ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - October 15th
"THE EVIL DEAD" premiered in Detroit in 1981
A Special 35th Anniversary Retrospective
Don't miss out on future blogs, trailers, and clips IHdb has coming up
by Following IHdb's Facebook page above!
by Following IHdb's Facebook page above!
When a group of five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area find an audiotape that releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem, Sam Raimi's cult horror classic, The Evil Dead!
TRIVIA: Andy Grainger, a friend of Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi, gave them this advice: "Fellas, no matter what you do, keep the blood running down the screen." They included the scene in the finished film where the blood runs down the projector screen as a tribute to him.
Top: Michigan University students - Ash (Brice Campbell), Linda (Betsy Baker), Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), Scotty (Richard DeManincor) and Shelly (Theresa Tilly), find a eerie basement in the remote cabin;
Above: Ash ventures into the basement alone to investigate
Michigan State University students – Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), his girlfriend Linda (Betsy Baker), Ash's sister Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss), their friend Scotty (Richard DeManincor), and his girlfriend Shelly (Theresa Tilly) – venture into the Tennessee hills to vacation in an isolated cabin for their spring break. They soon run into trouble, first narrowly avoiding another motorist, then having a sudden scare as the bridge near the cabin begins to collapse as they cross. That night, while Cheryl is making a drawing of a clock, her hand becomes violently possessed by a mysterious entity, causing her to draw a picture that looks like a book with a deformed, evil face. She fails to mention the incident to the others, dismissing it as her imagination. When the trapdoor to the cellar mysteriously flies open during dinner, Ash and Scotty go down to investigate and find the Naturom Demonto, a Sumerian version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, along with a tape recording of incantations in which, when played by Ash then Scotty, unleashes an evil entity able to possess humans. Cheryl becomes hysterical when a tree crashes through the window, and she runs to her room. Later, she hears strange voices and goes outside to investigate. She is attacked and raped by demonically possessed trees, but manages to escape. The others do not believe her story, but Ash agrees to drive her to town where she can find a place to stay for the night. However, they find that the only bridge connecting the cabin to the rest of the world has been destroyed. Back at the cabin, Ash listens to more of the tape and while the girls play cards, Cheryl then becomes demonically possessed, telling them that the "they" will kill them. She then stabs Linda in the ankle with a pencil, and Scotty locks her in the cellar.
Shelly is the next to become possessed; she attacks Scotty, who eventually dismembers her with an felling axe. They bury her, and a shaken Scotty leaves to find an alternate trail through the woods. Checking on Linda, Ash discovers that she too became possessed. Scotty returns, suffering from injuries inflicted by the possessed trees. Before losing consciousness, he tells Ash that a trail does exist but is impossible because of the trees. Linda and Cheryl unsuccessfully attempt to deceive Ash into believing they are no longer possessed, only to attack him again. He locks Linda outside the cabin and tends to Scotty's injuries, but she sneaks in through the back door and attacks Ash with a dagger, which he uses to impale her. Taking her body to the woodshed, Ash tries to force himself to dismember her with a chainsaw, but finds himself unable to do it and buries her instead. She rises from the grave and attacks him, forcing him to decapitate her with a shovel.
Arming himself with a shotgun, he finds her hiding outside and shoots her in the shoulder. He then descends into the cellar to search for more shotgun shells after barricading the doors. While there, he hears voices and sees blood seeping from numerous crevices and openings in the walls. A demonically possessed Scotty tries to kill Ash as Cheryl breaks through the door. During their fight, Ash sees that the Book of the Dead has fallen near the fireplace and is starting to burn, as are Cheryl and Scotty. As Cheryl raises a fireplace poker to impale him, Ash snatches the book and throws it into the fire. With the book burned, Cheryl and Scotty disintegrate and their blood is soaked all over Ash. After watching in horror, Ash hears an ominous voice saying "Join us" and heads outside while the sun rises. Walking outside to his car, an unseen evil speeds through the forest and the cabin and descends upon him. Ash turns around and screams in terror!
Shelly is the next to become possessed; she attacks Scotty, who eventually dismembers her with an felling axe. They bury her, and a shaken Scotty leaves to find an alternate trail through the woods. Checking on Linda, Ash discovers that she too became possessed. Scotty returns, suffering from injuries inflicted by the possessed trees. Before losing consciousness, he tells Ash that a trail does exist but is impossible because of the trees. Linda and Cheryl unsuccessfully attempt to deceive Ash into believing they are no longer possessed, only to attack him again. He locks Linda outside the cabin and tends to Scotty's injuries, but she sneaks in through the back door and attacks Ash with a dagger, which he uses to impale her. Taking her body to the woodshed, Ash tries to force himself to dismember her with a chainsaw, but finds himself unable to do it and buries her instead. She rises from the grave and attacks him, forcing him to decapitate her with a shovel.
Arming himself with a shotgun, he finds her hiding outside and shoots her in the shoulder. He then descends into the cellar to search for more shotgun shells after barricading the doors. While there, he hears voices and sees blood seeping from numerous crevices and openings in the walls. A demonically possessed Scotty tries to kill Ash as Cheryl breaks through the door. During their fight, Ash sees that the Book of the Dead has fallen near the fireplace and is starting to burn, as are Cheryl and Scotty. As Cheryl raises a fireplace poker to impale him, Ash snatches the book and throws it into the fire. With the book burned, Cheryl and Scotty disintegrate and their blood is soaked all over Ash. After watching in horror, Ash hears an ominous voice saying "Join us" and heads outside while the sun rises. Walking outside to his car, an unseen evil speeds through the forest and the cabin and descends upon him. Ash turns around and screams in terror!
Cheryl: [possessed] Soon all of you will be like me... And then who will lock you up in a cellar?
[cackles]
Top: Cheryl flees into the woods, in one of the films most controversial scenes!;
Above: As a result, Cheryl becomes possessed and attacks the group
Although The Evil Dead was director Sam Raimi's first feature length film, the filmmaker had actually been making 8mm short films for years, becoming fascinated with making films when his father brought a movie camera home one day and he began to make Super 8 movies with childhood friend Bruce Campbell (Campbell became the "actor" of the group, as "he was the one that girls wanted to look at."). The duo directed several low-budget projects together, including Clockwork and It's Murder!. It was while shooting suspense scene in It's Murder! inspired Raimi to approach a career in the horror genre, and after researching horror cinema at drive-in theaters, Raimi was set on directing a horror film. Raimi teamed up with his brother's roommate Robert Tapert and Campbell to shoot Within the Woods (1978), a 32-minute horror film in order to raise the budget for The Evil Dead. Through family, friends, and a network of investors, Raimi was able to eventually raise enough money to produce a full-length film, though not the full amount he originally wanted. Raimi and Campbell set out to make what was then titled Book of the Dead, a name inspired by Raimi's interest in the writer H. P. Lovecraft, and was supposed to be a remake of Within the Woods, with higher production values and a full-length running time.
Raimi asked for help and assistance from several of his friends and past collaborators to make The Evil Dead, including Campbell - playing the now iconic role of Ash Williams - and Ellen Sandweiss, who appeared in Within the Woods, cast in the role of Ash's sister Cheryl. To acquire more actors for the project, Raimi put an ad in The Detroit News. Betsy Baker was one of the actresses who responded, and later revealed in an interview that when she was told the producers were interested in her to star in a horror movie, she only agreed to meet them in a public restaurant because she was genuinely suspicious about the filmmakers. Baker was later cast in the role of Ash's girlfriend Linda. The remaining roles of Scott and Shelly were filled by Richard DeManincor and Theresa Tilly. Both actors went under different stage names during the shoot, since they were members of the Screen Actors Guild and wanted to avoid being penalized for participating in a non-union production. DeManincor credits himself as Hal Delrich, and Tilly as Sarah York (DeManincor acquired his stage name by combining his short name with his roommates' names, Hal and Del).
Raimi asked for help and assistance from several of his friends and past collaborators to make The Evil Dead, including Campbell - playing the now iconic role of Ash Williams - and Ellen Sandweiss, who appeared in Within the Woods, cast in the role of Ash's sister Cheryl. To acquire more actors for the project, Raimi put an ad in The Detroit News. Betsy Baker was one of the actresses who responded, and later revealed in an interview that when she was told the producers were interested in her to star in a horror movie, she only agreed to meet them in a public restaurant because she was genuinely suspicious about the filmmakers. Baker was later cast in the role of Ash's girlfriend Linda. The remaining roles of Scott and Shelly were filled by Richard DeManincor and Theresa Tilly. Both actors went under different stage names during the shoot, since they were members of the Screen Actors Guild and wanted to avoid being penalized for participating in a non-union production. DeManincor credits himself as Hal Delrich, and Tilly as Sarah York (DeManincor acquired his stage name by combining his short name with his roommates' names, Hal and Del).
Voice on Recorder: I know now that my wife has become host to a Kandarian demon. I fear that the only way to stop those possessed by the spirits of the book is through the act of... bodily dismemberment.
Top: Linda is the next to be possessed forcing Ash (Above) to dismember her with a chainsaw!
Without any formal assistance from location scouts, the cast had to find filming locations on their own. The crew initially attempted to shoot the film in Raimi's hometown of Royal Oak, Michigan, but instead chose Morristown, Tennessee, as Tennessee was the only state that expressed enthusiasm for the project. At the very last minute, Raimi and crew found a remote cabin located several miles away from any other buildings, but was in a serious state of disrepair - rooms were filled with four inches of horse manure and electricity had to be put in along with a working telephone to make it hospitable. During pre-production, the 13 crew members had to stay at the cabin, leading to several people sleeping in the same room. Such living conditions were notoriously difficult, with several arguments breaking out between crew members before filming even began!
Since the cabin itself did not actually have a cellar, most of the cellar scenes were filmed in the stone cellar of a farmhouse owned by producer Rob Tapert's family in Marshall, Michigan (the last room of the cellar was actually filmed in Raimi's garage). For the scene where the students descend into the cellar in the actual cabin location, a hole was cut into the floor where a shallow pit was dug and a ladder was placed into the pit.
Filming began in the winter of 1979 with a cast and crew of 37 people. Because of the crew's inexperience, filming was a "comedy of errors", while on the very first day, the crew managed to get lost in the woods during a scene shot on a bridge. For the scenes where the students are listening to the audio tapes translating the Necronomicon, the original script called for all the characters to be smoking marijuana. The actors decided to try this for real, and the entire scene had to be later re-shot due to their uncontrollable behavior. Raimi soon developed a sense of mise en scène while filming, coming up with ideas for scenes at a fast rate, drawing several crude illustrations to help him break down the flow of scenes. To accommodate Raimi's style of direction, several elaborate, low-budget rigs had to be built by The Evil Dead's sole art direction contributor, Steve Frankel, since the crew could not afford a camera dolly. One involved the "vas-o-cam", which relied on a mounted camera that was slid down long wood platforms to create a more fluid sense of motion. A camera trick used to emulate a Steadicam inexpensively was the "shaky cam", which involved mounting the camera to a piece of wood and having Raimi and Campbell carrying each end as they sprinted around the swamp. During scenes involving the unseen force in the woods watching the characters, Raimi had to run through the woods with another makeshift rig, jumping over logs and stones, which often proved difficult due to mist in the swamp. The film's final scene was shot with the camera mounted to a bike, while it was quickly driven through the cabin to create a seamless long take.
Since the cabin itself did not actually have a cellar, most of the cellar scenes were filmed in the stone cellar of a farmhouse owned by producer Rob Tapert's family in Marshall, Michigan (the last room of the cellar was actually filmed in Raimi's garage). For the scene where the students descend into the cellar in the actual cabin location, a hole was cut into the floor where a shallow pit was dug and a ladder was placed into the pit.
Filming began in the winter of 1979 with a cast and crew of 37 people. Because of the crew's inexperience, filming was a "comedy of errors", while on the very first day, the crew managed to get lost in the woods during a scene shot on a bridge. For the scenes where the students are listening to the audio tapes translating the Necronomicon, the original script called for all the characters to be smoking marijuana. The actors decided to try this for real, and the entire scene had to be later re-shot due to their uncontrollable behavior. Raimi soon developed a sense of mise en scène while filming, coming up with ideas for scenes at a fast rate, drawing several crude illustrations to help him break down the flow of scenes. To accommodate Raimi's style of direction, several elaborate, low-budget rigs had to be built by The Evil Dead's sole art direction contributor, Steve Frankel, since the crew could not afford a camera dolly. One involved the "vas-o-cam", which relied on a mounted camera that was slid down long wood platforms to create a more fluid sense of motion. A camera trick used to emulate a Steadicam inexpensively was the "shaky cam", which involved mounting the camera to a piece of wood and having Raimi and Campbell carrying each end as they sprinted around the swamp. During scenes involving the unseen force in the woods watching the characters, Raimi had to run through the woods with another makeshift rig, jumping over logs and stones, which often proved difficult due to mist in the swamp. The film's final scene was shot with the camera mounted to a bike, while it was quickly driven through the cabin to create a seamless long take.
Above: Just when Ash thinks the nightmare is all over...
During the shoot, several crew members became injured, but because of the cabin's remoteness, securing medical assistance was difficult - one notably gruesome moment on set involved ripping off Baker's eyelashes during removal of her face-mask. Raimi famously enjoyed "torturing" his actors, believing that to capture pain and anger in his actors, he had to abuse them a little at times, saying, "if everyone was in extreme pain and misery, that would translate into a horror." While shooting a scene with Campbell running down a hill, Campbell tripped and twisted his ankle on a root; Raimi and Rob Tapert decided to tease him by poking his injury with sticks, thus causing Campbell to have an obvious limp in some scenes. The contact lenses for the demonic scenes also proved a painful experience for Campbell and Baker. Because of the low budget, contact lenses as thick as glass had to be applied to the actors to achieve the "demonic eyes" effect. The lenses took ten minutes to apply, and could only be left on for about fifteen minutes because thir eyes could not "breathe" with them applied. Campbell later commented that to get the effect of wearing these lenses, they had to put "Tupperware" over their eyes.
Cheap effects were to be the norm on the shooting The Evil Dead. When Ash shoots a Deadite through the window of the cabin causing an explosion of blood, Campbell is actually firing real life ammunition at a dummy, causing the scene to look more realistic. Likewise during the scene where Ash is about to cut up his girlfriend with a chainsaw, Campbell actually had to use a real chainsaw and hold it up to the actress's chest. You can see on the close-up of Baker's neck (looking at the necklace) that her pulse is racing. The blood used in the film is a combination of Karo syrup, non-dairy creamer, and red food coloring. At one point, Campbell's shirt that he wears in the film was so saturated with the fake blood that after drying it by the fire, the shirt became solidified and broke when he tried to put it on. At the end of a 'normal' day of shooting, Bruce Campbell would return home in the back of a pickup truck because he was covered in fake blood from head to toe. And creamed corn dyed green was used as the zombie guts that gets splattered on Campbell in the basement.
The production ran out of money with only half of the film completed in the winter of 1980. In order to complete it, Raimi, Tapert and Campbell did everything they could to complete the film; from taking out high interest bank loans, borrowing money from friends and family and even making cold calls to businesses around their hometown state of Michigan. While not much extra money was raised, the cold calls worked in that they actually got catering, gasoline and other necessities that the cast and crew needed. On the last few days on set, the conditions had become so poor that the crew began burning furniture to stay warm (since only exterior shots needed to be filmed at that point, they burned nearly every piece of furniture left!). At the end of principal shooting in Tennessee, the crew put together a little time capsule package and buried it inside the fire place of the cabin as a memento of the production to whoever found it (the cabin has since been destroyed, but the time capsule was found by a couple of ardent Evil Dead fans who discovered that the fireplace of the cabin was still intact).
Cheap effects were to be the norm on the shooting The Evil Dead. When Ash shoots a Deadite through the window of the cabin causing an explosion of blood, Campbell is actually firing real life ammunition at a dummy, causing the scene to look more realistic. Likewise during the scene where Ash is about to cut up his girlfriend with a chainsaw, Campbell actually had to use a real chainsaw and hold it up to the actress's chest. You can see on the close-up of Baker's neck (looking at the necklace) that her pulse is racing. The blood used in the film is a combination of Karo syrup, non-dairy creamer, and red food coloring. At one point, Campbell's shirt that he wears in the film was so saturated with the fake blood that after drying it by the fire, the shirt became solidified and broke when he tried to put it on. At the end of a 'normal' day of shooting, Bruce Campbell would return home in the back of a pickup truck because he was covered in fake blood from head to toe. And creamed corn dyed green was used as the zombie guts that gets splattered on Campbell in the basement.
The production ran out of money with only half of the film completed in the winter of 1980. In order to complete it, Raimi, Tapert and Campbell did everything they could to complete the film; from taking out high interest bank loans, borrowing money from friends and family and even making cold calls to businesses around their hometown state of Michigan. While not much extra money was raised, the cold calls worked in that they actually got catering, gasoline and other necessities that the cast and crew needed. On the last few days on set, the conditions had become so poor that the crew began burning furniture to stay warm (since only exterior shots needed to be filmed at that point, they burned nearly every piece of furniture left!). At the end of principal shooting in Tennessee, the crew put together a little time capsule package and buried it inside the fire place of the cabin as a memento of the production to whoever found it (the cabin has since been destroyed, but the time capsule was found by a couple of ardent Evil Dead fans who discovered that the fireplace of the cabin was still intact).
TRIVIA: In a scene where Ash drives away from the cabin, he gets out of the car and seems to walk at an angle, creating an eerie and otherworldly effect. This was accomplished by parking the car on a slight incline and tilting the camera at the same angle (so that the car appeared straight). When Bruce Campbell gets out of the car, he is walking on the flat ground, which looks crooked because the car and camera are both tilted sideways.
Top and Above: Star Brice Campbell on set with lifelong friend and director/writer, Sam Raimi
With filming completed, most of the actors left the production. But while looking over the footage that had been shot, Raimi discovered that a few pick-ups were required to fill in missing shots, but with only Campbell available to return for the four days of re-shoots needed to complete the film. Raimi, being a big fan of the The Three Stooges franchise during his youth, was inspired to use "fake shemps" during the re-shoots, with his brother Ted filling in for the missing cast. After such an extensive filming process, Raimi had a "mountain of footage" that he had to put together. He chose a Detroit editing association, where he met Edna Paul, to cut the film. Paul's assistant was Joel Coen of the Coen brothers, who helped with the film's editing. While Paul edited a majority of the film, Coen notably edited the shed sequence. One of the most intricate moments during editing was the stop-motion sequence where the corpses "melted", which took hours to cut properly. The Evil Dead's first cut ran at around 117 minutes, which Campbell called an impressive achievement in light of the 65-minute length of the screenplay, and was then edited down to a more marketable 85 minutes. Much like Within the Woods, The Evil Dead needed to be blown up to 35mm, then the industry standard, to be played at movie theaters. The money for the final post production costs was provided by Campbell, who mortgaged his family's property in Northern Michigan as collateral.
With the film completed, Raimi and the crew decided to celebrate with a "big premiere" at Detroit's Redford Theatre, which Campbell had often visited as a child. Raimi opted to have the most theatrical premiere possible, using custom tickets and wind tracks set in the theater, and ordering ambulances outside the theater to build atmosphere. The premiere setup was inspired by horror director William Castle, who would often attempt to scare his audiences by using gimmicks. Local turnout for the premiere exceeded the cast's expectations, with a thousand patrons showing up. The audiences responded enthusiastically to the premiere, which led to Raimi's idea of "touring" the film to build hype. Eventually Raimi came across Irvin Shapiro, the man who was responsible for the distribution of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and other famous horror films. Upon first viewing the film, he joked that while it "wasn't Gone with the Wind", it had commercial potential, and he expressed an interest in distributing it.It was his idea not to use the then-title Book of the Dead, because it made the film sound boring. Raimi brainstormed several ideas, eventually going with The Evil Dead, deemed the "least worst" title.
Shapiro, one of the founders of the Cannes Film Festival, allowed Raimi to screen the film at the 1982 festival out of competition. In attendance that night was legendary horror author Stephen King. The film severely affected King, who commented that while watching the film at Cannes, he was "registering things [he] had never seen in a movie before". King became one of the film's largest supporters during the early efforts to find a distributor, eventually describing it as the "most ferociously original film of the year", a quote used in the film's promotional pieces. King's comments also attracted the interest of critics, who otherwise would likely have dismissed the low-budget thriller.New Line Cinema, one of the distributors interested in the film, negotiated an agreement to distribute it domestically. The film had several "sneak previews" before its commercial release, including screenings in New York and Detroit. Audience reception at both screenings was widely enthusiastic, and interest was built for the film to such an extent that wider distribution was planned. New Line Cinema wrote Raimi a check large enough to pay off all the investors, and decided to release the film in a unique manner: simultaneously into both cinemas and onto VHS, with substantial domestic promotion.
With the film completed, Raimi and the crew decided to celebrate with a "big premiere" at Detroit's Redford Theatre, which Campbell had often visited as a child. Raimi opted to have the most theatrical premiere possible, using custom tickets and wind tracks set in the theater, and ordering ambulances outside the theater to build atmosphere. The premiere setup was inspired by horror director William Castle, who would often attempt to scare his audiences by using gimmicks. Local turnout for the premiere exceeded the cast's expectations, with a thousand patrons showing up. The audiences responded enthusiastically to the premiere, which led to Raimi's idea of "touring" the film to build hype. Eventually Raimi came across Irvin Shapiro, the man who was responsible for the distribution of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and other famous horror films. Upon first viewing the film, he joked that while it "wasn't Gone with the Wind", it had commercial potential, and he expressed an interest in distributing it.It was his idea not to use the then-title Book of the Dead, because it made the film sound boring. Raimi brainstormed several ideas, eventually going with The Evil Dead, deemed the "least worst" title.
Shapiro, one of the founders of the Cannes Film Festival, allowed Raimi to screen the film at the 1982 festival out of competition. In attendance that night was legendary horror author Stephen King. The film severely affected King, who commented that while watching the film at Cannes, he was "registering things [he] had never seen in a movie before". King became one of the film's largest supporters during the early efforts to find a distributor, eventually describing it as the "most ferociously original film of the year", a quote used in the film's promotional pieces. King's comments also attracted the interest of critics, who otherwise would likely have dismissed the low-budget thriller.New Line Cinema, one of the distributors interested in the film, negotiated an agreement to distribute it domestically. The film had several "sneak previews" before its commercial release, including screenings in New York and Detroit. Audience reception at both screenings was widely enthusiastic, and interest was built for the film to such an extent that wider distribution was planned. New Line Cinema wrote Raimi a check large enough to pay off all the investors, and decided to release the film in a unique manner: simultaneously into both cinemas and onto VHS, with substantial domestic promotion.
Above: (L-R) Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell
Because of its large promotional campaign, The Evil Dead performed above expectations at the box office, grossing a total of $2,400,000 worldwide, nearly eight times its production budget. Bob Martin, editor of Fangoria, reviewed the film before its formal premiere and proclaimed that it "might be the exception to the usual run of low-budget horror films". The Los Angeles Times called the film an "instant classic", proclaiming it as "probably the grisliest well-made movie ever." In a 1982 review, staff from the trade magazine Variety wrote that the film "emerges as the ne plus ultra of low-budget gore and shock effect", commenting that the "powerful" and inventive camerawork was key to creating a sense of dread. Later reviews for The Evil Dead would be even more positive, with the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus writing, "This classic low budget horror film combines just the right amount of gore and black humor, giving The Evil Dead an equal amount of thrills and laughs." Slant Magazine's Ed Gonzales compared the film to Dario Argento's work, citing Raimi's "unnerving wide angle work" as an important factor to the film's atmosphere. He mused that Raimi possessed an "almost unreal ability to suggest the presence of intangible evil", which was what prevented the movie from being "B-movie schlock".
While The Evil Dead received favorable critical comment when it was initially released, it failed to establish Raimi's reputation. It was, however, a box-office success, which led to Campbell and Raimi teaming up again for the release of another movie. Although Ash was intended to die at the end when the surviving demon attacks him, this was later changed when Raimi and Campbell returned to make Evil Dead II (1987). Evil Dead II was also a box-office success, and followed with a second, and currently final, sequel released in 1993, Army of Darkness.
The Evil Dead also spawned a media empire, with a video game adaptation of the same name made for the Commodore 64 platform in 1984, as was a trilogy of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games in the 1990s: Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick and Evil Dead: Regeneration. Ted Raimi did voices for the trilogy, and Campbell returned as the voice of Ash. The character Ash became the main character of a comic book franchise. Ash has fought both Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees in the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash series, Herbert West in Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator, zombie versions of the Marvel Comics superhero team Avengers in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, and has even saved the life of a fictional Barack Obama in Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama.
While The Evil Dead received favorable critical comment when it was initially released, it failed to establish Raimi's reputation. It was, however, a box-office success, which led to Campbell and Raimi teaming up again for the release of another movie. Although Ash was intended to die at the end when the surviving demon attacks him, this was later changed when Raimi and Campbell returned to make Evil Dead II (1987). Evil Dead II was also a box-office success, and followed with a second, and currently final, sequel released in 1993, Army of Darkness.
The Evil Dead also spawned a media empire, with a video game adaptation of the same name made for the Commodore 64 platform in 1984, as was a trilogy of PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games in the 1990s: Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick and Evil Dead: Regeneration. Ted Raimi did voices for the trilogy, and Campbell returned as the voice of Ash. The character Ash became the main character of a comic book franchise. Ash has fought both Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees in the Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash series, Herbert West in Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator, zombie versions of the Marvel Comics superhero team Avengers in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, and has even saved the life of a fictional Barack Obama in Army of Darkness: Ash Saves Obama.
Above: Tapert, Campbell and Raimi - the gang is back together for Ash vs. Evil Dead
Raimi and Campbell had planned a remake for many years, but in 2009, Campbell stated the proposed remake was "going nowhere" and had "fizzled" due to extremely negative fan reaction. However, in April 2011, Bruce Campbell stated in an AskMeAnything interview on Reddit.com, "We are remaking Evil Dead. The script is awesome [...] The remake's gonna kick some ass — you have my word." The film was officially announced that July, to be directed by Fede Alvarez and produced by Raimi and Campbell. It features actress Jane Levy as the main character, with Ash not appearing. Campbell does make a brief, uncredited cameo appearance at the end of the film in a short post-credits scene. In 2015, an ongoing television continuation of the films called Ash vs. Evil Dead premiered on the Starz Network. The first episode was directed by Raimi, with Campbell reprising his role as Ash. The series is being produced by Renaissance, and follows an older Ash as he encounters more spirits and demons from the Necronomicon. A second season premiered on October 2, 2016, and on October 7, 2016, while at the New York Comic Con Starz announced that the series had been renewed for a third season.
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 96%
____________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment