The Babysitter star Samara Weaving has become a regular fixture in highly-anticipated horror movies for the last few years, including the 2020 sequel, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, but the star and scream queen got her big break from Ash Vs Evil Dead. Debuting in 2015, Ash Vs Evil Dead was the television adaptation of Sam Raimi's infamous horror franchise, The Evil Dead. The cinematic outings of the series varied in tone from the grim, gruesome '80s original, its iconically zany horror-comedy sequel/remake Evil Dead 2, the more light-hearted adventure installment, Army of Darkness, and the brutal, humorless 2013 reboot, Evil Dead.
Viewers weren't sure what style to expect when Ash Vs Evil Dead arrived on the small screen via Starz in 2015. Fortunately, the series was a success that bridged the gap between The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, managing to combine the over-the-top cartoony humor of the franchise with some surprisingly potent scares as well as, of course, an avalanche of inventive and often jaw-droppingly explicit gore. That's where Samara Weaving comes in.
By 2015, Weaving was no stranger to television stardom. Not unlike fellow Aussies Margot Robbie and Chris Hemsworth, she starred in soap operas in her native nation before moving to America. Ash vs Evil Dead gave Weaving her first significant role in a horror project, even if it was as the very unfortunate victim of the series' infamous demonic villains, the Deadites. Ash Vs Evil Dead made a point of upping the gore quotient of the Evil Dead franchise, providing some character deaths that were even more memorably bloody than the original movie, such as season 2's "The Morgue". Unfortunately for Weaving, her role was amongst these gruesome victims.
Before she was ever considered for the title role of The Babysitter series, Weaving played Heather on Ash vs. Evil Dead, a hiker who is introduced as the awkward third wheel to a pair of newlywed lovebirds. Fortunately for her, she's not stuck in their company for long. Unfortunately for her, that's because Deadite demons kill them. Heather meets her end soon after, when the possessed cabin tears her to bloody shreds itself. One might guess that this ignoble end was the last Weaving wanted to do with the horror genre, and regardless, the show wrapped after season 3. However, her role on Ash vs. Evil Dead was just the beginning of Weaving's work in horror. Undeterred by the brutal end of this brief role, Weaving has gone on in the years since her appearance on the series to star in a string of successful horror-comedy hits.
Starting with 2017's double bill of the underrated Mayhem and McG's surprise sleeper hit for Netflix, The Babysitter, Weaving followed this dynamic duo with 2019's critically adored Ready Or Not. An insanely gruesome and pointed class satire, this proved another huge hit for the actor, and even snagged its directors the enviable job of helming the upcoming Scream 5. With The Babysitter: Killer Queen recently released on Netflix, it's clear that there's more horror in store for Weaving's future.