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Linda was a clerk at S-Mart and the girlfriend of Ash Williams. She, along with Ash and three others, took a weekend trip to a remote cabin in the mountains in October of 1982, where they accidentally awakened an ancient demonic spirit which roamed the woods. Linda fell victim to this demon's attack, resulting in her transformation into a Deadite.

Linda first appeared in the 1981 film The Evil Dead, portrayed by Betsy Baker. In each subsequent appearance, Linda has been portrayed by a different actress: Denise Bixler in Evil Dead II, Bridget Fonda in Army of Darkness, and Rebekkah Farrell in Ash vs Evil Dead.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

There is very little information in regards to Linda's life prior to the events at the cabin, though at some point she began working at S-Mart,[1] began attending Michigan State University,[2] and met Ash Williams. During her relationship with Ash, the couple began thinking about their future, with Williams sharing his dream of living in (or simply visiting) Jacksonville, Florida with her.[3]

Incident At The Cabin[]

In October of 1982, Linda, along with Ash and three others (Scotty, his girlfriend Shelly, and Ash's sister Cheryl) took a trip to what they believed to be an abandoned cabin deep in the woods of Michigan. While exploring the cabin, Ash and Scotty recovered several personal affairs of Professor Raymond Knowby from the fruit cellar, among them being a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a strange book with a face-like cover. Playing the Professor's recording aloud unknowingly awakened a malevolent spirit known as the Kandarian Demon, which attacked the Knowby family not too long before the group's arrival.

In the fleeting moments of what would be the end of their "normal" lives, Ash presented Linda with a small silver necklace with a round glass pendant on the end. As a storm grew closer outside, Cheryl Williams ventured outside of the cabin after hearing strange noises all afternoon, which resulted in her being attacked and violated by the Kandarian Demon in the form of the woods themselves. After Ash and Cheryl discovered the bridge leading back to town had been destroyed, the two returned to the others at the cabin, hoping that the night would quickly pass so Cheryl could get help. As Linda attempted to work on her "psychic powers" by guessing the number and suite of Shelly's playing cards, Cheryl's possession took hold, which then saw her attack Linda with a pencil to the ankle.

After Cheryl was subdued, Linda retreated to bed, weak from the attack from Cheryl. While she slept, Ash and Scotty watched as Shelly fell victim to possession and attacked them, only for Scotty to jump into action and dismember her with an axe. Following Shelly's demise, Scotty opted to head out of the cabin on his own, leaving Ash with Cheryl and Linda. While checking up on Linda, Ash was horrified to watch as Linda's wound began to rapidly spread across her legs, leading to her own demonic possession. The Deadite Linda watched and giggled as Ash tried to comfort Scotty, who had returned to the cabin a bloody and bruised mess of a man after having been attacked by the woods. Just as Ash had grown tired of Linda's persistent laughing and prepared to shoot her, the demon within seemingly vanished from her body, reverting her back into a more "human" appearance.

However, this "human" form was nothing more than a ruse on the Deadite's part, and soon her demonic-self emerged once more. Ash drug her body out into woods and ran back inside the cabin as he tried to figure out what to do with Cheryl and Scotty, only for Linda to quickly appear inside the cabin, armed with the Kandarian Dagger. After taking several swipes and stabs at her lover, Ash eventually managed to bend and guide Linda's arm to the point where she fell directly on top of the dagger's blade. With Linda incapacitated, Ash took her body to the workshed beside the cabin, but found he could not bring himself to dismember her (as per Professor Knowby's instructions detailed on the tape recorder). Williams then decided to simply bury Linda in a shallow grave, but Linda had other plans, and arose from the soil to attack him once more. As Linda slowly staggered closer and closer, Ash reached over and picked up a nearby shovel, making a clean decapitation of Linda's head from her body. Though her head continued to laugh and her body continued to squirm, Williams managed to get her headless corpse off him, and made a dash for the "safety" of the cabin.[2]

The Second Night[]

Though he had managed to destroy the strange book which had unleashed this demonic terror that claimed his friends, Ash remained trapped at the cabin for another night. During this second night, Linda's corpse arose from her grave once more, her rotting corpse dancing in the moonlight with her severed head as a prop. Though Williams initially believed this to be nothing more than a dream, he soon found Linda's severed head falling directly into his lap while inside the cabin. She bit down on the flesh between Ash's index finger and thumb on his right hand, keeping a tight grip on him until he stuck her head in a vice inside the nearby workshed. Before Ash could retaliate against the head, Linda's rotten body burst through the workshed's door, attacking him with a chainsaw. Williams managed to take down the body and pry the chainsaw from the corpse's hands, turning his attention back to Linda's head. After making one last attempt to convince him to spare her by appearing normal, Ash wasted no more time and finally carved into Linda's head with the chainsaw.[4]

Reunited[]

More than 30 years would pass before Ash would be reunited with Linda, as he would return to the cabin to finally end the evil forces which he had recently re-awakened. Ash hesitated before stepping inside the workshed, and was startled to find the skin and flesh completely stripped from Linda's head, now a dust and web-covered skull still stuck in the vice. When the evil forces trapped Ash inside the shed, Linda's skull regrew it's flesh, appearing to him as she did on the day she died. The head taunted Williams, telling him that no woman, especially "that cop" which had come back to the cabin with him, could ever love him like she did. Ash's patience with Linda quickly wore thin, and he smashed her skull with a crowbar, seemingly killing her for good.[3]

Legacy[]

Just prior to their "reunion" in the workshed, a ghoulish hallucination of Linda (as well as himself) would appear to Ash in a drug-induced trip at El Brujo's farm while seeking the answers on how to stop the Kandarian Demon and the Deadites for good, though these apparitions would disappear once Ash took control of the trip.[5]

Several months after returning to the cabin, Ash would be taken captive by the demon known as Baal, and placed in the Kenward County Asylum. One of "Ash's" illustrations inside his bedroom was a crude stick-figure drawing of the headless Linda dancing, which he saw during his second night at the cabin.[6]

Other Appearances[]

Live Events[]

  • Linda appeared exclusively in Universal Studios Orlando's official Ash vs Evil Dead maze during the 2017 Halloween Horror Nights event in a scene based on the Ash vs Evil Dead Season One episode Ashes To Ashes. She was portrayed by various "scare actors" during the period in which the attraction was open.

Gallery[]

The Evil Dead[]

Evil Dead II[]

Army of Darkness[]

Ash vs Evil Dead[]

Trivia[]

  • Linda is the only character besides Ash Williams to appear in all three films in the original Evil Dead trilogy and the Ash vs Evil Dead television series.
  • Betsy Baker was going to reprise her role of Linda for Evil Dead II (after having first played the character in The Evil Dead), but had to drop out of the project after learning she was pregnant. This resulted in the role going to Denise Bixler.
    • When Army of Darkness began production, actress Bridget Fonda asked the producers if she could have a role in the film (as she was a fan of Evil Dead II). Since the film's leading female role, Sheila, had already been cast, Fonda was given the role of Linda. Over half of Fonda's scenes as Linda were ultimately cut from the final edit of the film due to the opening recap's pacing, the most notable of these being an extended sequence at S-Mart, where Ash and Linda are caught making out in the store's backroom by the manager (played by Charles Napier).
    • Bridget Hoffman appeared as a Linda-like character in a series of promotional photos taken for The Evil Dead, though the character is not officially considered to be Linda.
  • Linda appears through reused footage from The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II in the Ash vs Evil Dead episodes El Jefe, Brujo, The Dark One, and Delusion.

References[]

  1. Army of Darkness (1993)
  2. 2.0 2.1 The Evil Dead (1981)
  3. 3.0 3.1 Ash vs Evil Dead: Ashes To Ashes (Season 1; Episode 8) (2015)
  4. Evil Dead II (1987)
  5. Ash vs Evil Dead: Brujo (Season 1; Episode 4) (2015)
  6. Ash vs Evil Dead: Delusion (Season 2; Episode 7) (2016)
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