An excellent primer on the making of the Evil Dead trilogy (THE EVIL DEAD, EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN, ARMY OF DARKNESS), hands-down the most innovative and entertaining horror film series in the history of U.S. cinema. The improbable journey of director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert and actor Bruce Campbell, the driving force behind the movies, is reported in loving detail by Bill Warren, a true fan of the genre.
The first half of the book is dedicated to the DIY low-budget spatter-fest spectacular THE EVIL DEAD, which is a tour-de-force of inspired camera work and clever production techniques mixed with amateur (but not amateurish) acting and homemade set designs. The story of young men and women trapped in an isolated cabin in the woods with invisible evil spirits has been copied dozens of times but never equaled.
In preparation for the film, Raimi shot test footage on Super-8mm and blew it up to 16mm, but it was a disastrous early misstep. They fared better with the 32-minute short film WITHIN THE WOODS, which provided a template for the full-length movie and a product to show potential investors. I watched WTW for the first time while reading this book. The best version that I located on YouTube was badly-dubbed from a glitchy VHS tape. Raimi needs to upload a better copy on the web to help preserve his legacy and provide a roadmap for future filmmakers working on shoestring budgets.
The six-week location shoot in Tennessee in autumn 1979 turned into a twelve-week endurance test with many interesting incidents, including visits from bootleggers and redneck squatters and getting kicked out of their rented home to make room for a brothel. Most of the crew eventually defected and returned home to Michigan, including the entire cast minus star Bruce Campbell. The production persevered nevertheless, and Raimi ended up shooting more than 100,000 feet of 16mm film. He enlisted pro industry editor Edna Ruth Paul to help splice the film together, ably assisted by future auteur film director Joel Coen.
The working title of the first film during principal photography was THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, which persisted all the way to the world premiere on October 15, 1981 at the Redford Theater in Detroit, MI. Irvin Shapiro, whom they hired to negotiate the distribution and foreign film rights, asked them to change the name to THE EVIL DEAD MEN AND THE EVIL DEAD WOMEN, a shortened version of which eventually became the now-famous title. Other titles bandied about at the time included FE-MONSTERS, BLOOD FLOOD, A HUNDRED AND ONE PERCENT DEAD, and THESE BITCHES ARE WITCHES.
The author perfectly describes the joys of the first film thusly:
“Seeing THE EVIL DEAD for the first time today simply cannot have the impact it did back in 1983. There have been too many rivers of gore to cross, too many mountains of entrails, too many gouged eyes, lopped-off heads, hands and legs for it to bug eyes and gag throats the way it did back then. Yet there’s no doubt that the intensity of its violence is what gave the film its initial reputation as one of the great dare movies…did you have the nerve to sit through it without squirming? It was a funhouse ride, a spook-tunnel, all the Halloweens of all time wrapped up into one movie.”
The second half of The Evil Dead Companion describes the making of the two sequels for producer Dino De Laurentiis, whose hands-off approach allowed Raimi and his cohorts to make the movies they wanted with no compromises other than the limitations of the budget. Narratively, EVIL DEAD II is basically a remake of the first film with a bigger budget and a more experienced crew. From a filmmaker’s perspective, it is one of the most iconic films ever made—a genuine tour-de-force. The unusual shots, pans, zooms, wipes and hard cuts combined with surrealistic special effects create a cinema experience second-to-none. This unique combination of slapstick comedy and splatter/gore effects led to the coining of the term “splat-stick.”
And while ARMY OF DARKNESS is no masterpiece, the combination of comedy and fantasy is truly one-of-a-kind. Think the best parts of a Ray Harryhausen sword-and-sorcery epic mixed with the Three Stooges and the Walking Dead, and you’re only halfway there. The unused original ending, where Bruce Campbell’s character oversleeps and awakes in post-apocalyptic London, restored in a later director’s cut, gets bonus points for sheer hilarity.