Cutting Deep into Horror | The Evil Dead (1981) Sam Raimi’s Scariest Film Deep Dive - Weekly Spooky: Scary Stories for Halloween

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, you know, now that summer is wrapping up and
fall is approaching, it's the perfect time to enjoy some nature.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, I agree. I mean look at the beautiful the
beautiful trees. Yeah yeah, but what about that over there.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
And the beautiful trees?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah? So over there, though, is slightly different.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Well maybe if you consider oh oh oh, what's that?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Oh oh no?

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well wait, well hold on, hold on what oh no, Rachel,
you need to just calm down for a second.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I really freaked down.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Don't panic, don't pan. Okay, okay, okay, what are you
trying to get us to join? And sure?

Speaker 3 (01:11):
This podcast is about why horror scares us, what deep, dark,
secret scary cinema shines a light on. The discussions are
frank and involve conversations about abuse, trauma, and mental health.
There are also spoilers, so keep that in mind too. Now,

(01:32):
sharpen your machetes and straight razors, because this is Cutting
Deep into Horror.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Welcome back to Cutting Deep into Horror. I'm your host,
Enrique Kuto, here with my co host in the Woods tonight,
Rachel Ridolfi. Rachel, how are you?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I'm spooked? You definitely and spook?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, where this is the last Friday before October? I believe, yeah,
I think it is. Wait, no, no, I think I'm wrong.
I might be I might I know I might be wrong.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
You're You're the one looking at a calendar.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
I'm not looking at a calendar. I'm looking at a computer.
There's a there's a very big difference.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
No, no, this is this is this coming up Fridays
the twenty sixth, which is the last Friday.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Before Oh okay, oh yeah, you know you're right. Damn yeah,
so much to do.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Time flies when you're having fun.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
And tomorrow's Roushashana.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
Ah, congratulations.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
I mean, I guess none of my Jewish friends are celebrating,
so whatever.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Well, then what even is the point?

Speaker 1 (02:42):
I know, right, I was ready to bring my Mats
of ballsuper recipe in clutch, But then it's like, why
even bother? So but to get ready for spoopy season, which,
of course, I mean, I've been deep in the pit
of getting ready for spooky season for weeks and weeks
and weeks now. But we decided to take a look

(03:05):
at a classic horror film that I actually believe it
or not. And this may be a controversial opinion, I
actually think Evil Dead is underrated as a horror film. Yeah,
nineteen eighty one's Evil Dead written and directed by Sam Raimi.
I think it was also written by Ivan Ramie, one

(03:27):
of Sam's brothers. But I do. I really think Evil
Dead is even better of a horror movie than people
sometimes give it, because Evil Dead two was a much
bigger film, big budget, big effects. It was just you know,

(03:48):
it was all over the place. It was much funnier
and much sillier. And then of course Army of Darkness,
which most of my life that was what people were
most into was Army of Darkness, which I like Army Darkness,
but unlike Evil Dead and Evil Dead too, Army of
Darkness would play on an afternoon like on USA Network

(04:09):
because an it's a kind of a silly, you know,
black humor, but mostly just humor, horror comedy thing. So
and nothing against that, by the way, nothing against Army
of Darkness at all. I do enjoy it, but I
enjoy the original Evil Dead quite a bit more. Yeah,
from a horror movie standpoint, I think Evil Dead two

(04:33):
has some some pretty scary moments, for sure, but it's
just it has so much of that slapstick in it.
That it just makes it. I don't leave Evil Dead
two feeling kind of uneasy.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah yeah, And.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Since I was a young man watching Evil Dead, the
original Evil Dead, I have felt uneasy.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
And I mean I remember the first time I was
afraid to Evil Dead because as a lifelong horror fan
who who had seen night Bar on Elm Street when
I was probably five years old. I'm not being cute.
I mean it. I had seen hell Raiser around that time,
because I remember my first movie related nightmare was because

(05:19):
I had seen a hell Raiser movie. When I was
very very young, I used to see clips of you know,
bits and pieces of all kinds of stuff because of
Saturday Nightmares on USA at night. Oh yeah, so I
was into horror movies. But one night when I was
I think I was eleven or twelve years old, I
was watching Shock Theater with Doctor Creep, and they would

(05:41):
show because they were on Community Access, they don't have commercials,
so for the when they would take the break, you know,
before Creep would come back on, they would play TV
spots and movie trailers for just cool shit and you know,
occasionally parody commercials or whatever, and then Creep's intros and
YadA yadah. So I was just terrified when they played

(06:06):
the Evil Dead trailer, because it's important to keep in
mind that Evil Dead's trailer, especially the marketing of Evil
Dead was not like the most you know, the most
fun you'll ever have being scared, which I believe was
the tagline of Evil Dead too. I think I was.
But it wasn't like selling it as a horror comedy.
It was called do you know what? The tagline on

(06:28):
the poster was, No, because I know, because this is
exciting to reveal to you then, and I want to
make sure I get it exactly right. So let me
make sure I put that down Evil Dead original poster.
I want to make sure I say it exactly the
way it was. Okay, that's not in English. That doesn't
help me at all. Very good, Very good. So one

(06:50):
of the taglines was the ultimate experience in grueling terror.
Ooh and as an adult looking back, that's extra that's
an extra great, tight, extra great tagline when you consider
that it is a grueling movie in some ways. Oh yeah,

(07:13):
it does make you earn it, you know, because you're
gonna sit through it and it's gonna be it's gonna
be a lot. Yeah, and so that was the way
it was marketed. And the Evil Dead trailer was all
of the scariest moments where Ashes alone in the cabin
and you know you hear these laughs in the in

(07:34):
the night and the dah and him like standing off
with the low angle shots with the light and him
grabbing the chainsaw. That was the trailer and then the
ultimate experience in grueling terror the Evil Dead, and I
was like, I am so scared. I mean, I have
to see it, but I am so scared. I was

(07:58):
sincerely a afraid to watch The Evil Dead because on
the little box in my bedroom watching Doctor Creep host
probably House of Exorcism, which was one of my favorite
episodes of THEIRS. I was just yeah, terrified. So eventually
I did drag my happy butt over. I want to

(08:18):
say to the Hollywood Video because I don't think my
Blockbuster had VHS copies of movies that old anymore.

Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, better have been Hollywood Video.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, you're still you're still You're still it's
still hot for the for the company.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
That on my show.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, people people are still so confused when they find
out that of the two of us, you're the one
who worked at a video store, not me, but h.
But we'll talk about how you first saw Evil Dead
right after this, So Rachel tell us a little bit

(09:06):
about how what the experience was with you watching the
first time watching Evil Dead, and then maybe I'll come
back to what happened when I actually sat down myself
as a little kid and watched it. Now, had you
seen Army of Darkness prior?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
No, But everyone had told me as I was beginning
my horror aficionado journey, everyone had told me that I
would absolutely love Army of Darkness because of the campiness,
because of the black humor, and especially because of the
special effects in that one, because I'm pretty big into

(09:42):
stop motion and practical effects and puppets.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
Not just because you're like a re infest nerd that's.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
In there too, Okay, I just want to make sure.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
I just want to make sure.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
So everyone had told me, you know, Army of Darkness,
You're gonna love it. And when I had mentioned to you, like, hey,
I'd really like to watch Army of day Darkness, You're like, well,
we can't start there, No, you have to we have
to start with the first one. So I believe we
watched it one of the nights when we had like
cleared out the living room and made a little like

(10:17):
pillow fort in front of the TV and waited for
it to get nice and dark and spooky outside. And
when you put it on again, it was the beginning
of my horror journey. So it was wholly new to me,
the way they set it up, the way they set

(10:38):
up the haunted house in the woods and cabin. But
the entire time I was fully entranced because that was
shortly after we'd watched such staples as like the Texas
Chainsaw Massacre and Nightmare on Elm Street, and I think, yeah,

(11:00):
we were getting through the Halloween movies, I feel because
we had to take that in steps.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Well yeah, plenty of them.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
But what really struck me is, aside from Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
which I think does a very good job of this
Evil Dead was the first horror movie where I felt like,
not only did they capture the terror and the gore
of what was going on, but also the sheer confusion

(11:29):
because Ash through like the first act into like the
first half of the movie. Ash isn't just the reluctant hero.
He is totally lost and oblivious as to what is
going on.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
Well, and I would also dare say Ash isn't really
the reluctant hero and Evil Dead one at all, No,
not at all, really just the last man standing in
the first Evil BRD movie, he doesn't really whoop that much.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
But yeah, he just survived.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yes, Scotty most of the butt whooping until Scott He's gone,
and then Ash does just the bare minimum to survive. Yeah.
And a side note, So I've been I've been a
massive nerd for Evil Dead movies in particular for a
very long time, and I when I watch them, you've
heard me do it. I can't help but remember the
commentary things because I've watched all of the films with

(12:21):
commentary multiple times and multiple commentaries. And one of my
favorite things about the Evil Dead two commentary is that
Sam Raimie and Bruce Campbell are on it together and
Sam keeps pointing out how the I can't remember her
name off the top of my head, the woman who
shows up that it's her parents' cabin, the archaeologist woman,

(12:44):
how she really does all of the action and Evil
Dead two as far as killing dead heites and saving
everybody until she dies at the end spoiler alert. But
and he's like, like, he like, and at first like
he points it out a little bit and Bruce goes, yeah, no,
you're not wrong, and then Sam's like, yeah, I mean,
why didn't we use her for the sequel? Why do
we bother with you? And it's important to keep in

(13:05):
mind that Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi have been best
friends since I believe, like junior higher or even elementary school.
And when they talk, Sam is always needling Bruce, which
is extra funny because Bruce is the actor of the
of the duo, and it goes even deeper because Sam

(13:26):
Raimi is a writer director. Bruce Campbell's an actor, Ivan Raymie,
Sam's brother older brother, I believe, is a writer who
and producer who ended up working with Sam and then
Ted Raimie I believe. His youngest brother, a younger brother,
is a very well known character actor. He's been in
tons and tons of films. He has a pretty solid

(13:48):
career in his own right, and not just from being
in Sam Raimi movies, although that didn't hurt, and his
voice is heard throughout all of the Evil Dead movies
a ton. In fact, again one of the commentaries. When
An walks up all kind of goofy, like what uh,
they were like, that's Ted. Ted's in that suit. I
just don't think elady's walking so anyway. But so it's

(14:08):
important to keep my like because Bruce is like the
actor of the group, He's got the biggest ego. Just
that's just the way it has to be. It doesn't
work any other way. You know, if you're an actor,
like everyone should look at me.

Speaker 2 (14:20):
I mean that's kind of why you get into acting, well.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
As to where when you're a director, you're like, I
have the best ideas, I'm smart, so you know you
we're all terrible. But but yeah, so so that was
one of the jokes as they kept pointing out, like
you're not much of a hero in this actually at all.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, and that is that's another thing that the first
time we watched it I kind of noticed. But on
this second rewatch, getting ready for the show, like I've
got more experience, I've seen more horror movies. And I
do love how evil Ded turns the final girl trope
on its head because at the end, Ash is the

(14:57):
final guy and again he he he really doesn't but
he's not a big bad ass, even like the classic
one liners that we kind of know and love Ash
for is not heavily featured heavily.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
It's barely in the first one.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah uh, which makes and we can possibly talk about this,
you know, later in the show, but it makes the
character of Ash in the Evil Dead, makes him more believable,
more relatable, but it also makes the character character arc
of Ash throughout the whole Evil Dead universe even more tragic.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, I mean, honestly, the only thing I didn't love
about getting all of the extra background from Ash versus
Evil Dead, the TV series, which I really enjoyed revisiting
and completing finally, was I didn't I'd always kind of
hoped in the back of my mind that the recent
Ash became so wild and flippant and nuts was that

(15:57):
he'd been bashed in the head too many times and
Evil Dead one. I'm not kidding. I actually was always like,
maybe that's why, because he did get like clocked in
the head a bunch, Maybe he just kind of became
it only and then but then when you watch like
they deep, they dive further back in you find it.
He was always kind of like a rowdy troublemaker his
whole life. Yeah, but which is fine. I mean, like
it's we're talking about a character that's been developed over

(16:21):
the course of three massively successful in different ways feature films,
because Army of Darkness was not massively successful at the
box office, but it was a cult hit. It was
massively successful on TV. And then three seasons almost thirty
some episodes of Ash Versus Evil Dead. So that's a
lot of lore building, you know, for you to have.

(16:43):
I mean, it's no Star Trek with one hundred and
seventy seven episodes per series for Next Gen Voyager and
Deep Space nine, but it's.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
Still a lot. We can't all be Star Trek.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, don't remind me, but but yeah. So and also
that Final Girl trope was barely a trope when they
made the movie. Yeah, and it was just starting to
hook in eighty three when it had its nationwide theatrical run.
That was just starting to click. Because now we'd be
about three Friday the thirteenths in Knight burn Elm Street

(17:13):
hadn't hit yet, Yeah, which is why Evil Dead they
reference the Hills of Eyes and not Knight ren Elm Street.
They referenced Night ren Elm Street in part two.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, and I wanted to mention because you pointed out
the poster last night, and it finally caught my attention
because again I've got more horror awareness. But then you
and I started talking about how that kind of created
a playful tet, a tet between those directors.

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, between Wes Craven of Nightmare Elm Street and Sam Raimi. Yeah. So,
if I remember correctly, West started it, but not towards
Sam by putting a ripped up Jaws poster in a scene,
if I remembered correctly, in one of his earlier movies,
maybe in the Last House on the Left, or maybe
it was or maybe it was Hills of Eyes. So
then he puts the ripped poster in Evil Dead. So

(18:02):
then Wes Craven puts Evil Dead on the TV set
in knight Burn Elm Street. And then in Evil Dead too,
there's a Freddy Krueger glove in the basement there of yeah. Yeah, so,
and then in I think that was where it wrapped up.
But then other times that had shown up. The Necronomicon
Ex Mortis and the Candarian Daggers show up and Jason

(18:25):
goes to Hell oh yeah, yeah, which I mean that
movie is a delightful mess, much like myself. But we'll
talk more about that right after this.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
So when it comes to Ash and and this stood
out to me especially last night, But when it comes
to Ash, I mentioned that he kind of kind of
sort of falls into the reluctant hero, but that's not
until further on in the franchise.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
Oh yeah, well, and they start establishing that he's almost
like the butt of the joke. Yeah. The movies is
that he is the greatest hero mankind has ever known.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
And it's like, this is your hero.

Speaker 1 (19:14):
He's a total screw up. Yeah, He's like he's like
beyond a total screw up.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
So you know there's there are you know, established tropes,
and you and I have talked about, like what an
absolute horrible nerd. I am a renfair nerd. So I'm
very much into you know, like the the hero's journey
as laid out by Joseph Campbell, and so you you
have these tropes of like the Chosen One, we could

(19:41):
talk about like Neo and well.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
The Matrix is like so it uses every like all
of those archetypes. Yeah, yeah, no for real, Like but
you know what else does? Because I don't want to
make it sound like I'm crapping on on on the matrix.
You know what else does? Indiana Jones Star Wars Star.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Wars as a Heat one hard.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, so like I don't. I just want to make
it really clear that, like there's a reason it's such
a popular system. Please continue.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Well, it's a popular system because it works so well. Yeah,
and it's it's a great you and I have talked
about like when you're when you're writing, when you're being creative,
don't think outside the box. Think in the box. You
want to know what your limitations are, and you want
to know what kind of framework you're working with. And
the hero's journey is very nice for that because you

(20:30):
can go like, no, here's the beat, here's the beat,
here is the refusal of the call, and then here's
where the hero has to become the hero.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, I used to always say when people would say like, oh,
if you're using and if you're using a beat sheet
to guide where your story does this and that and
this and that, then it's the how creative is it really?
And my response to them was, yeah, like what an idiot?
They put a bell on a telephone. Yeah, so you
fucking answer it. Sorry, but it's like yeah, yeah, it's

(21:00):
it gets your attention because the details are what matter
the most. Yes, but having those beats that people identify
with that it's tried and true to keeping people's attention,
that's the best thing ever. Yeah, you know, other than
you know, good poster and stuff, but like, yeah, so
it always blows my mind when people get pooh poohy

(21:22):
about like a beat sheet, which is for those who
don't know, beat sheet is literally it says like, by
page ten, this should be happening. By page twenty five,
this should be happening. By page forty four, this should
be happening. The beat sheet is meant to help keep
a movie balanced and keep an audience engaged, but it
is not. It doesn't write the story for you. It
just tells you when the story needs to land in

(21:44):
certain ways. And they're also large swaths in beat sheet
of literally fun and games for like twenty eight pages.
So it ain't just the beat sheet that makes the
story work. It's but that confine helps you hone the
story and get outside of your own head about where
those those beats are going to be by knowing like,
oh well, no matter how much time I put into this,
no matter how much it becomes my darling, and I

(22:05):
love it so much, like I really should have this
beat here.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yes, So anyway, so what is cool about Evil Dead is?
You know, I mentioned how it turns the Final Girl
trope on its head, and I've mentioned how Ash is
kind of the reluctant hero, but not really until later.
What is so cool about Evil Dead is how it

(22:31):
follows the beats of specific stories, but it also breaks
rules in very specific ways, such as Ash really never
gets He never gets in any enlightenment. He doesn't even
really win at the end of the movie. He just revives,
which never one it should be pointed out. Sam Raimi

(22:57):
used to suggest that he hated Ash and that was
why the movies were the way they were, because like
that that was the whole point. Was like that he
treated Ash like not an indifferent god of a hateful guy, aful,
vengeful god.

Speaker 1 (23:11):
Well look at so Evil Dead one ends again. I
mean you all know there's a spoiler. You should It
came out in eighty eighty three, like yeah, yeah, oh well,
you know I did not say where you could see it.
Though I apologize that is a cardinal sin. I just
assume everybody's seen Evil Dead, So if you haven't seen
Evil Dead, as we dig into some deeper spoilers, it

(23:33):
is not available to stream anywhere totally free except Pluto TV.
It appears Pluto TV does have Evil Dead to stream
for free, so but you could also rent it on
Amazon Prime, Google Play, Apple TV, and Fandango at Home.
I really recommend watching Evil Dead. But the end of
Evil Dead is literally like he doesn't get away, the

(23:55):
evil gets him, and it's left on it's open ended, yeah,
but it's it right there on a kind of a
down note, not like a heavy down note, but pretty
much a down note. Then Evil Dead two ends with
literally he gets sucked through a vortex and ends up
in medieval times, which he had read about in the Necronomicon.

(24:17):
So now he realizes he's the chosen one who will
fall from the sky and deliver us from the dead heights,
which is what the book says. When a guy literally
yells that it's the who comes from the sky who
shall deliver us from the dead heites and he goes, no, no, no,
because he's got to fight the dead heights even more. Yeah,
And the funniest part is the way they realize that
that's him is like a flying monster creature flies by

(24:40):
and he kills it with a shotgun without hesitating, just like,
you know, screw that thing, you know, hah. And then
they're like, you've come to Sammys.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Like, no, no, I don't.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
I just did that because I had to stop. But
then literally Army of Darkness, which, by the way, they
did not want to name that movie Army of Darkness.
They wanted to call it either Evil Dead three or
The Medieval Dead.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
Oh I would have the Medieval Dead.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah. Yeah. And Universal Studios, who did not believe in
that movie much at all, they were like, no, we
want to call Army of Darkness. They wanted to distance
themselves from literally what made it what people wanted?

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Oh good?

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, well they spent a fortune on it, and like
the leadership change during the production, which happens a lot
more than you might think. Yeah, but anyway, so in
that one, though, literally he does everything right. He leads
everyone to victory, he gets the girl, he does all
of this badass stuff, and then he forgets the magic
words to go home. A wizard literally a Merlin type

(25:44):
tells him, all you have to do is say these
words and you'll go home. And in the official theatrical cut,
he's telling that story to actually Ted Raimi in a
grocery in the s Mark that he works at, and
he's like, yeah, so that's when you saved all the
people and he's just like yeah, cool. And then a
dead ite shows up and he has to kill it
and he does all his cool, badass Ash stuff. But

(26:06):
that suggests that because he didn't read the words right
that time, because he messed it up earlier as well, Yeah,
which caused the evil to get even more powerful that
the dead Ights are still around. But in the director's version,
Ash has to tell a thing. It has to do
the words, and then he will slumber to his to

(26:27):
his home time period will slumber without aging. So then
he does the thing. He messes up the words. He
goes to sleep, and he wakes up and he's got
a beard and long hair and the world has been destroyed,
completely ruled over by dead heightes and literally last he says, no,
I slept too long. That was the original ending of

(26:51):
Army of Darkness. Rachel, Oh my god, that was the
original ending, So Ash was like he gets the more
he becomes a hero, the bigger screw up he too,
because he's yeah, he's not that big of a screw
up in the first Evil Dead as we'll get to
right after this what just happened. So yes, that was

(27:20):
the original ending of Army of Darkness. But but really,
when you look at Evil Dead and how Ash fights
the Dead heightes, he doesn't fight them very hard Corey
really does what he has to do. But yeah, later
in the movies he just gets the cockier and dumber,
which again leads into why my initial theory was head trauma.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Having watched the movies with you and watched the series,
I think that's probably a pretty good fan theory.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
Thank you, so beyond Ash in Evil Dead one, because
we'll try to hang close to Evil one. So beyond Ash,
what were your thoughts watching it for the first time?
Because when I watched it for the first time in
my bedroom on a VHS tape, I was very scared.
It freaked me out, the makeup, the effects, the insanity

(28:13):
of it all. How it did grueling is a really
good word. It just kept going and going. It's a
because that's the other thing to keep in mind Evil
that one and most of people did two is just
a tormenting of Ash. Yeah, that's all it's about, you know.
Army of Darkness isn't constant torment of Ash. There's only
a couple of scenes like that. But Evil Dead one,
it's like, by the halfway point, it's mostly tormenting Ash. Yeah,

(28:35):
so it's there you go, you know, But I just
remembered finding it really scary. But I really enjoyed it.
I enjoyed how much it freaked me out. And one
thing about Evil Dead that I don't know. That is
one of the reasons I'm willing to say that I
think it's underratedly scary good is actually some of the
amateurish moments I think work in its favor very well,

(29:00):
especially on VHS. I will say that this movie has
not done a lot of favors by being like we
watched it on one hundred and twenty inch screen in HD.
It doesn't do it a ton of favors. You see
every single crack, every single edge, and there are a
ton of them. Stopped. I stopped pointing out like how

(29:21):
many times you can see like the fingers going through
the makeup and stuff because it's just constant and they
made this movie for basically nothing. The Internet claims that
it was made for three hundred and twenty five thousand dollars.
That is not the case. That is probably adjusted for inflation,
but also the post production funds that they probably raised
after the fact, which were probably over one hundred thousand dollars,

(29:41):
and that is not uncommon, especially back then Blair Witch Project,
which famously costs like twenty thousand dollars or some shit,
they spent almost two hundred thousand dollars getting the soundtrack okay,
for theatrical screenings back then, you gotta remember this nineties,
So they couldn't just run it through you know two
me you know recording software is would be like cool. Yeah,

(30:04):
they had to do all that stuff. Well, they had
to pay for it, So that's just another thing worth mentioning.
But so I think that the fact that there are
scenes where there's a demon, a person possessed by a
dead eite, and in the next shot their makeup is
different or they're literally like their makeup is heavier and

(30:26):
they're played by a different person. Now, I actually think
that especially on VHS where like it was there wasn't
a lot of details, so you'd really question it even yase,
why do they look different? It actually adds to the
kinetic and frenetic insanity of the idea that like Cheryl
in the basement, looks different between moments, but always evil

(30:49):
and crazy.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
What happened to her eyes?

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Yeah, what happened to her eyes? But but that's that's
something that I think really does play to its favor,
is the way that the continuity doesn't really hold for
the makeup. I find it scarier, especially back then, because
I didn't know if it was an accident or not,
and I don't care. Yeah, and some of them may have.
I mean some of them were accidents. Some of them
were unintentional because sometimes they literally just didn't have the person,

(31:16):
so they just put mostly ted Raimi in a heavy
mask and be like you're Cheryl now, you know, like
they would do that, They would do that. So I
think that that adds a lot to that sense of
kind of like insanity.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Oh, I absolutely agree, And we've you and I have
had personal discussions, especially when we're watching Italian horror about
nightmare logic. Yes, and this is an American released movie
that because of how unpolished. It is because of the
rough edges. It feels like it follows much more of

(31:52):
a nightmare logic than, say, you know, even a Nightmare
on Elm Street, which should fall allow a nightmare logic.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
But it well, the whole movie isn't a nightmare though. Yeah,
there's very well, slowly less clear delineations between reality and
nightmares and nightmare Elm Street. But no, I get what
you're saying, And no, but it does. It feels like
a like a fever dream. It feels like just an
absolute nightmare where things get worse and worse and worse.
One of my favorite descriptions I've ever seen of Evil Dead,

(32:22):
if I, if I could find it real quick, was
was on Wikipedia. It says, you know, four members of
the group suffer from demonic possession, forcing the fifth member,
Ash Williams, to survive an onslaught of increasingly gory mayhem.

Speaker 5 (32:37):
Yeah, that is.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Such a great way to put it, increasingly gory mayhem.

Speaker 2 (32:42):
That's putting it lately.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, Oh, and real quick because I mentioned the budget.
Originally they raised about ninety thousand dollars all in from
dentists and lawyers local in Michigan and the one of
the last and ess they had to bring on was
to do a what they call a film blow up.
It's where you convert sixteen millimeter film to thirty five

(33:07):
millimeter films so it can be projected in an average theater.
It's very expensive. Back then, it was like it was
like it could be like ten twenty grand depending on
how much work he had to do, and it was
really important. And I love this story because Bruce Campbell
talks about how they ended up coming up with the
money because his dad had just gotten divorced and was

(33:30):
kind of like depressed and just kind of doing whatever
and whatever. So he came to it was just like dad, Dad, like,
is there any way we could you could help with this?
It's like, I don't know, like he was a dad,
but it's so important, Like couldn't you couldn't you do it?
So his dad ended up like so they went to
the bank and his dad took a loan out on
their like upper up, upper Peninsula of Michigan cabin. He

(33:56):
took a loan against it and did that. And it
was funny because his dad was like, okay, whatever, and
he was like and Bruce was like, I literally felt
bad because I was like taking advantage of my dad
who was just like depressed and miserable, but we needed
this to happen, and he's like yeah, and then Dad
wasn't so mad when we you know, as a as
a pittance, we said we'd pay him back and we'd
give him three percent of the movie. Oh, he say,

(34:18):
my father has been depressed for a while. Because that
was a lot of money. I mean, Evil Dead in
the box office estimated it making almost twenty nine point
four million dollars, and unlike Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they didn't
get heavily ripped off, so they saw most of that
money good, most of it, most of it. So, I mean,

(34:40):
you know, Wes Craven could say a lot more about
Bob Shay than I could, but I owned a New
Line cinema. But we'll dive deeper into the Evil Dead
right after this.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
So what I think was the scariest and kind of
left the biggest impression to me when I first watched
Evil Dead with you not not It wasn't just Ash
and it wasn't just the carnage that he witnesses and

(35:23):
partakes in with his friends. It was also you know,
how you know how much I love world building in movies,
and it was that they gave us this, this glimpse,
this little taste of a very very awful, horrible evil
world and all of the all of the history around it,

(35:49):
but not enough to settle any of the questions that
we may have had, or at least that I had
on my first watch. And that made it even scarier,
because the fear of the unknown is one of the
big things that you know, I love in horror, and
I feel like in other franchises that we had been

(36:12):
watching at the time, it feels like the killer was
at least well established, But with this we don't know
if the killer is just strictly the woods. Is it
the woods are evil because of the evil around it,
or is the evil coming from elsewhere and infecting just

(36:32):
the cabin and the area around it. This first movie
really doesn't give us much to go off of other
than there is evil and it's coming to get you.
But it's coming to get you, especially when you're alone.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Well you're forgetting though, and the book summons it, and
the book summons I mean, that's the biggest thing, Like, yeah,
the evil's coming from all kinds of places because of
the book, because of reading from the book. Yeah, so
I think that's worth mentioning, because I mean it is,
But it is fair to point out that, you know,
the opening of the film, and this is a great
way to just jump right into the opening of the movie.

(37:06):
It opens with a group of kids heading out into
the wilderness to camp in a remote cabin in Tennessee
mm hm. And while they don't say it, it's pretty
clear they're all from Michigan because half of them are
wearing like Michigan State University sweaters and stuff like that,
and they were in real life from Michigan. And as
they're as they're making their drive, one of the first

(37:29):
things we see before we even see them is the
evil zooming around which they which they filmed by creating
a camera rig that was made out of two by
fours that would allow them to hold the camera down
by their feet so they could run around. They call
it the Ramo Camp.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
The Ramo cam, and well they made much.

Speaker 1 (37:47):
More advanced Ramo cams later, but it allowed them to
run around with the camera super low to the ground
and get those kinds of raw yeah things, the evil
classic evil dead, you know, running around thing ow hit
my hand on the table. But so we see that.
So we've established there's already evil out there, you know,

(38:08):
watching them and stuff. And then as they're driving along
they almost get into a car accident. There's some funny lines.
We kind of get to know the characters. We realize that,
you know, we have Scottie and Shelley who are a couple,
and then we have Ash or Ashley williams Ash with
his girlfriend Linda, and then we have Cheryl, who is

(38:29):
Ash's sister, and they're on their way and I love
the way they reveal Cheryl, by the way they literally
have a two shot of Ash and Linda talking wide
angle two shot and then at one point they just
tilt over and show her. It makes her feel like
a third wheel, Like you're like, oh, you're here too.
She really is. I mean she's there with two couples

(38:49):
to hang out. So but yeah, so they're just kind of,
you know, talking about kind of normal teenager stuff. I
mean they're all in college or or you know, starting
college or whatever, and they're talking about, you know, how'd
you get the cabin so cheap? Which I do love.
He's like, I don't know, I mean, it could be
in really bad shape. And that's actually that's when they

(39:10):
reveal Cheryl, because it depends on she goes none of
you have seen it before. Yeah, And all I could
think was, yeah, they drove down to Tennessee just to take.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
A seape it out the way back.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Yeah, yeah, or they or they are they They were like,
I'm gonna send you twenty five bucks, go buy a
polaroid camera. Mail me, mail me a picture.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yeah, things were wild before an airbnb dude.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Well they're still wild with abynb. But so they they
almost get run off the road and there is a
suggestion that something otherworldly could have been messing with their car,
but it's very very suggested. It's not yeah pushed at all.
So they make their way across this very nerve wracking
bridge which goes over a cliffs cliff face so that

(39:53):
they can get to the cabin, and they start driving
through the woods and they're getting deeper and deeper into
the woods. It's a great shot the cameras up high
from the bed of a pickup truck pointing downward to
show them just entering the woods and the woods becoming
more and more of everything. You can see, which is
one of my favorite little moments in the whole film.
And as they arrive at the cabin, it does feel

(40:16):
a little devious, I mean just the look of it
for some reason. But houses are that way. Windows always
look like eyes. We look for faces and everything, so
we look for eyes, we look for faces. But one
of my favorite things is how subtle the idea that
something's not right at that cabin because they as they

(40:37):
pull up, there's a porch. It's a swing, right, porch swing.
That's not really what they're called when they're two, when
they're a bench swing or is I.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Think it's a bench swing, or you can just call
it a porch swing.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
It's sitting there and it's bumping into the wall. It's
just bump, bump, bump, and then it stops.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Right as they get to the doorframe.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, right as they touched it just bump, bump, bump,
and it doesn't come back and hit And I remember
the first time I watched that being so creeped out
by that. Yeah, that hit me like a sack of bricks.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
Well cause the first time I watched it, I think
I was under the impression that that was like the
start of a beat to the soundtrack. Oh yeah, And
then as the as the camera pulled out, I was like, no, no,
that's a sound effect, and that's very creepy and effective
because my brain was primed for creepy music and suddenly no,
it's just atmosphere. Period, very very good.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Well, and later on we have similar things. They do
that with a clock, where a clock is ticking and
it just stops. I love that stuff. It puts you
on edge and puts you out of the realm of
what is normal. And I think that was some stuff
that really established what's going on and what people would
be expecting. So then as they enter the cabin, it's

(41:59):
just kind of dusty, and you know, there's animal heads.
It was an old hunting lodge, and in real life
it was a hunting lodge by the way. In fact,
if you want, Rachel, when we get back from this break,
I'll give you the serious dirt on the cabin, because
there is a lot of interesting stuff about the cabin

(42:20):
in real life.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Oh I'd love to hear it.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
So I'll run. I'll do, hopefully a relatively simple rundown
about the cabin where they shot Evil dead in Morristown, Tennessee.
Right after this. All right, so we're back and we're

(42:45):
talking about Evil Dead, and I was teasing that I
could share some really cool insight into the cabin in Morristown,
Tennessee that they filmed at, because there is a lot
of interesting stuff it was originally it had been most
recently used as a hunting cabin, but it has a history,
and I thought it would be fun to let you

(43:06):
hear it from Sam Raimi's own mouth. Ooh yes, so yeah,
so we'll queue that up right now.

Speaker 4 (43:14):
And it worked out very well. Finally that Loko cal
tell the story of the cabin, the horror story this, Well,
it's funny you should say that to him because there
is in fact a little known horror story that takes
place in the cabin that we shot Evil Dead in.
This cabin was built about one hundred years ago, and

(43:37):
the man who built it died maybe a week after
he built the place. It's located in this valley surrounded
by these mountains that have an incredible amount of iron
ore in them, so that during thunderstorms, most of the
lightning bolts are attracted to this valley. So it's really
an incredible thing to see when you're there during a storm. Well,

(43:58):
no one lived in this cabin for the next twenty years,
and it was probably around nineteen ten or so when
a family of three moved into the place, a mother, daughter,
and a grandmother, so really three generations of women. They
one night, during a thunderstorm, this little girl woke up
and she was scared by all the lightning happening around

(44:20):
the cabin, so she ran into her mother's room and
pulling back the covers to climb into bed with her,
she found that her mother was dead. While she was
so frightened, she ran screaming into her grandmother's room and
somehow that same evening she had died also during the night.
They still don't really know why both of these women

(44:40):
would simultaneously die in this place. Well, the little girl
ran out into the storm about four miles to the
nearest farmhouse, through this raging thunderstorm, out to the night,
and they found her screaming, banging on their doors, and
they brought her inside and they got the story from her. Well,
they took care of her after that, and no one
lived in the cabin since this woman, this older woman

(45:04):
during thunderstorms. After that I mean this younger woman who
is now an older woman, but the little girl Sally.
It's really a scary story if you can get to
the end of it. The people at the farmhouse raised
this little girl. She had never been the same since,
and during thunderstorms she would oft oftentimes wander off from

(45:25):
this cabin and they would find her wandering around in
the woods and sometimes Well, here's where we come into
this story. The Tennessee Film Commission said, yes, we've got
this one cabin that's knocked the cows have knocked down.
It's full of dung, he dung, but you can use it,
but it's haunted. We said, well, it sounds fun, so
we went there. As we were shooting, the fella from

(45:47):
this farm came by and he said he told us
the story of exactly what happened, and how his folks
had taken in this little girl who is now a
very old woman, and that because there had been this
thunderstorm the night before, he was looking for this woman
because it's possible she had returned to this cabin. And
as far as we know, they never found the woman

(46:08):
while we were down there shooting, and she could still
be roaming those woods. Around Morristown, Tennessee. The strange, strangest
part of the story is that a week after we
left the cabin in Tennessee, as reported by the Tennessee
Film Commission, a boult of lightning hit the cabin and
that burned to the ground.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
Yeah. Whoa that is from Sam Raimi's own mouth. WHOA,
so that is? I mean, what are your first thoughts?

Speaker 2 (46:40):
I mean, honestly, I'm kind of wondering if the farm
guy was like pulling their legs.

Speaker 1 (46:45):
That is kind of ridiculous. No, why would why would
a farm person lie when you have a perfectly good
liar in Sam Ramie. You made that entire story up.
None of that was true, not a li of it.
The cabin did burn down two or three years later. Okay,

(47:06):
So he made that story up. And the best part
is he didn't just tell it at random interviews. I
don't know exactly where that interview came from. Originally, it
was actually in the play bill for the premiere screening
in Detroit of Evil Dead. It was written out this
whole ghost story, and the idea was just to spook

(47:28):
people a little extra, I guess, yeah, because that scary
story is really nothing like what you get the kind
of scary stuff you get from evil Dead. It's much
more of like a traditional creepy ghost story. He tells
it masterfully, aside from when he starts to break for
a second there. But I love it because it is

(47:49):
total bullshit. And I didn't hear that ghost story until
about a year ago, so I already knew the actual
story of the cabin, So I was like, what the
hell is he talking about? Like, I know people who've
went and seen the foundation of that cabin. In reality,
I don't know his name off the top of my head.
It doesn't really matter. They had rented that cabin from

(48:10):
a guy. It was his hunting cabin. He'd built it
years and years ago, was in pretty rough shape, and
he was like, yeah, you can kind of do whatever
you want with it. You just can't like burn it
down or rip the walls out, but you can do
kind of whatever you want with it. It's fine because
I'm either gonna redo it or I'm gonna tear it
down and build a new one. So they filmed there,
and the other funny thing is that one of the
reasons I knew it was bullshit is but he said

(48:31):
when we left there it burned down. They filmed that
movie over the course of like two years. They would
come down for like three or four days and then
they have to come back up and they would do
all their prepping and Detroit and they would and they
would also film, like all the basement scenes were shot
in Michigan, so they didn't have to be down there
for it. They shot every scene with like Cheryl in
the woods because she was one of their childhood friends.

(48:52):
All the scenes where Ash was alone in the basement especially,
those were all done in Detroit. But then you know,
all the scenes where Ash was alone, that was just
them coming down, you know, because because Bruce Campbell's their
buddy and they're making a movie. So they didn't film
like for two weeks straight or whatever. They came down
again and again. Basically they would either run out of

(49:15):
money or run out of things to film with the
amount of time they had allotted, you know, because you'd
only you know, it is on a set, like you
could film and film and film, but eventually you'll run
out of things to film. You'll be like, oh, well,
we don't have this prop or this location or this actor,
so we can't keep filming. Yeah, like, it doesn't make
any sense. So in reality, what happened was they filmed there,

(49:37):
they wrapped up, the guy ended up using it as
a hunting lodge still just kind of occasionally, and after
Evil Dead came out, the word spread Because the other
thing that is hilarious about is he says the Tennessee
Film Commission he was never even on their radar. They
were filming the movie in that cabin, and they were
staying in a house over the hill behind it where

(49:59):
there was a new housing developments. They had they had
a house they were renting there. I don't exactly know
how they knew about the cabin or why they went
to that part of Tennessee, that part don't I don't recall,
but you know, things get around, Yeah, you know, people
kind of hear things. So they filmed at this cabin
that was kind of in the middle of nowhere, but
not really because one side faced out to basically nothing,

(50:21):
but then there was a hill and then there was
a town, like they weren't actually that far away. There
were great stories about how they would go to the
local general store and buy like all of the carrow
syrup and food die they had and they'd be like,
what are you guys doing out there begging a real
big cake?

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (50:39):
Sure, well, I mean they.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
You know, they said to buy the stuff they know.
So but like it wasn't a total secret they were
making a movie there because they did bring ten twenty
people sometimes were coming out there and staying at this
house that I guess a friend of theirs lived there.
So yeah, they were filming out there for a really
long time, on and off. And you can kind of
tell because especially Bruce Campbell, like he does look a

(51:03):
little older as time goes on in it, and then
and then younger again though too. So yeah, but yeah,
total total bullshit that was. He made that up to
spook people. I think he did a really good job.
I think he's super good creepy story. But in reality,
when word got out of where the cabin was, people

(51:25):
started trying to visit, and apparently people were visiting and
the guy who owned it was getting really mad about it,
and he had put up like no trespassing size even
put up things like you know, you may be shot,
you know, because it's private property of a hunter. And
eventually the cabin burned down and for years people thought, oh, well,

(51:48):
you know, some kids were like partying out there, and
just like when he got out of hand or whatever.
Well for a little after a while had passed, the
owner admitted that he and his son went out there
and burned it down because they didn't want people coming
there because the woods are trapped. Oh, and they were
afraid of somebody breaking a hand or an ankle or

(52:10):
a toe en swing. Oh, because it was literally an
active hunting area and they were trapping as well as hunting.
So they burned it down and it only sort of
stopped people from coming to Now people still go to
see the goddamn foundation because that's how freaking awesome evil
dead is and how it refuses ironically enough to die.

(52:35):
And we'll talk more about it after this. So the
kids are at the cabin, the not haunted cabin, well irl,

(52:57):
not haunted, just a place. And it's not the worst
looking cabin, but it is rough. And if you've ever
stayed at a hunting like a legitimate hunting lodge there,
they're utilitarian. Oh, it has running water, it has a bathroom,
it's got beds. It's got beds. It's pretty pretty decent.
It's got a very big living room of a nice
little common area. It's got a workshd to the side.

(53:20):
There's a lot going on there. Fireplace that's nice fireplace
which does not look up to code. I think they
might have put that fireplace in themselves, the filmmakers. I mean,
I don't recall for sure, but I think they might
have because.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
They get You should get Michelle on that so she can.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Tell Yeah, I don't think that place would pass any
kind of inspection.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
But that's the sequel I want, is Michelle in The
Evil Dead.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Just yeah, these sockets are not supposed to drip human
blood like they really shouldn't be. They shouldn't be dripping
any kind of blood, but human blood is a particular trouble.
So they're they're there. They're gonna cook some food, They're
gonna hang out, They're gonna have a great time. They're
gonna have some wholesome fun, you know. They're like I said,
there's two couples, and then there's the third wheel Cheryl

(54:03):
and one thing I noticed upon a rewatch. And God
only knows how many times I've seen this movie, by
the way, I mean i've seen it. I really would
watch it again and again. I remember how exciting. It
was when the DVD came out. Oh yeah, and I
got the Book of the Dead edition, which I still
have the book which my I'm lucky mine hasn't rotted
because they've started rotting because they're made out of silicone
I think it or latex. Oh yeah, and mine signed

(54:26):
by the Ladies of the Evil Dead. The actress played Cheryl,
the actually played Linda, and the actress played Shelley.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (54:32):
Yeah, they were doing a tour of the calling themselves
the Ladies of the Evil Dead in the early two
thousands when it came out.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
Oh fun.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
Also signed by Tom Sullivan. But he of our who
did the special effects and all the art.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
On Evil Dead and is just such a sweet guy.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
He is a hoot and a half. He's a great dude,
and and he really did a great job. And I
want to point out, like when I say like that,
a lot of times the makeup was messed up and stuff.
They were kids. Yeah, it's really worth mentioning they were kids.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Well, this is a movie. This is a movie that
if you're in filmmaking, it is a great example of
what drive and Moxie can really accomplish. Oh, there's a
lot of drivingnoxy in it. So they're they're at this
They're they're hanging out the cabin. Cheryl is is drawing,

(55:22):
which she was sketching in the car, and this is
where we start to see something is not quite right.
Oh wait, I'm sorry, I skipped ahead.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
That foreshadows the book. So as she's drawing, all of
a sudden she starts to go kind of crazy and
she draws an image of a book of the Book
of the Dead, which we'll discover in a short bit.
But she basically draws like a very basic sketch, but
not holding the pen like she's drawing. It's like she
can't help you draw. She's holding it like a like
a knife. And that sequence always like really freaked me out.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Yeah, well, as an artist, it freaks me out, like
especially because I start to connect with Cheryl a little
bit looser. But there is uh I can't even remember
the term, but there's that whole idea in in the
paranormal investigation, where like you can lose control and you'll

(56:18):
start like writing or drawing things that the spirits want
you to. And I thought that was a really great
introduction to the fact that being alone or isolated almost
guarantees that you're gonna get possessed.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Yeah, because because.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
They haven't even like really summoned the evil. The evil's
just kind of out there, and the moment she's alone
is when it takes over, and she's very disturbed by it.
Like you can tell she wants to stop drawing and
she can't stop.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Yes, And and they have dinner, they do some other
you know they One of my favorite things about this
is how lame this party is. How they're like, we're
gonna party down. They're like having salads and hot dogs
and drinking from paper cups. It's five of the wild Party,
Wild party, hell of a party. But as there, as

(57:10):
they're getting ready to enjoy their night, the little latch
to the cellar just kicks open and it's just a
flap in the floor and they all run over and
check it out, which is really cool how the camera
like just kind of goes with them as they all
go over, they go like, what the hell's going on there?
So now we have a creepy basement that just is

(57:31):
begging for some exploring.

Speaker 2 (57:33):
Oh yeah, I mean you see a hole that goes
down into complete and utter darkness. What's the first thing
you want to do go down the hole.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Well, sure, I mean there might be gords down there.

Speaker 2 (57:43):
I love gords.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
There were guards down there. I don't know they're hanging
from the ceilings. I do remember, yeah, And and I
love the basement too, because Evil Dead has one thing
truly in common with Night of the Living Dead, which
is that the basement makes no sense for the house.
Because that basement's way too nice and way too big
to have been dug for a cabin in the middle
of nowhere. And if you watch Night of Living Dead

(58:06):
and you look closely when they're in the basement, when
Cooper's down there with his kid and everything, it is gigantic.
The stairs, the stairs that go down to the basement
are like they're like twelve feet up, Like it's really
really high up. Why would they go that far down?
But and there's a meter, a power meter, and it's

(58:27):
like five meters like or three because that was the
basement of the office building that they were renting for
their commercial production company. And I mean it makes sense.
It's huge. I actually not trying to brag. I actually
was in there one time. I got to go. That
office building just sits mostly empty in downtown Pittsburgh, and

(58:47):
me and my cousin, we didn't break in. We just
walked up and the door was freaking unlocked. I mean,
it's an office building. People are allowed to go in
there and go up the elevator to like knock on
office doors to do things. Yeah, yeah, and there are
tenants I assume somewhere, But we just walked in and
the door was opened. So we went into the elevator
and we just pressed basement and we went down to
the basement. There was nobody using it currently, So in hindsight,

(59:09):
like as much as I'm like that was kind of weird,
in hindsight, I'm like, well, what were we gonna do? Like,
I mean, I guess we could have like defaced the property,
But anybody could walk into any office building, go somewhere
where nobody's standing and just mess it up. So we
didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Still, the copper wire.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
I I mean, we could have, but yeah, we just
looked around. It was crazy because it looked very much
like it did. It's clear that it had only been
used for you know, occasional storage. We even found the
two by four benches that had been built to hold
film cans. They were still there, so for and we're
I mean, we're talking. This would have been two thousand

(59:47):
and seven or something, so it was like still like
fifty sixty years ago or something like, not not quite
that long, but yeah, because it was nineteen sixty eight
when they filmed it, So yeah, it was it was
pretty wild. But yeah, the basement in Evil Death way
too big because in reality, I think it was it
might have been Tom Sullivan. I don't think it was
Tom Sullivan's mother's basement. I think it was a friend

(01:00:07):
of Tom Sullivan's mother's basement. But it's a pretty cool basement.
And as they start to walk into the basement, they
discover some unspeakable evil that we'll talk about right after this.

(01:00:30):
So they're digging through the basement.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
So they're digging through the bass Just repeat after me. Okay, fine,
well you led me in. I'm just not good at
picking up on my own.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Yeah. Yeah, So.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
This is where I mean the the movie starts out tense,
but I like that the basement scene really draws out
that tension because Scotty goes down first, and there's several
moments where we don't know what's happened to Scotty. We're
kind of we're kind of wondering, like, is the evil
going to get him since he went down there on

(01:01:08):
his own.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Well, and at this point we don't even know how
the evil manifests itself. We're not even aware that this
is going to be demonic possession.

Speaker 2 (01:01:15):
Yeah. All we know is like Cheryl just did something
really weird and creepy. Yeah, and didn't seem to enjoy herself.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
No, no, And there's more where that came from.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
Oh So I like how it sets that up, and
I also like the way that it highlights Scotty and
Ash's characters as friends and also as individuals.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
Yeah. Well, because Scotty's a smart ass and he likes
to have fun.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Yeah, so he's down there just hiding, and Ash likes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
To have fun, but he's a little bit more reserved.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
Yeah. So Scotty's playing a prank and kind of jumps
out and scares Ash. And that's when they find the
necronomicon and a tape recorder and they take it up.
And while they're exam the number necronomicon, I believe it's
the Ash is the one who's actually looking through it,

(01:02:05):
like thumbing through it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
I want to mention real quick. Sorry, I want to
make sure I got this right. So one thing about
Evil Dead one is they don't call it the Necronomicon
ex mortis.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
That's correct, which they.

Speaker 1 (01:02:17):
Call it that in every other iteration, but in this
one it's Naturum demanto, which sounds like book of Demons.
Maybe I'm not sure what I'm not sure like so
naturo demo. Like when I look it up on Wikipedia,
it just says necronomicon. Huh, So I'm not sure where

(01:02:39):
that which necronomicon was I think an HP Lovecraft concept.

Speaker 2 (01:02:44):
So yeah, it's Latin and it roughly translates as Book
of the Dead or the nature of Demons.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Ah okay, that makes sense. Yeah that for whatever reason
they went with necronomicon later on it does have a
ring to it. But originally in this one they find
the natur Demanto. So I just want to mention that
because that's a cool little bit of tidbit about this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
And it's fun because it shows the world building wasn't
like set in Stone. They very much through the series
just kind of built it as they went along, which
I think is fun. So yeah, they're looking through the
Naturum Demanto, the Book of the Dead, and they start
playing the recording on the tape recorder and Cheryl almost

(01:03:31):
instantly freaks out when she hears the guy's voice talking
about he's found this book and this work that he's
been doing, and she's, you know, screaming, turn it off,
turn it off. And then as the recording goes, he
starts reciting this incantation.

Speaker 1 (01:03:47):
And it's all in Sumerian, and which which I want
to mention too, is one of the reasons I love
evil dead. I find that era the concept of like
because ancient Egypt is cool, but like the idea of
like that time, that time per the Sumerians and stuff
where there's nothing left of them. I mean there are
peoples who are vaguely of them. Yeah, there's nothing left

(01:04:10):
of their culture other than relics. They're they're so far
away from us.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
You know, there's here jokes, we brought that back. That's
what I here. It's a long thing. I'll tell you later.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Oh no, please, please don't no. But but my point is, like,
so I love the idea of like a Sumerian incantation.
I love the idea that this is the Sumerian version
of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Yeahsh which that
just I just love that that concept because the idea
of like evils from so far back you just don't
even you know, way before the Old Testament, Yeah, is

(01:04:46):
what we're talking about. I always find that really fun.
I love That's one of my favorite things about the
opening of the Exorcist is that they dig up that
pazuzu and everything, and there's like a whole tie into
really ancient cultures.

Speaker 2 (01:04:58):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
So anyway, but yeah, I just yeah. So, so she
hears doctor Raymond Nobi on the tape recorder. He's the
guy who had obtained the Natum Demanto and is reading it, well,
he's reading it out loud as part of his work

(01:05:19):
to translate it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:20):
Yes, And I think that's when he vaguely mentions like
his wife, or maybe it's later on they're playing the
recording again and he mentions his wife. But that's that's
when we start to see the evil isn't just ever present,
it's now ramping up because again we go to the

(01:05:41):
Ramo cam and it's honed in on them. Yeah, and
it's it's following them to the cabin, not just being nearby,
but to the cabin, and it really starts honing in
on Cheryl. Yes, and this is of course kind of
the sequence that sticks out in most people's minds. Cheryl's

(01:06:02):
alone in a room, she's getting ready to take a shower,
and she keeps hearing voices and stuff outside.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Join us.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
So, like any reasonable person would do, she goes out
in her bathrobe into the.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
Woods well to see what's going on.

Speaker 2 (01:06:23):
They're playing a joke on Yeah, they think they're that
she's being pranked, which again we've said, yes, she thinks
that they are pranking her. What I'm trying to say,
which again knowing that Scotti's a jokey, prankster kind of
guy that he's really trying to like rile people up,
that does make sense.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Pointed out multiple times that Cheryl is way too uptight.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
Yeah, so he could have something out for her. So
she goes out in the woods and that's when the
evil catches her, and it's using the trees and it's
a beautiful effect in the simplicity, and again talking about
like just drive and Moxie can get you so much

(01:07:08):
because as the vines are curling up her legs. It's
so effective, and it's the sound effects and everything like,
it's scratchy and uncomfortable and tight, and it grabs her
arms and her hands and it pins her down and
the evil has its way with her.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
Yeah, it's it's one of the moments in Evil Dead
that a lot of people kind of forget if they've
seen it. Well, I mean though they forget it because
they've seen it, like a lot, but not for a
little while. Yeah, and they forget that the original Evil
Dead really played for keeps pretty hardcore.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:45):
And the joke in the audio commentary, by the way,
with Sam Raimi saying, and I forget what was the
moment when we lost eighty percent of our female audience?
Right there? Okay, there it is. There is literally the
joke you made on the first commentary I ever heard
from it was that. So it is a rough scene
and the use of a ton of reverse motion in

(01:08:06):
order to make the effects work doesn't just make the
tree limbs move on their own. It also gives a
dreamy sense of motion, and in fact, that's a common
filmmaking technique, is to film dreams backwards so that the
motion doesn't feel natural, but they're using it in order

(01:08:26):
to make things wrap around her neck and grab her
arms and all this stuff. And after she's been violated
by the trees, which by the way, this is our
first real hint at possession, because the trees are possessed.
So what we're kind of seeing already is that the
evil is permeating and taking over all the living things

(01:08:49):
around because the dirt wasn't coming after but the trees were,
and the trees are alive, but the sounds of music.
So now she is running from the evil. As the
evil is chasing her down. She's heading straight to the
front door of the cabin. She's trying to get the key,
which is on top of the little ledge above the door.
And we'll be right back to tell you what happens next,

(01:09:11):
or talk about it at least. So as Cheryl is
trying to get the key into the door, and she's
dropping it and she's struggling, and she's looking back at
the unseen evil that's coming toward her, we get one
of the most effective jump scares in the film. Yeah,

(01:09:33):
as she goes to grab the keys, she dropped to
the ground and Ash grabs her hand and pulls her
into the into the into the cabin, and it's a
not only is it a solid jump scare, it also
makes sense she was pounding on the door and like
yelling for help. But now Cheryl is standing in the
little living room and she looks like she is stark
raving mad because she kind of is yeah and fair enough,

(01:09:55):
and she's demanding to be taken into town. Who wants
to leave right now? They're like, what happened to you?
What did that to you? And she's like the woods
the Woozies, like something in the woods is you, and
she it's one of my favorite moments, she goes, no, Ashley,
the woods themselves. It's a really really just blood chilling moment.

Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Yeah, because she's she's being totally honest, but everyone thinks
she's just stark raving mad. And that's one of the
kind of one of the themes of the whole franchise,
but especially this movie is questioning reality because I mean,
if you were if you were all in in their
position and someone came, you know, running in from the

(01:10:37):
woods and said, yeah, like the woods attacked me, and
it was the woods themselves, you would think that they
were utterly insane until other things happen, and then you
would start to assume for a moment that you're insane.
I just that's a point, you know. That's something that
I uh noticed on the second watch through well.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Evil Dead one and to have a long long periods
of like questioning of sanity, mostly when Ash is all alone. Yes,
they do, and so she basically says, like, I want
to go into town. Scott. He's like, I'm not going
into town for nothing. It's like, I don't know how late.
It is, probably at least eleven o'clock at night. So
she demands Ash, and and it's Ash's car that they

(01:11:21):
drove up in. So Ash says, yeah, I'll take you
into town. I guess you'll have to find somewhere to
sleep there, I guess. So they get in the car,
and this is some really solid storytelling, fun storytelling, because
they get into the car and he starts. He goes
to start the engine, and the engine won't start ever, forever, ever, wherever,

(01:11:42):
And then she says, they won't let us leave, Ash,
they won't let us leave, and then it starts, and
he just kind of looks at her for a minute,
like and then he backs them out of that driveway
to get turned around, and you start to think, huh,
what is going on until they get to the bridge
or what's left of it. Yeah, and that that rickety

(01:12:03):
bridge that they punched a tire through has been ripped
up and the beams are actually are like facing toward you,
like almost like a claw. Yeah, they've been pulled completely back.
Probably one of the most challenging things they had to
do build wise, yeah, is building that destroyed bridge. Luckily

(01:12:24):
it's the middle of the night, so they didn't have
to show much of it because you know, it's too dark.
But now they've realized that the bridge is gone, there's
potentially no way to drive out of there. H So
they have to come back to the cabin and now
of course Cheryl is raving again, Yeah, because she's like,
it won't let us leave.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
Ash, it won't let us leave, and he's he's trying
to just he's trying to be a good supportive brother,
but also there is no calming her down at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
Yeah. Yeah, that that that that boat has sailed, that
bringing her comfort. So they go back to the They
go back to the cabin and it's just, I mean,
what can you do?

Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
So they just they're kind of sitting around biting their time,
playing cards.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
Yeah, exactly. So, so Cheryl's just kind of sitting looking
out the window, which I suppose makes sense, Yeah, worrying
about what's going to happen. And Ash starts listening to
the tape player again Professor Noby's, but with the ear
piece in, he's not like, it's not broadcasting to everybody.

(01:13:36):
And that's where he's learning about how his wife got
got possessed and how he discovered that, according to the book,
the only way to kill someone who is possessed is
through the act of bodily dismemberment. And while that's happening,
Linda and Shelley are not really playing cards so much

(01:13:57):
as this is a part that always I love, but
it always weirded me out there. So Shelley is pulling
cards and Linda is guessing the.

Speaker 2 (01:14:07):
Cards, yeah, like a psychic test.

Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
And she's guessing them wrong, all of them, and Shelley's
telling her she's right. And why Shelley is just fucking
with Linda, I don't know, but it is very funny,
especially in the context of the whole film. When you're
done watching, you're like that was a weird thing to happen,
but it goes phenomenally into Chryl, who's not even facing

(01:14:32):
toward them, naming each suit of the cards, you know,
Jack of Spades, you know, Jack of Diamonds and Queen
of Hearts, eight of Spades, two of Spades, and she
starts naming them faster than they can draw them, you know,
just right off there. And then she turns and roars
as we see our first full blown Deadite, although I

(01:14:54):
don't believe deadite is said in the first film. That
is what they become known as later on, Yeah, is
as dead Heights. And she basically, in a raspy, supernatural,
other worldly voice, says that they disturbed their slumber. All right,

(01:15:20):
I'll stop doing that, but that's so much fun, and
then says that she's going to kill everyone. And she's
levitating the whole time she's saying this, which, by the way,
was done by using an old magician stage trick. It
was literally a bar that would be that would be
usually stuck through a curtain, and they had stuck it
through the window that had been broken early on in

(01:15:43):
the movie. That's how they got her levitating. They literally
used an old stage magic trick. So she's you know,
levitating there saying that, and then she gets down on
the ground, falls down, grabs a pencil and stabs Linda
in the ankle in a moment that I have never
watched that movie with anyone who didn't like really get

(01:16:06):
uncomfortable seeing that stab. And it's right where you never
want to be stabbed in the ankle. It's like right
where the tendons meet. Yeah, it's it's really a nasty one.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
Yeah, and the effects the effects were so effective that
made sense, but the effects just really gets you because
she she doesn't just stab and wooh, that's it. She
stabs and she's like trolls it back, rolls it back
and driving it in like it's nasty. And even as

(01:16:37):
a as a moviegoer now I can look at it
and be like, ah, that was a fake prosthetic, but
boy does it look really rough.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
And then after she's done stabbing Linda in the ankle,
she throws she flings ash through the air and he
rams into a shelf, one of many shelves he would
hit into, and then the shelf falls on top of him.
By the way, and Bruce Campbell as a young man
was famous for being a physical comedian. That was like
his favorite thing in the world, and they really play

(01:17:06):
it up in Evil Dead too. But here you notice
how much he throws himself around, very very very clearly
he loves his physical humor. Luckily, Scott knocks Cheryl into
the cellar, yeah, basically pummels her down with the shotgun
and then locks the cellar door with chain and from
there things start to get really freaky after this. So

(01:17:42):
one of my favorite elements of Cheryl in the Basement
is that the cellar door has to be sealed with
a chain, which is just unusual. I suppose it makes
sense though, because why would you ever, you know, in
a normal circumstance ever need to lock a cellar door

(01:18:02):
from the outside. You know, you might need to, for
whatever safety reason, lock yourself in the cellar, but you
would never need to lock the cellar from the outside,
yeah you know. So basically, there are like metal hooks
on the cellar door and a chain has been put
through it, so the door is opening a good inch

(01:18:23):
and a half two inches, and that creates one of
the most iconic images from the film, which is the
dead eite Cheryl staring through that crack in the door. Yeah,
and it really is so so friggin' memorable, you know,
really very effective. So I love that. And now we're

(01:18:45):
dealing with a lot of shit. Yeah, some kind of
shit has hit some sort of fan as I like
to say. And so now Shelley goes to a room
because she's freaked out by her eyes being gone. Yeah, basically, which,

(01:19:06):
by the way, I mean there's some one a couple
of things worth mentioning about the actors in this movie
and the things they put up with. This was before
soft contact lenses. Oh god, no, so those Sclera lenses
they were working Sclara Sclara, You've weren't scleara lenses, right
or did you not wear ones that covered your whole eye?

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
No, I've never worn Sclera lenses. I want to train
myself to use them in case as an actress, like
I'm ever presented with that opportunity, I can be like
I'm a.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Whole It's a whole different thing to put them in
because they cover your whole eye. So so for those
who Sclera contact lenses cover your eye in its entirety.
They don't just cover the uh which the iris iris.
They cover the whole thing as to where if you're
listening to this and you wear contact lens where you
just cover your iris. So now imagine if you're a
little older, and you don't even have to be that

(01:19:58):
much older to have worn glass contact lens by the way,
because a lot of people wore them well into the
nineties and early two thousands because they were already used
to them. Yeah, so they were fine with it. My
mom wore them for a really long time because that
was what she always wore. They were comfortable at that point,
you know, she was used to them until she got
those acuvius and then she was like, holy crap, this

(01:20:19):
is amazing, feels so much better. But yeah, so they're
wearing sclere lenses made of glass that are completely opaque,
so they are not just slightly blind, they are totally
blind when they're wearing them. And there are moments even
evil Dead two where when people jump up and go

(01:20:42):
like ah, you can see them like reaching totally blind
to grab people or whatever and like their hands landing
and then getting purchased like you're completely blind with those
in that's number one. Number two worth mentioning fog machines. Oh,
then they were wax based, so the fog was literally

(01:21:04):
like a type of smoke, of thin smoke. It wasn't
just it wasn't vapor, which is what machine use glycerine
fog machines now. So it would make you cough, it
could irritate your lungs, and that was one of the
better options for fog because there were also I wish
I knew what they were called, but there were also
these little cakes. They looked like little tiny cakes of

(01:21:28):
a chemical that was colored and you would literally carry
it around in a hot skillet and wave it around
and it would let off this incredibly thick colored smoke,
usually blue, and it was probably a little toxic. And
actors that I know a couple of actors who've worked
with it, and they said that like you'd blow your
nose at the end of the night and it would

(01:21:49):
be blue.

Speaker 5 (01:21:50):
Oh no, no.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
So yeah, so it wasn't fun being covered in, you know,
surrounded by that fog and stuff. You really couldn't breathe,
and it didn't just feel like you couldn't, which is
how Yeah, because if anybody listened to this, and I'm
sure a lot of you have have gotten a fog
machine for Halloween. That's the glacerin fog we're talking about.
You know, it's really not that bad. Like you feel
like you should cough when it gets close to you.

(01:22:13):
It doesn't actually make you cough, you know. It's just
not thick enough. It's not it just doesn't have enough
to it. So these actors are putting up with a
lot on top of being you know, covered in caro
syrup and and liquid latex. It's a hell of a ride.
And honestly it inspired a whole generation of filmmakers, myself included,

(01:22:34):
who really like imagined and fantasized about for a long
time having doing that movie where like you're just covered
in fake blood all day long, you know, because we're
making this ridiculous movie. And uh and it would it
would dry, and you would stick to things. I've been
I've played enough characters in enough horror movies for friends
and stuff that I have experienced just about every unpleasantness

(01:22:57):
you can have with fake blood. I think one of
my face it was they built a fake They built
a fake not a fake torso, but they built like
a portion of my torso so my guts could come out,
and they put a flap of liquid latex on my
like waistband of my pants, you know, to hold it there,
and then they glew it down on the top and

(01:23:18):
then they they're putting the guts around and then right
before action, they pour blood into that area. And immediately
I realized that flap is just a funnel for fake
blood directly into my underwear. Mmm.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
Lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
Yeah. When I stood up after laying in place for
twenty or thirty minutes, I felt like I'd given myself
a Brazilian wax and I was like, oh no, yeah, yeah,
it's it gets very sticky, and it dries and sets
and gets even more sticky. So anyway, but back to
the back to the movie, So they're trying to figure

(01:23:56):
out what to do about Chryl being demonic, goes to
her room because she's freaked out about it, and and
then we have another really great moment where the evil
breaks through a window and we see Shelley scream and
now I wonder what happened. She is now possessed as well,

(01:24:17):
and each one of them is different in how they
act when they're possessed.

Speaker 2 (01:24:20):
By the way, Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:22):
Yeah, yeah, especially I mean because it's really mostly the
girls who are dead heights. I mean, Scotty becomes one briefly,
but but you know, you've got Cheryl who is just
this creature. And then Shelley is like even more demented.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
And violent because she immediately like goes on a rampage.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
Yes, she just starts like trying to rip faces off.
And then when we get to Linda, we'll talk about
how she's her her type of demon is is really
strange and unsettling. But so, uh, I I lost my
train of thought. Oh so she attacks Scott, but he

(01:25:02):
throws Yeah, he throws her into the fireplace, that's right.
And when he pulls us, she says, oh, thank you.
I don't know what I would have done if I
had had to be in those hot coals burning my
pretty flesh for a moment. Longer you have beautiful skin,
let me let us have it. It's a great, like
just weird moment. And so sure enough, kids, the way

(01:25:23):
to solve this is doctor Nobi. Professor Noby said, bodily
dismember and Ash is standing there with an axe, just
like like scared. He's too scared to help. Scott grabs
the axe and just chops up his high school sweetheart
who is a demon I mean, for the record, but
he chops her up.

Speaker 2 (01:25:40):
Also she's possessed.

Speaker 1 (01:25:42):
A wow, hateful. But afterward Scott is not okay. No
would you be yes? Uh no, but he's not okay,
and he just doesn't know what to do. So he
tells Ash going to bury her, yeah, which seems like

(01:26:02):
it's the only way he can think of to kind
of normalize the circumstance. So they put her body, her
remains of her body, in a white sheet and they
head out the front door. And things are not about
to get much better after this. So they've taken Shelley's

(01:26:31):
dismembered corpse out to bury it. And oddly enough, it's
pretty actually uneventful. Yeah, which I think in hindsight as
I said that, like ha ha, Now that makes perfect
sense though, because you're expecting more crazy the moment they
go outside. So none is actually pretty suspenseful. Yeah, yeah,
it's kind of nerve wrecking.

Speaker 2 (01:26:52):
Well, it's the old joke, is you want to hear
the secrets? Is it good suspense? I'll tell you tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:26:58):
That's a pretty good one, like the one, Uh, how
do you keep an idiot in suspense, I'll tell you tomorrow.
That's the one I always heard as a kid, usually
in English, but no, I used to that. That's something
I've always want to put in a screenplay. Is somebody

(01:27:20):
on their deathbed and their last words A couple closer?
How do you keep an idiot in suspense? How? Uh?
The pass away? I've always wanted to do it, but
like but not from like in a goofy way, like
like like like as a last statement of that character's
who they are, not not jokey like they legitimately it's sad,

(01:27:41):
but it's like they went out on their own terms
kind of idea.

Speaker 2 (01:27:45):
I love that. That's a very you idea.

Speaker 1 (01:27:47):
Yeah, I've been I've been working on that one for
a while. So Scott decides after they get back inside,
he's done being here. Yeah, And he's like, we're and
and while all this is going on, Linda is is
like in and out of consciousness from her leg injury,
her foot injury and Wolf. So so Scott's like, we're

(01:28:11):
gonna hike out of here because there's got to be
a trail or something like, there has to be a
way across the thing. It's just we can't drive yeah,
and he tells him like it it will be bad,
and he's like, I'll like, we gotta go, and he's like,
we can't take Linda. And I love it. He goes,
she's your girl friend, you take care of her, and
I love that. He's like, I don't give a shit
about her. So then but then he does have that

(01:28:33):
I will say, he says that stuff, and then he
has that little more where he goes, we'll send people,
We'll send people back, like we're not just gonna go,
We're gonna go and send get help. So he's not
like a total bastard, he's just really he's well, he's broke,
you know, like mentally you can't be okay, you know,
which reminds me of Evil Dead. My one of my
favorite Evil Dead two lines when Ash is looking in

(01:28:54):
the mirror and other Ash comes through the mirror and
grabs him. Because he goes, I'm fine, I'm fine. He goes,
you just we just carved up our girlfriend with the chainsaw?
Does that sound fine? And if because of my massive,
deep affection for Evil Dead not only as a movie
but as it's as for how different it is from

(01:29:15):
every other Evil Dead property, I have a no problem
remembering what's in two and what's in one. But I
totally don't blame anybody who's like, wait, was that in
one or two? Because they overlap a ton. Yeah so,
but because I'm obsessed with the fact that it's much
less funny and it's much darker, I I can quote
it like, you know, like scripture. So well, So Scotty

(01:29:38):
comes back and he's been attacked by the trees and
he's talking just like Cheryl. Yeah, which is an interesting
turn of events too. And of course the also while
all this is going on, Cheryl is half the time
taunting and going crazy in that since nommer, and when
she isn't, she's being dead quiet, like completely silent.

Speaker 2 (01:29:58):
Not just staring.

Speaker 1 (01:30:00):
She's even worse. Yeah yeah, yeah, So, but he tries
to help Scotty, but Scotty is really hurt. His arms
and legs are torn up, his face is torn up,
and he tries to warn Ash like the trees won't
let him escape.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
And at that moment, Ash has a realization, how's Linda doing?

Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
So Linda, well, at least she's a mildly conscious if
you could, if you could call demonic possession consciousness. I would,
And she's one of the freakier dead heightes in this movie,

(01:30:45):
because you know, the other two are kind of what
you would expect from a demonic possession, very you know,
very similar to Exorcists in a way where it's you know,
bombastic and loud and deep voices and and levitating and
attacking people. Linda her her makeup makes her look almost

(01:31:08):
like a doll or a clown, and they've really accentuated
the smile lines of her baby she's a baby doll.
And and she's just sitting there tackling in a high
pitched voice, and is she saying like you're never gonna leave.

Speaker 5 (01:31:26):
Or wear gun you weird gun again and just sing
songy not another pee, Time to go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (01:31:37):
Which is super effective and super creepy. It maybe maybe
unless you're into that because of because of just this
departure from what we expect out of demonic possession makes
it even more unsettling, because you see that the evil

(01:32:04):
is willing to take any shape it can and do
anything it can just to mess with Ashes. There's no
rhyme or reason to it. It's literally just what will
freak him out the most. At this present moment. And
again you when you get into the psychology of the

(01:32:24):
characters in this movie, like you've you've just killed your
friend's girlfriend, dismembered her and buried her. Your friend, you know,
got attacked by trees. Your your sister got attacked by trees,
and she's locked in the basement. And now your girlfriend
who got stabbed in the ankle, her face is totally different,

(01:32:45):
and she's sitting there like a little baby doll, singing
about how we're gonna get you, like you're you're gonna
be super freaked out. So yeah, so he grabbed the
Sumerian dagger. Yes, but he's he's not there yet. He's

(01:33:07):
not the hero yet. He's not able to totally dismember
her like he knows is going to be able, like
to actually stop her and respects like he's a spects
or hopes. Instead, he buries her.

Speaker 1 (01:33:25):
Yeah, he digs a hole and he sticks her in there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:28):
But that doesn't take no, and.

Speaker 1 (01:33:31):
We'll talk about that more after this. So, as you
were saying, the burial doesn't quite go so good.

Speaker 2 (01:33:50):
No, Uh, she claws her way back up and there's
another like another fight with her, and this is where
ash again, he's not the reluctant hero, He's the reluctant survivor. Yeah,
because he's left with no other options. So he grabs
the shovel and starts beating her back with it and

(01:34:13):
then decapitates her with it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:15):
Well, she leaps up in the air like some kind
of trapeze artist. After like kind of goofily ah, he
catches or cuts her head off. The head falls like
seven or eight feet away. The body lands right on
top of him, starts spraying viscera all over his face,
and then it starts kind of almost like humping him. Yeah,

(01:34:37):
and then the severed head over there starts going ah ah,
freaking scary man. In fact, the only thing that I'd
laugh during that scene because it is crazy. But the
only thing I laughed during that scene about is at
one point it cuts back to the head when he
goes like rah, and it's clearly somebody else, Like it's
just clearly, And it just makes me chuck a little

(01:34:58):
because it's clearly like a guy or a woman with
way more makeup on to try and hide the fact
that it's not that actress. So that one always makes
me chuckle a little bit. But like really effective stuff
and they were digging holes to put people under the
dirt and stuff to get those effects to work the
way they did. Yeah, so he's just decapitated with a shovel,

(01:35:19):
buried the parts again and oh you know what we
totally forgot. Huh when he doesn't, it's a small thing.
But when he doesn't, when he decides not to dismember her,
it's with the chainsaw. Oh, because in this one we
don't get any major chainsaw foo really that comes in
part two, but we do. He goes to the WORKSHD

(01:35:41):
and he snaps her down to the table, but then
the evil you know, turns her normal. She's still dead, yeah,
but like she doesn't have the you know, affectations that
are terrified and everything. So I just want to mention
that because I totally forgot, Like, yeah, that was a
really great moment too, just seeing him with the chainsaw
and everything in the he just can't do it because

(01:36:01):
he loves her. And this is something else I really care.
I really love about this movie is they tried and
and to varying degrees, succeeded in really telling a solid
story with a love story with a with friendship stories,
they really they didn't show any They didn't show any

(01:36:22):
like insecurity about that. And I find that especially with
filmmakers who are in movies where there's a lot of
effects and there is a bit of a Gallows humor
element that they kind of chicken away from, like the
human points of storytelling that I think are so important.
They won't have a love story where they play it
for anything other than a laugh. Because early on, like

(01:36:44):
there's a really adorable scene where he and Linda where
he's like pretending to be asleep and she looks at him,
and then when she looks back at the little he
has a little box a gift for when she looks
at the box, he opens his eyes and looks at
her and then closes him right when she looks. It's
actually really cute, and they recreate it when she's a corpse.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
Oh yeah, where she.

Speaker 1 (01:37:01):
Oh there's so much to talk about in this movie.
I mean, it's a very visual movie, so we can't
describe every moment anyway, but and who would want us to.
We've already talked longer than the run time of Evil Dead.
So but but my point is they leaned into this idea.
So when he goes to like chainsaw, they play that
music cue that you hear when they were in love

(01:37:24):
and spending time together. Yeah, it's really it's really sweet,
and it's really important, and I think it's one of
the things that helps set the movie apart. Even though
it's a little silly, even though it's a little ridiculous,
even though it's a little cheesy, who cares, Yeah, I
really love it. But that necklace that he got her
was the ugliest necklace possible, like known to man. But

(01:37:48):
after Linda's decapitation, Ash heads back inside and discovers that
while all this was going on, Cheryl has escaped the cellar. Yay,
that is not great news. And we and during that
sequence we see her like hitting it harder and harder
as he's fighting with her until it breaks. Yeah, and
she gets loose. So Cheryl is of course at first

(01:38:12):
nowhere to be found. Then out of nowhere, she's choking Ash.
He gets away from her and and she's outside the
cabin mm hmm, and he shoots her in the jaw.
And at this point she doesn't look anything like herself
because she isn't. But also, but that's what I'm talking
about about like the creepiness though that like she really
doesn't look like the same person. She isn't, but you

(01:38:32):
know in the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:38:33):
In the movie, she is, and that makes it so
much creepier.

Speaker 1 (01:38:36):
And I really think it works. So now Ash is
trying to barricade the door to keep Cheryl out, and
around that time, Scott, always known for a you know,
late arrival, becomes a dead eye himself and attacks Ash.
So now all hell has truly broke broken loose. Yeah,

(01:38:57):
like that's just what's going on now. And he attacks Ash,
and uh but but he does something that pays off
a little bit, which is he knocks the book over
the uh uh not an necronomicon, the the Neturum Demento demo.
He knocks it over and it lands near the fire

(01:39:19):
in the fireplace, and at that point, one of the
biggest gross outs of the movie, Ash gouges Scotty's eyes out,
which every time, even though you kind of tell it's
a fake head, it still like gets to you, you know. Uh.
So he gouges his eyes out, he pulls a tree
branch out of his stomach that had been sticking in there,
and it starts spewing blood like with the sound of

(01:39:41):
like a faucet, yeah, which I did. I actually find
really effective because the dead Heites are just ridiculous. I
mean they literally are ridiculous to the point of being scary.
But they're ridiculous. They're outrageous. Everything about them is way
far out. Yeah. So uh yeah, so uh. Scott is
like disabled from the eye gouge and the stomach stick

(01:40:03):
being removed, and Cheryl finally busts through the door with
her hands and grabs him, which is the other strongest
jump scare in the whole film. I feel like it
was him grabbing Cheryl's arm and Cheryl's hands punching through
the door and grabbing him, and that just uh yeah,
that one always makes me jump, even though I know
it's coming.

Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
I jumped last night.

Speaker 1 (01:40:26):
Yeah, I know, I know. I was ready to, you know,
uh snap next to your head or something if you
didn't to make sure you did.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
Oh, you're so set, I try so.

Speaker 1 (01:40:35):
Now ashes on the ground and Scott and Cheryl are
attacking him. They're hitting him with fire pokers. They're just
the funniest part is they're not killing.

Speaker 2 (01:40:43):
Him, they're just tormenting it.

Speaker 1 (01:40:46):
They're taking their time. You know they're really enjoying their meal.
And that's something also that sticks with me, like they
could have just stabbed him through the head or something,
but no, they're whacking him with the fire poker. And
as all this is happening, he has a little bit
of a realization as he notices that the book has

(01:41:07):
kind of come alive and is kind of signaling for help,
and he realizes that he needs to get the book
and get it into the fireplace. But how will he
do it and how could it be symbolic? We'll talk
about that right after this. So Ash needs to get

(01:41:38):
the book and throw it back and throw it further
into the fire. He takes the necklace seed what he
had given Linda, which is it has a friggin magnifying
glass on it. It looks like it is the ugliest
damn thing. But he starts throwing it at the book
and trying to hook it to catch it. And I

(01:41:58):
do want to mention supposedly the reason that they ended
up with that hideous necklace was in an earlier draft
of the script, it was going to be used to
use sunlight to like burn the book or something like,
you know, likes as a magnifying glass like burning ants
when you were a psychopathic child, you maybe, but no, uh,

(01:42:20):
but so one of my favor things. He keeps throwing
it and it won't hook the book, which honestly, like
how would it. Yeah, you know it's a long shot.
But then as the as the dead Dites grab him
and pull him away, they reveal as he's being dragged
away that it's hooked the book on the last throw,
which I just think is such a great moment. So
he throws the book right into the fireplace, and as

(01:42:44):
the book burns, the dead ights they just freeze in place,
and it's the creepiest thing. And they start like twisting
their heads and stuff, and you're like cracking sounds and
then they start rotting in place. Yeah, And honestly, this
is the part of the movie that I think really
sets it apart because it hits you with one more
big wow before it's all over, of just these like

(01:43:07):
stop motion animation of them like turning into like basically mold. Yeah,
but at the same time, like gunk goop is coming
out of them, and then these hands burst out of
their bodies for a like there's so much going on
that's insanity. These giant Yeah, these giant arms come out
of the corpses, ones laying on the ground, ones standing up,

(01:43:29):
and and the whole time that they're doing stuff, all
it's really doing is splashing ash with more gore the
whole damn time. This movie was not ranted an R rating,
by the way, they refuse to rate to rate Evil Dead,
Oh really, that happened. That happened a lot back then.
There was no NC seventeen. So yeah, they could technically

(01:43:51):
issue you an X, but you could issue yourself an
X because the NPAA did not and still does not
have a trademark on the X rating like they do
the R rating, PG thirteen rating, PG rating, G rating
and NC seventeen rating. Huh so. So anyway, so it
was released unrated, which is challenging. Yeah, it means that

(01:44:11):
most newspapers can't run your ads. There's a lot of stuff,
so Evil Dead being a hit, A lot of that
was I'm pretty sure word of mouth. Anyway, So, yeah,
they've just turned into these complete the arms coming out,
I mean, it's hard to describe it. They basically just
kind of explode, yeah, eventually, but they take their time exploding,

(01:44:36):
and I would love to know, like what was going
through your head the first time or even this last
time that you were watching the sequence when they start
just like freaking out and dying sort of.

Speaker 2 (01:44:46):
I am always just so blown away because again I'm
I'm a stop motion nerd, and just the amount of
time and dedication it would take to get those shots.
But again, the roughness works. They're not perfectly animated, and

(01:45:07):
that makes it even more creepy and unsettling as they're
like rotting in place. Yeah, and once the hands come out,
I'm just like we because it's it's super effective at
not just you know, scaring you jump, scare ooh, scary,
but also establishing that the evil, even once you've defeated it,

(01:45:32):
the evil is still there trying to get one up
on you. Yeah, there is no truly defeating the evil.
There's only staying it for a while.

Speaker 1 (01:45:42):
Really well, and I like that in a way, the
evil basically just kind of it's impossible to interpret the
actions of the evil sometimes and I kind of love that,
like the idea that like in the Realm of the
Dead heites, it just makes perfect sense that like you
start to rot and then giant arms come out of

(01:46:04):
you and then you explode. That's just what happens. Yeah,
like there you go that we do here. But I
like that because not only is that funny and absurd,
but it's also it's kind of scary because it's like
it doesn't make any sense, doesn't matter if it makes
sense to you.

Speaker 2 (01:46:17):
Yeah, yeah, it doesn't have to make sense to you.

Speaker 3 (01:46:19):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:46:20):
So now dawn has broke, the sun is rising, we're
getting a sense of, like hope in the music, Ash
stumbles outside, covered in blood, completely exhausted, night from hell
and back. And then we see the unseen ramocam coming
from far away, but this time it goes right up

(01:46:42):
to the cabin, and earlier in the movie we'd seen
it go up to the cabin and give up, go away.
And I still don't know. It's never really explained. If
maybe it was because the evil didn't have enough power
yet to just punch right through the cabin, because it
would go through the windows once or twice, and it would,
you know, get into your mind, but it didn't like
just man manifest physically necessarily it woul knock trees around
and things like that, or if it was just because

(01:47:04):
it was biding its time, or because it's so evil
that it plays with you. And that is something also
worth mentioning, is they're supposed to be pure evil, and
pure evil wouldn't just kill you. Pure evil would torment
you and be you know it would it would be
beyond that, It would be a game. It would be fun. Yeah,
it would be thorough so. But this time it comes
up through the back of the cabin. It just punches
through the back door, punches through a door in the

(01:47:26):
middle house, punches through the front door, gets right up
to Bruce Campbell's face. As he turns around, he screams.
It cuts. And we didn't even talk about like when
the light bulbs were bleeding, when the outlets and sockets
were bleeding of the house, when it just started gushing,
like the the the in the basement, the plumbing just
started gushing blood all over him. This movie, there's so

(01:47:48):
much to it. I just wanted to mention that as
a side note, because so much happens. We see his
face screaming, it cuts to black, and that's evil dead
man like all read well, well no, because there's evil too,
but but no, no, and evil dead that's why it's
it's it's a fun movie. It's a scary movie. And
why I do love that it is called the ultimate

(01:48:11):
experience in grueling terror because it is a grueling experience,
not because it's boring or because it's repetitive, but because
there's just more and more and more, and it's so creative,
it's so thought out and in some ways not and
I think it makes it work a ton better.

Speaker 2 (01:48:31):
Yeah, I have to agree, So I just.

Speaker 1 (01:48:35):
Yeah, I've always loved Evil Dead. I do think it's scary. Also,
when you watch Evil Dead with me, the volume is
up all the way up. It's got to be way up,
because when the movie's allowed, it really works. It really
does it really really does. I know they spent a
fortune going to New York City to do the sound
mix on Evil Dead because they wanted it to be
very effective. And boy is it, and boy, howdy is it?

(01:48:59):
And after we get back from this very scary break,
we'll give our final thoughts on Evil Dead and maybe
even maybe tell you what we're covering next time on
the show right after this. So, Rachel, do you have

(01:49:23):
any other thoughts that you would like to share about
Evil Dead, whether it be the first film or the
entire run just anything you want to kind of talk
about or share, because it's unlikely any other Evil Dead,
although maybe Evil Dead, maybe the remake of Evil I
need to rewatch it with fresh eyes. But besides Evil

(01:49:45):
Dead Rise and the Evil Dead Remake, all the other
Evil Dead movies and TV shows are, while still fun
and scary to some extent, they are played for laughs,
so they probably won't end up on the show because
we only talk about this for those who are new
to the cutting deep. The whole point is to pick
horror movies that scare fans of horror movies. Yes, so

(01:50:06):
that makes it a little extra special because there are
lots of horror movies I freaking love, but the ones
that go on the show are the ones that scare
me h and scare you. So with that set up
saying you know, so, if you have anything to say
about Ash or the Evil Dead universe, now is probably
the best possible time.

Speaker 2 (01:50:24):
I mean because we touched on it briefly toward the
start of the show that we watched Ash Versus the
Evil Dead, and that is as a show, it is
much more in like the action adventure camp than it
is like a pure horror camp.

Speaker 1 (01:50:40):
They do have to press how much scares they did
pack in though.

Speaker 2 (01:50:43):
Oh they and they do a great job of really
making the Possession and the demons in the TV show
as equally scary in its own way to the Evil Dead.
But what I love about Evil Dead again is here's

(01:51:05):
this group of fresh filmmakers and actors with a hope
and a dream and not even a I mean, they
had a plan, but all they really had was a
few tools at their disposal and the inability to give up.

Speaker 1 (01:51:26):
Yeah no, I mean they had to see it all
the way through.

Speaker 2 (01:51:29):
And they ended up making one of the scariest movies ever.
And I think that is just kind of it's heartwarming
to people like you and me, and it's a great
it's a great lesson that you don't have to have
all the perfect tools. What you have to do is

(01:51:51):
use the tools you have to the best of your ability.

Speaker 1 (01:51:55):
I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (01:51:57):
So that's that's really what stands out to me every
time time we watched this movie is Yeah, sure, I
notice a few flaws here and there. I notice, you know,
her hands sticking through the latex gloves or using totally
different actors for different characters, But they made it work,
and they made it in such a way that those

(01:52:20):
small flaws are really what make the movie what we
know and love today.

Speaker 1 (01:52:26):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:52:27):
So yeah, that's my thought.

Speaker 1 (01:52:29):
And the staying power of Evil Dead is something that
it's very hard to rival or even even come halfway to.
I mean, we made a short film inspired by Evil
Dead for fun a few years back, when my buddy
Michael Rasso from the Film Photography Project wanted me to
shoot some double eight millimeter film as an example of

(01:52:52):
the film stock he was selling, and we shot. We
called it Cabin within the Woods, which was a play
because Within the Woods was the name of the short
film they made to sell Evil Dead to investors. They
made on Super eight film. It's called Within the Woods,
and it's yeah, it's literally like a ramocam stalking a
girl in a cabin in the woods who goes kayaking

(01:53:13):
and stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:53:13):
It's yeah, it's pretty great.

Speaker 1 (01:53:14):
It was really fun.

Speaker 2 (01:53:15):
But we fit the deer head in there.

Speaker 1 (01:53:17):
We did well. We we lucked out. We were actually
in a hunting cabin, yeah, so, I mean a nice one,
but a hunting cabin nonetheless, So yeah, we had the
deer head there, so we were able to pull it
all off.

Speaker 2 (01:53:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:53:29):
So yeah, no Evil Dead. If you haven't, if you
haven't watched it in a while and you've just finished
listening to us talk about it, if you're not already
chomping at the bit to rewatch it, go, yeah, do it,
do it, especially since spooky season is upon us and
not you know, whether you're a weekly spooky lifelong fan
or you're one of the many, many folks who kind
of join us for the jaridos for the for the

(01:53:50):
last few months of the year because they want something
spooky to kind of end. And a high note on
you deserve to watch them, you really, you really do.

Speaker 2 (01:54:00):
It's got nice fall vibes at the beginning.

Speaker 1 (01:54:03):
Yeah, just at the beginning because for.

Speaker 2 (01:54:05):
The first two and a half minute.

Speaker 1 (01:54:08):
Correct, and what it doesn't have is a real ghost
story about a haunting at the Taby. So before we
get out of here, we will be bringing you two
episodes of Cutting Deep into Horror in October, possibly three
if something happens, but two is the plan right now.
So do you want to share what the next movie
is going to be?

Speaker 2 (01:54:28):
I actually kind of hinted at a little bit through
the episode, Uh huh, because It's going to be a
Nightmare on Elm Street.

Speaker 1 (01:54:34):
Which is the first film to scare the ever loving
hell out of me that I remember. That is movie
number one, the first favorite movie I ever had, not
just first favorite horror movie, first favorite movie I ever had.
Freddy Krueger, eh for real, I believe it had older sister,
so I had all the tapes because they were hers,

(01:54:56):
and then she became too cool, so they became my tapes.
I'm not a kidding when I say, like I was watching
Freddie Wade too young because I got the tapes on
it was like seven years old because my sister didn't
want them anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:55:06):
Yeah that's pretty young.

Speaker 1 (01:55:07):
Yeah that's also I got all those ral steinbooks I
shouldn't have been reading because they were the adult ones,
well the young adult ones, not the kids ones. So
while kids were reading Goosebumps, I was reading Fear Street,
where people were like dying sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:55:18):
Was explained so much about you.

Speaker 1 (01:55:20):
You know what, you're right? I mean, when you're right,
you're right. So but I guess that's all. Then we'll
see you guys very soon. Right here at cutting deep
into horror on Weekly Spooky's feed, And remember we air
on Fridays. We don't know what Friday you just never
know yet, but we do appreciate you guys tuning in

(01:55:43):
with us, so make sure to come back soon, Subscribe
on your favorite podcasting app, and while you're at it,
leave us a five star rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
It really helps other horror movie and scary story aficionados
find the show by seeing that you guys love it,
and if you love it a whole hell of a lot,
I want to support us in a very direct way.
You get at Weeklyspooky dot Com slash Join for as

(01:56:05):
little as one dollar a month. You get bonus episodes
and over five years of exclusive Creepypasta readings and audiobooks.
So all I'm saying is yes, at Weeklyspooky dot Com
slash Join, Rachel, anything else you want to say before
we get the hell out of here?

Speaker 2 (01:56:23):
Uh, don't play that recording with the Book of the Dead.

Speaker 1 (01:56:27):
I have it queued up right here. Oh no,

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Cutting Deep into Horror | The Evil Dead (1981) Sam Raimi’s Scariest Film Deep Dive

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Cutting Deep into Horror | The Evil Dead (1981) Sam Raimi’s Scariest Film Deep Dive