The Evil Dead
Short description
The Evil Dead follows five young people who travel to an isolated cabin in the woods for a weekend away. In the cellar they come across an old tape recorder and an ancient book bound in human skin, and when they play the recording they unwittingly unleash a demonic force. One by one the friends are possessed and turned against each other, leaving one of them, Ash, fighting to survive until morning.
Sam Raimi directed the film from his own screenplay, with Robert Tapert and Gary Holt producing. It was Raimi's first feature as director, made for a small budget and released in 1983; his next film was Crimewave, two years later. Bruce Campbell plays Ash, with Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor, Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly among the group of friends. The film has since become the starting point of a long-running horror series.
Made outside the studio system, the film became a commercial success, taking around 29 million dollars worldwide against its modest cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.3 from roughly 250,000 votes, and on TMDB it also sits at 7.3, from far fewer votes. Those audience scores are notably lower than the critics' rating of 7.8 from 86 reviews, suggesting reviewers have tended to regard it more favourably than general viewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The voice on the tape belongs to Bob Dorian, owner of "American Movie Classic".
- The film was shot in a real abandoned cabin, not on a studio set. The cabin mysteriously burned down a couple of years later. As it had no basement, filming took place in Sam Raimi's garage.
- The film's original title was "The Book of the Dead".
- When Scott and Ashley go down to the basement and find a mysterious book, a poster for Wes Craven's film "The Hills Have Eyes" (1977) hangs on the wall.
- Four years passed from the time the screenplay was written to the film's release.
- "The Evil Dead" is based on the short film "Within the Woods" (1978), which Sam Raimi shot in order to find investors for a feature-length film.
- The original script stipulated that all characters were supposed to be smoking marijuana while listening to the tape recording during the audition. The actors decided to use real 'weed' in the shot, but due to the chaos that arose on set, the scene had to be reshot 'sober'.
- A mixture of Karo syrup, powdered milk, and red food coloring was used as blood in the film, and corn soaked in green paint was used as the demons' innards.
- After Scott says the line “They know, they're never gonna let us go,” he lets out a high-pitched, uncharacteristic scream—Sam Raimi overlaid his own yell onto Scott’s scream during dubbing.
- During filming in the woods, Bruce Campbell caught his foot on a root and sprained his ankle. Because of this, he is visibly limping in some scenes.
- The backstory to the appearance of the “The Hills Have Eyes” poster is as follows: Wes Craven included a torn poster of “Jaws” in that film, justifying it by saying that his “Hills” were much scarier than Spielberg’s “Jaws.” By analogy, Sam Raimi decided it was necessary to include a torn poster of Craven’s “Hills” in his “Evil Dead.”
- Although Ash's last name was never revealed throughout the trilogy, Raimi and Campbell stated that the main character's name is either “Ashley J. Williams” or “Ash Holt.”
- The title “The Evil Dead” was suggested by the film's producer, Irwin Shapiro. He rejected the director's option (“The Book of the Dead”) because he believed that such a “literary” subtext could “scare away” the young audience from the film.
- After the cabin used for filming near Morristown, Tennessee, burned down, fans of the film completely dismantled the remaining brick oven for "souvenirs".
- After principal photography was completed in the winter of 1979-1980, many actors left the project. Filming was completed without them, resulting in Bruce Campbell’s character being surrounded by completely different people in the second half of the film (they are listed in the end credits as “fake shemps”). For example, the legs of the killed Scott are played by the legs of Ted Raimi – the director’s brother.
- Among the words of the "incantation" playing from magnetic tape, the words "Sam and Rob das ist hikers dan dee roadsa" can be quite clearly heard, meaning "Sam and Rob are the hikers on the road." Sam and Rob are, respectively, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, who appeared at the very beginning of the film as hitchhiking fishermen.
- The magnifying glass on a chain (a gift from Ash Lynde) was originally intended to focus sunlight to burn the Book of the Dead in the film's finale. However, the creators later deemed this idea silly and abandoned it. By the way, in the scene where Ash and Linda examine this chain, traces of fresh paint are visible on Linda’s hand – the original gold chain was repainted silver from a spray can for filming.
- The fake log that Ash uses to hit his girlfriend in the film was borrowed from the props of Sam Raimi's early film 'Within the Woods' (1977).
- During the scene where the possessed Linda tries to stab Ash with a knife, actress Betsy Baker literally played blindfolded – the 'demonic' thick white contact lenses affected her vision.
- In Germany, the film is called "Dance Of The Devil".
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
