves the characters changing fundamentally to combat the new threat, or is it more of an "unlocking" of something that they always had inside them and just never knew? Or does it vary from case to case?
ReplyDeleteI didn't answer that, but that's a damn good question. I like where your head is at.
ReplyDeleteI'd say it varies from case to case, though a lot of times it seems to be the release of something that's been building within but was brought on by dire circumstances. The characters tried flight but the situation is so bad that they have no choice but to fight. First, they have to undergo immense stress (family/friends assaulted or killed, constant harrassment, stuff like that).
As to whether the transformation is permanent, only The Evil Dead followed that through, and for Ash, well, he's definitely a changed man. But judging by the resolutions of Straw Dogs or Shaun of the Dead, I think those characters will try to go back to living a life of non-confrontation, though with a new outlook on that life.
Not sure if I answered your question, but I the Ash-ian Transition takes on different forms.
Also, I forgot to mention in the main text, but it can't be helped by supernatural means, a la Carrie. That opens a whole arena of possibilities and gets further from the human aspect of the transition.