THE EVIL DEAD: "Why Are You Torturing Me Like This?!"

In Episode 50 of Secret Level, Billy and Joey thrust themselves into the world of Sam Rami’s awesome 1981 horror film The Evil Dead! This is always a fun movie to revisit and there are a lot of interesting and fun behind-the-scenes stories that we came across in our research that we have a blast talking about! From the crazy story behind the cabin where they filmed the movie to all the challenges the crew faced during the production. Ultimately, the creative team made an incredible horror movie that launched an insanely successful franchise that is still going strong! 

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Don't watch that! Watch this!This is the heavy, heavy monster
sound! The nutsiest soundaround! So if you've come in off
the street, and you're beginningto feel the heat, well listen,
buster! You better start to moveyour feet to the rockiness,

(00:26):
rocksteady beat of madness Greatopening.
One step beyond I love it AndI'm like I have to start the

(00:47):
podcast with that got stuck inmy head so now hopefully it gets
out I hope so people need tolisten to that song.
It's true.
It's true.
They do now Billy, I was at acheer competition today.
Yes.
With my daughter, who was doingher cheer thing.

(01:08):
Mm hmm.
Afterwards, you know, I'mhanging out with my daughter,
her friends are around.
I took, obviously being a dad, Itook video of the thing, right?
Mm hmm.
So, some of the girls were like,oh, I want to see the video.
Like, I need to see, I wanted tosee how I did.
So I like, scrolling through,showing them that they're

(01:29):
watching the video, okay?
Okay.
And as, as these girls arewatching this video play on my
phone and they're all like, Oh,you did so good, blah, blah,
blah.
They're all like impressed bywhat they were doing.
A text from Billy pops up.

(01:52):
It sure does.
and that text read, have theybeen killed yet?
Yep.

(02:13):
What wonderful timing.
That was the silence.
No one said anything, it wasjust the silence.
Everyone was laughing, having agood time, and then the text
pops up.
Have they been killed yet?
Don't mind that, that's just mysecret life right there, coming

(02:38):
up to haunt me.
Well, it was supposed to say,have they killed it yet, meaning
their competition.
My phone sometimes reallydoesn't like me, so it replaces
things.
That I would never say, but Ihad to commit because it was
already sent.
So I was like, well, there wego.
Have they been killed yet?

(02:58):
Have they been killed yet?
Yep.
So tell them all, I'm sorry.
Hopefully they listen to thispodcast that they know that I
didn't mean, you know, they werekilled.
No, they probably meant thatlike talking about me as a
murderer and my partner, a crimewas like, Hey.
Is the job done?

(03:20):
Have they been killed yet?
Like, I'm on a mission to killsomebody and, and, and my
partner in crime just texted meand is asking me if I got the
job done.
You know what the best part is,is that your daughter knows who
I am so she would go with it.
Well, she would, but she wasn'tthere watching the video with

(03:41):
her friends.
Oh, this only gets better.
Ha ha ha ha! Okay, cool.
I'm very excited about this.
So anyway.
Yeah, um, well, that's yoursquad.
Please accept my sincerestapologies.
Um, we haven't killed anyoneyet.
No, not Thank goodness.
And probably never will.

(04:03):
I don't I don't plan on it, butyou never know.
I don't plan on killing anyone.
I'll just say that.
I'll just say that.
I'm thankful for that.
Thank you.
Alright, everybody.
Welcome to Secret Level.
I'm your host, Joey Parr, andjoining me is my sturdy co host,
Billy Dizzity Deadite Fisher.

(04:27):
And why do we go with the nameDizzity Deadite, Billy?
That's because we are enteringinto the zone that started our
friendship in the verybeginning.
The Evil Dead, Sam Raimi'sclassic 1981 horror film.
Which remains one of the mostbeloved and influential horror

(04:51):
films of all time.
You see, people, uh, when Joeyand I first met each other, this
is one of the first topics thatwe spoke about, was because not
many people were talking aboutThe Evil Dead at that time.
At least in our age group.
No one, dude, no one knew aboutThe Evil Dead.
No one.
We were the guys introducing TheEvil Dead to people.

(05:13):
Yes, and it still remains one ofmy favorite movies of all time.
I mean, we were like, that wassuch an underground horror film
in high school, No one knewabout the evil dead, and so when
you showed it to them, they werejust in awe of the craziness of
that movie, and they couldn'tbelieve that it existed.

(05:34):
I remember screening that tofriends and people just being
like, wait, what?
What did I just watch?
Yeah.
But we gotta remember, EvilDead, I was introduced to Evil
Dead, my first experience in theEvil Dead franchise was Army of
Darkness, which we'll eventuallyget into.

(05:57):
Yes, absolutely.
But I was like, that was What,1993 Army of Darkness came out,
so I was still a young'un, like,you know what I mean?
So it wasn't until maybe a fewyears after that that Evil, the
Evil Dead came into my life.
And I was like, oh, that's thesame, this is, this is the

(06:17):
original.
This is the first movie, this iswhat led to Army of Darkness.
Sweet.
Yes.
Yep.
pretty much the same for me.
I saw Army of Darkness, and thenI was trying to rent it at the
video store.
And it was all rented out, andthe guy behind the counter said
I saw it in theaters.

(06:37):
Yeah, me too.
Oh, okay, good.
Yeah, yeah, no, I I hope youdidn't miss that experience,
because watching that movie intheaters was great.
Uh, it was probably, Ash wasprobably my ideal hero and I
think he still is.
Ash goes from this, you know, ifyou haven't seen any of these

(06:58):
films, I'm not going to get intoit is his story arc from evil,
the evil dead to army ofdarkness is fantastic.
but when I went to go get it inthe video store, it was sold
out, but the guy behind thecounter goes, you know, there's
two movies that come before thisone, right?
And I was like, no idea.
Yeah, I stumbled on it byaccident.

(07:20):
Oh, man.
So beautiful.
Such a beautiful movie.
Uh, we're gonna tell you why.
it really falls into a lot ofthe 80s horror movies, except
for it takes it to 11.
Well, not only takes it to 11,but, I mean, okay, so this was
like a micro budget horrormovie.
Oh, absolutely.

(07:41):
And it's evolved into this,like, cult classic.
It's just like 100 percent leftits mark on the horror genre.
It inspired so much.
It's almost like the twilightzone of like cabin in the wood
movies, right?
Where it, like it did it, the,it did it the best.

(08:04):
And then everything thathappened after followed, I
guess, I don't know.
I mean, I don't know, what'syour take on that, Billy?
I mean, it's a unique blend ofhorror, innovative filmmaking,
super jet black dark humor, butit also just was fun, and like,

(08:24):
it had this cheese value to itthat made it so entertaining.
It had, it, it was really weirdbecause they used such a small
budget, the effects were muchmore effective.
Uh, it didn't pay for actors,it, they had to use buddies.

(08:45):
Which turned out to be one ofthe best things I could have
ever done, but seriously if youhaven't seen this movie Um,
don't judge a book by its cover.
If you see the low budget, like,logo, and the first shot of the
car driving, give it a chance,because you're gonna love the
ride.
Well, and here's the thing, too.

(09:05):
And, and, again, this is, again,for me.
Like, I saw Army of Darknessfirst.
Mm hmm.
I saw The Evil Dead 2 second.
Oh, you went in full reverse.
And I didn't see the origi I sawEvil Dead 2, and then I People,

(09:27):
I think it was my uncle that wastelling me, well, you gotta
watch Evil Dead, the original,the Evil Dead, the one before
too.
Because I remember himexplaining to me, it's like,
it's the same movie, but it's alot more, like, it's a lot lower
budget.
Yeah.
And so they had to be reallyinventive with how they made the
film.

(09:47):
They had to like, basically takeevery, bit of money they had,
every resource, and just pushthe boundaries of what they
could basically could be donewith independent horror.
Right.
And the best part about it is,is this kind of set the standard
of what a horror movie should befor me.

(10:10):
Like, it has to check all theseboxes in order for it to be
good.
Because if it's not, this'lljust come above it and it'll be
like, hey, Evil Dead was better.
But, all these They all haveAll, all the movies have their
charm.
These three original movies, andEvil Dead, the Evil Dead, they
all have this charm to them thatyou just can't help but love.

(10:32):
And when I re watched this one,I just had an absolute blast.
And it's I even got my wife andmy daughter to sit down.
And watch part of it with me.
That would have been fun towatch.

(10:52):
Yeah.
It gets to places where they'relike, Dad, what are you
watching?
Yes, like, the whole treesituation.
The tree rape scene, yep, yep.
That's insane.
But the thing is, at the time,like, What?
They're doing something crazy.

(11:14):
Like, who thought of this?
Who's, what twisted mindsthought of this?
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbelland, you know, their crew.
And then you've got Raimi whobasically, like, had that really
cool invented Inventive, um, useof the camera, the shaky cam

(11:35):
shots where he's like run, youknow, they put the camera on
like, uh, boards and like ran itthrough the forest to get that
first person kind of, um, I wishthere was a name for it.
We'll just call it the Ramy shotwhere the zoom is faster.
And I remember it, like, itcreated this, like, visceral

(11:57):
sense of dread.
Yes.
Like, you're just like, what isthis?
It was just this erratic, low tothe ground movement.
From the persec Basically, it'sfrom the perspective of the
unseen, evil, dead demon.
Right?
Right.
That is, like, going after thisgroup of young adults in this

(12:19):
cabin.
You know, they're gonna bebrutally murdered.
But I think the best part aboutthat is, is that it, that was an
unspoken shot.
Like everybody knew that'sexactly what that is.
And like it had it just the zoomitself had its own acting
purpose.
Like when it comes up to thedoor and it stops and then just

(12:41):
slowly backs up.
Cause it knows it's, it's goingto get in there.
It's just, just wait.
It's really interesting too,because, it almost.
It's, yeah, it, I, I recentlysaw Steven Soderbergh's new,
horror movie, Presence.
And the whole movie is from theperspective of, of the ghost

(13:02):
that's haunting the house.
Uh huh.
And I just, I remember, like,I'm watching it, and I'm like,
man, like, this was, this was,Sam Raimi started, like, did the
point of view of the ghost orthe demon, like, that was Sam
Raimi.
Sam Raimi did it first.
Right.
On a next to nothing budget.
Yeah, exactly.
Invented one of the best shotsin movies.

(13:22):
It's, it's true.
It's its own character.
You just made the cameracharacter and it, it was amazing
how he did it.
Yeah.
Whoever was holding the camerawas basically the, uh, the
demon, the ghost.
Oh man, we got a lot to getinto.
The deadites.
We have so much to get into.

(13:43):
We could talk about ourexperiences with this, but let's
get into the little backgroundand we'll give you some more of
what we've got.
Will kind of just want to, thepractical effects were like
insane too.
Just this low tech stop motion.
Gallons and gallons of fakeblood, all this, do it yourself,
kind of like, DIY, like, makingmovies happen, type.

(14:10):
production, you know, they wereworking with whatever they had
and it would, and you could tellit, it made the movie feel raw,
gritty.
It made everything feeltangible.
You got the grotesque, liketransformation sequence, then
the violence and the gore and.
I like that it's not polished.

(14:32):
I love that it's just rough, andlike, dirty, and gross.
Cause it takes it to this like,unsettling, nightmarish
atmosphere.
It creates this like,unsettling, nightmarish
atmosphere.
Which I love about the movie.
And today, everything, all thesehorror movies we're seeing

(14:52):
today, they're all polished.
Everything, the blood ispolished.
You know, these major Hollywoodmotion picture horror movies,
it's like they don't, they'remissing that edge of insanity
that Ramey and his team broughtto something like the evil dead.

(15:12):
Like, I like to liken the evildead to that times Blair Witch
Project.
Like it almost felt like a foundfootage movie because of how raw
it was, how nasty the deaditesfaces become when they, Dude,
it's so gross and I love itbecause of it.
So good.
I love, I love that the makeup'slike peeling off and like, Yep.

(15:35):
Like, it just makes it work evenbetter.
If it, you, cause we watchedthe, like, we watched the new
Uh, versions of the evil deadand well, I like the new
versions and they take things tolike crazy hardcore level.
It's still polished.
It doesn't feel like what we'reseeing here.

(15:55):
You know, everything still feelslike a Hollywood produced movie.
I just like the independent,like the indie grunginess of the
evil dead.
Which, the modern movies, eventhe modern Evil Dead movies just
can't quite capture.
There's only one movie that youand I have seen that comes close

(16:18):
to that visceral experience, andthat was Section 9.
Yeah, Session 9.
Session 9 was one of the mostgritty, you know, Yeah, we
should talk about that onesometime, that's a good one.
We will have to talk about thatbecause I can go on about that
one for a while.
But, Session 9, And the evildead have that, that edge to

(16:39):
them that you're like, allright, I get this man.
But like, I know a lot of peoplewill complain, like the blood in
the movie looks fake, but Ithink that's kind of the thing
with it is that it looks, it isnasty.
It's well, not only that, but italso gives it a cartoonish feel,
right?
Which.

(16:59):
You know, it works for thismovie.
I mean, the movie is dark.
It is, first and foremost, ahorror film.
Right.
But the humor also is fun.
Oh my gosh.
The demons are mocking thesepeople.
I mean, yeah.
All the way through.
I mean, you've got the gore andthen you've got some slapstick
stuff in there too that you justcan't help but appreciate and

(17:23):
love.
Because it's That it's themovie's personality it is the
evil dead wouldn't be the evildead without That right, right.
It can't be like a straight astraight laced horror film just
wouldn't work for for this No,absolutely not And I think
that's what kind of makes that'sone of the things besides the

(17:44):
deer head that really got me isthese The demons knew they were
gonna win.
So they're messing with them thewhole time.
Yeah Like, oh, I'm so scared.
Uh, what's her name when she'sin the floor and popping her
head up every once in a whilejust to mock them and go back
down.
Yep.
I'm like, screw that guy, dude.
That guy's the worst.

(18:07):
Oh, man.
But we can't forget, I just wantto like talk about Bruce
Campbell because, I mean, he isthis franchise, let's be honest.
Oh, yes.
His portrayal of Ash Williams asthis hapless hero who has to

(18:28):
endure this unspeakable horrorand survive this insane madness,
he is so good as Ash.
He should have won an AcademyAward.
Let's be honest.
I mean, yeah, so, that's anotherthing in this.
The arc that starts off, causehe's got his, the girls with

(18:49):
him, and he's got that assholeScott with him.
And Scott is a cocky, cockyasshole.
Yeah.
But he makes Ash look like sucha weenie in the beginning of it.
Well, and on top of that, Ashstarts off with this like At
first, he's kind of has thisdisbelief and has this fear, but
as things go on, he's, you know,you get to see that he's got

(19:13):
this stubborn determination,borderline, kind of crazy ADHD
madness thing going on there,right, right?
It's, he's got, he plays that,that role of somebody who's
seeing something they can'tbelieve, but are trying to like.
Accept it in their reality.

(19:33):
Yeah, trying really hard not togo crazy with all this madness
happening and his physicalcomedy Isn't is amazing Yes,
He's able to like convey thatlike exasperation while fighting
off these deadites and man, itjust gave the film this like

(19:53):
sense of fun, man.
And every time I watch it Ijust, I love watching Bruce
Campbell do his thing.
He had free reign to do whateverhe wanted with this character.
And it just worked.
It did.
It worked.
It was so good.
And I guess I gotta give creditto the guy, Scott, because he

(20:13):
was supposed to play this.
Complete asshole.
Sure, it worked, it worked.
He did what he needed to do.
But not as good as BruceCampbell did.
Yeah, but yeah, Sam Raimi tookthis movie, popularized the
cabin in the woods thing.
Now it's just a movie trope thateverything, you know, a lot of
horror films use.

(20:35):
but even the cabin itself inthis movie is a character.
It absolutely is.
It's this oppressive,claustrophobic, like,
claustrophobic, environment withthe characters.
It feels like it's closing in onthe characters as it's playing
out, as the story's playing out.
And I love it.
It's cut off from The outsideworld, the characters have no

(20:58):
hope for rescue, and it justeverything just they're just
living their living their bestnightmare.
Exactly.
And you know what, I don't knowabout you, but if I would have
been in that car, and we droveup to that cabin.
I would have said, nope.
Yeah, you would not have, Billy.
I would be gone.
No, you wouldn't.
We've been to haunted houses andyou didn't run.

(21:22):
That's true.
Okay.
But like, look at it now as anadult and I'm like, Nope, I'll
go to a hotel.
No, you won't.
You would never go to a hotel.
I wouldn't.
You'll always stay in the cabinin the woods.
Ah! Family vacation, kids.
We're going to the cabin in thewoods.

(21:42):
Oh, man.
And we're going to watch thisgreat movie while we're there.
Oh, it's going to inspire you towant to stay there longer and
longer.
Maybe forever.
Yeah.
Dun, dun, dun.
But I watched this interviewwith Sam Raimi.
and it was, he, he shot theinterview in 1982 and it's so

(22:05):
funny to watch, they're soyoung, like these were kids,
dude, when they made this movie,Ramey and Campbell and all these
guys, they were just kids justgoing out and making a horror
movie in the woods and they hadno idea what they were getting
themselves into.

(22:25):
Right.
But it's such a fun interview.
and in it, Ramey says that hewanted to make a Rock'em Sock'em
roller coaster ride of screaminghorror.
All right.
Mission accomplished.
And he delivered it.
Yep.
He totally delivered that.
They wanted to make a film thatwould, uh, entertain the horror

(22:47):
crowd.
And they were inspired by thefilms that they watched and felt
that they did.
And this is what's great, isthey made this movie and they
felt that they actually diddeliver a punch.
Like, they really, they hit it.
They hit what they wanted tomake.
To help get the money for thismovie, they made like basically

(23:10):
a short film on a super, on asuper eight titled within the
woods.
And they would show that.
To investors, to show them thatthey could make a professional,
quality film and pull off whatthey were pitching.
So, they made this short film,pitched it around town, they

(23:34):
raised 90, 000.
They shot the film on locationin Tennessee.
And before they startedshooting, The original cabin
they intended to shoot the moviein fell through, like they lost
it.
So, they started shootingeverything outside of the cabin,

(23:59):
while they were So they wereshooting the film, but they shot
everything outside of the cabinuntil they could find a new one.
And they found this old place inthe middle of the woods, okay?
And when they got there, therewas, and this is all, this is
Ramey telling this story fromhis own mouth.

(24:19):
There were six inches of cowdung that the crew had to shovel
out of the cabin.
Before they could shoot themovie.
That's disgusting.
That is absolutely dis It had tosmell beautiful.
But, I mean, the cabin lookslike something that would hold

(24:39):
six inches of cow dung in.
Yes, but they Not only did theyhave that cabin, I mean, They
set up the studio in the cabin.
They They were They slept in thecabin.
I mean, this cabin was liketheir grounds of It was ground
zero for shooting this movie.
This is what, this is where theywere going to be.

(25:02):
Beautiful.
And Sam Raimi shared this likecrazy story, okay?
So here we go.
This is, he shared the storyabout the cabin that they, that
they got.
This is really, it's reallypretty cool.
Okay.
He said, there was a horrorstory regarding the cabin.
It was built a hundred yearsbefore the film was shot.

(25:22):
The man who built it died rightafter it was built.
It's surrounded by mountainswith iron ore.
So during lightning storms,lightning would strike the
valley.
No one lived in the cabin forthe next 20 years.
And it was 1910 when a family ofthree moved in.

(25:42):
A mother.
Uh, daughter, grandmother.
Three generations of women.
One night during a lightningstorm, the little girl woke up
scared by the lightning strikes.
To escape and find safety, thelittle girl ran into her
mother's room and crawled intobed with her only to find her
mother was dead.

(26:04):
She was so scared she ranscreaming to her grandmother's
room and found her grandmotherwas dead as well.
They don't know why both womendied in this place on the same
night.
The little girl ran out into thestorm, four miles to the nearest
farmhouse, and the family therefound her screaming, banging on
their door.

(26:25):
They brought her inside and gotthe story from her.
They took care of her afterthat, and no one lived in the
cabin since.
She had never been the samesince, and during thunderstorms
she would wander off.
And they would find herwandering around in the woods.
The Tennessee Film Commission,who was touring the location,

(26:47):
told them It was haunted, butthey could use it.
As they were shooting, the guyfrom the farm came by and he
told them the story of how hisfolks took care of the girl.
And when the woman got older, hewas out looking for her because
she frequently wandered to thecabin.
And as far as they knew, theynever found the woman while they

(27:09):
were shooting.
And she could still be roamingthe woods.
The strangest part of the storyis a week after they left the
area after shooting, a bolt oflightning struck the cabin and
burned to the ground.
Holy crap.
Whether Raimi is making this upbecause he was a young kid

(27:29):
trying to sell his movie, right?
But at the same time, like,that's the story he told, that's
what he put out there.
Bro, I love that so much becausethat's true.
That fits the story of the evildead so well.
And I just, you know, while wedon't know for sure if it's

(27:49):
true, Mm hmm.
I want it to be true.
In every way.
Which is probably kind of like,weird to say, since like, two
women died and left their girlpermanently like, traumatized
for life.
But maybe she was the vessel forthe demons.
Oh, man.
That's why the girls got Youjust, wow, you went dark, dude.

(28:14):
That's why the girls got, uh,possessed first and went after
Scott.
Wow.
Yeah.
Think about that.
Yeah.
Interesting.
I'm thinkin Thinkin Yep.
Alright, well.
During the interview, theytalked about, they were talking
about how they didn't, the,like, the people interviewing

(28:36):
Raimi, they were all hisfriends, they were all friends.
But during the interview, theydidn't want Raimi to mention
that the film was shot in 16mm.
They were like, no, don't saythat, don't say that.
Why?
They didn't explain why.
They were just like, don't,don't say that it was shot on
16mm.
Because it was, they shot it in16 millimeter, but it was blown

(28:57):
up to 35 millimeter.
But they just wanted everybodyto think that they had shot the
movie at 35 mil.
That's my take on it.
But it was funny listening tohim discuss things like, Hey,
don't mention we shot this movieon 16 millimeter.
We don't want people to knowthat.
I think that's what makes it sogreat though.
That's what they expanded it outto 35 and it made it grainy and

(29:18):
weird.
Yeah, and well it is I lovethat.
If you watch the interview, Imean, Rainey's just laughing his
ass off the whole time.
You can't, it was so hard to gethim to like, to talk about,
like, things, cause he wouldjust like, laugh.
It was, it was veryentertaining.
Right.
with the movie, theyintentionally wanted to elevate

(29:40):
the role of the women in thefilm.
And gave them the opportunity toterrorize the men instead of the
other way around.
Which was, pretty Prettyoriginal for that time.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
They're like, hey, let's let'shave the women torture the men
for once, right?
And it worked.
Yeah.
Yeah The brutal rape scene wasshot backwards motion and then

(30:05):
reversed Right kind of get youcould feel that you kind of give
it that little eerie vibe to itYou can you can definitely see
that right?
It worked, but, dude, that mademe not want to go in the forest
for a while, though, man.
No, Billy, you're not gonna getit.
Because usually it's animals.
You're always scared of animals,right?
Not trees.
Scared of animals?

(30:25):
I go mountain biking and seebears all the time, Billy.
This is true.
And I jump on their backs, andI, like, screw the bike, I'm
riding a bear.
And I jump on the bear's back,and I just go, Billy.
Yeah, that's something we needto talk about.
You know this.
There's so many videos of thishappening that it's kind of

(30:46):
getting me a little disturbed.
Yeah, I have a But we'll talkabout that later.
I enjoy riding bears likehorses.
Joey has more bear encountersthat I have in my text messages
than anybody I've ever known.
Anyone.
This is true.
Yeah.
I run into bears a lot.
I thought I was cool cause I gottrapped in the snake pit once,

(31:09):
but this guy, he takes on fullon bears.
Bears.
Yeah.
We'll talk about the snake pitlater.
Yeah, we will.
In other episodes.
We will.
Uh, Ramey said that Stephen Kingwrote a review of the film, for
Twilight Zone magazine, and heloved it.
Of course he did.
We'll get into that a little bitlater.
By the end of shooting, thewhole cabin has, uh, had, uh,

(31:31):
fake snakes.
Sir, uh, blood, Kero syrup allover it.
Mm hmm.
And anytime anyone wanted totouch the camera, they had to
wash their hands.
Mm hmm.
According to Ramey, the onlywater they had was from a coffee
machine.
And so it was, they had to washtheir hands with scalding hot

(31:53):
water coming out of the coffeemachine.
See, these are the little thingsthat make a movie what it is.
I love it.
I love it.
And it got so cold duringshooting that at one point ramey
crawled out of the cabin to dieOkay All right, because of the

(32:20):
cold because because of the coldand one of the producers put a
blanket on him I mean, well, atleast he survived.
It's so funny how they said thathe crawled out of the cabin to
die.
To die.
It was so cold.
Oh, man.
Uh, the most difficult part ofmaking the movie was trying to

(32:48):
find more money than what they,uh, when they ran out of it.
Well, yeah.
I mean, for a 90, 000, uh,shoot.
I think it came out pretty well.
Yeah, well, I guess they had toget more.
I think they ran out of it at90, 000.

(33:08):
Man.
they lost They asked a lot ofBruce Campbell for the movie.
Mm hmm.
He was the one constantlycovered in blood.
And he had to This is what'sfunny about Campbell is he was
his own continuity guy.

(33:29):
So there was no one there totouch up his makeup, make sure
he looked the same from scene toscene.
He was the one that kept trackof where the blood on his face
was, on his body, like, he wasthe He was the guy that was
like, trying to, like, puttingall the blood back on him.

(33:51):
Right.
That's insane.
And he did that all throughoutthe production.
So crazy.
The most difficult shot in thefilm had Sam Raimi hanging
upside down from the ceiling ofthe cabin.
And he had to like, lift himselfup, he had a rough time doing

(34:11):
it, but you, you will, if youwatch the movie, you know the
shot, it's the shot that comesover Bruce Campbell's head.
And that was the most difficultshot for him to pull off.
But the thing is, is like, noone had pulled off a shot like
that before.
Right.
Like, Rami Now you see it allthe time.
Now you see these shot Iremember after I re watched the

(34:32):
movie and read through this, Iwas like, I started going
through it.
I was watching other horrormovies, and I'm like, Oh,
there's that shot from anotherfilm.
Oh, there's another shot fromanother film.
It's the same shot that SamRaimi's been doing.
Everyone's doing it now.
And that's the thing, too, isthat there's a certain feel when
Raimi's directing a film.
Yes.
Like, when it comes to horrormovies, or Spider Man, or Doctor

(34:56):
Strange, they all have thistouch of Raimi, because he likes
the interesting shots.
Yes.
That don't seem necessary,because they're not necessary,
but they are, by the end of thefilm, they are completely
necessary.
You'll remember those shots overall the others.
So, oh, one other thing, theygot charged by a bull at one

(35:16):
point while shooting the movie.
Why not?
Of course they did.
Because you have to get chargedby a bull while shooting a
movie.
Any movie.
Any movie, anywhere, if you'renot charged by a bull, then
you're just not doing it right.
Yeah, there's no point.
Exactly.
You shouldn't have even tried.

(35:36):
So, those are things that Ilearned from the interview that
Ramey gave.
And some of these things weregonna, they're, as I continue
on, there's gonna be things thatwill provide a little bit more
context and things like that.
So, the cabin, as I said, wasalso used as lodging.

(35:59):
And that was for 13 crew memberswith people sleeping in the same
room.
Living conditions were terribleand the crew frequently argued.
The cabin didn't have plumbingand so the actors went days
without showering.
And as you might imagine, theyfelt, they got sick a lot in the

(36:20):
freezing weather.
And by the end of theproduction, they were burning
furniture to stay warm.
You gotta do what you gotta do.
Now at the end of shooting, thecrew put together a time capsule
package and buried it inside thefireplace of the cabin as a

(36:42):
memento to the production towhomever found it.
Okay.
Now it says, like I said before,the cabin has since been
destroyed, and only thefireplace is still intact.
To help get the film finished,Bruce Campbell put up his
family's property.
That was so Ramey could finishthe film and also to help blow

(37:05):
it up to 35mm, which wasrequired for a theatrical
release.
Ramey was so grateful forCampbell's financial
contribution that he creditedhim as a co producer on the
movie.
And he's been a producer in thefranchise ever since.
I mean, that took a lot of faithon Bruce Campbell's part to do

(37:28):
that, but I mean, it paid off.
Yeah.
It really did.
they got advice, Ramey andCampbell got some advice from a
friend named Andy Granger whosaid, and I don't know if this
is what his voice sounds like,but I'm just gonna say it like
this, FELLAS, NO MATTER WHAT YOUDO, KEEP THE BLOOD RUNNING DOWN
THE SCREEN.

(37:49):
Which, dude, you see that allthe time now.
Well, yeah.
He even included a scene in thefilm where the ru, where the
blood runs down the screen as atribute to him.
Right.
See that's, we see that all thetime now, and I know a lot of
people are like, oh, that's soinnovative.
No, that came back way back inthe eighties.

(38:11):
Yes.
The original script called forall of the characters to be
smoking marijuana, so apparentlythey did it for real.
As they're listening to the, asthey're listening to the
recording.
Evil recording.
Which, creepy as hell, huh?
Oh my gosh.
I hate those tapes.
Oh, I love them.

(38:31):
They're the best.
They're creepy.
Those recordings creepy areamazing.
I love'em.
They are.
They're and they seem real.
That's what got me when I waslittle.
I was like, are these real?
'cause they are real.
I want them to be real.
Oh.
Just like, I want the tapes fromsession nine to be real, dude.
Yes.
We gotta do that soon.
Okay.
act.

(38:52):
We're go.
We're guys, just so you know,for the next couple episodes,
we're kind of on a horror.
Arc so just be ready be ready.
It's a new year.
It's a horror.
It's a it's a new year of horror2025 started a good start with
that too.
We got the fires and Californiawhich by the way, I actually my
wife and I would on the way homefrom the Cheerleading

(39:15):
competition that we went to wewent through Alta Dena, dude
completely devastated man Wow, Iget like hurt to see What we saw
like I just like I couldn'tbelieve it.
Ugh.
Anyway, I don't know so we wehave a friend who lost her home

(39:35):
in the fire.
Our good friend Georgia.
She's one of our favorite peoplein the world.
Yeah.
Uh, her and her wife lost theirhome.
Um, they may not be able to,rebuild or buy it back.
Who knows what's gonna happen.
It's wild up there.
Anyway, as for the marijuanaThey decided to try this for

(39:58):
real, like I said, and, uh, theentire scene had to be shot
later.
It had to be re shot laterbecause it just didn't work.
I have, I have here, I, it, I, Ihave here in quotes Reshot due
to their uncontrollablebehavior.
Ha ha ha ha! Fantastic.

(40:20):
You know, some of these, some ofthese little things that I find,
I hope they're true.
I hope it, I hope so too,because that's hilarious.
I'd love to see some cutscenesfrom that.
Yeah.
the film's first cut ended upbeing 117 minutes long, which
Campbell called an impressiveachievement in the light of the

(40:41):
65 minute length of thescreenplay.
It was then edited down to amore marketable 85 minutes.
Okay.
The original version wasconceived as a horror drama,
with the occasional joke tobring some levity, and would
focus on the terror that made itinto the final product, but also

(41:03):
the tragedy of Ash slowly losinghis friends and his guilt for
not being able to save them.
After watching the first cut,Ramey, Campbell, and, uh, the
producer, Tapper agreed that thefilm was already grim enough and
trimmed it to a straight horrorfilm.

(41:23):
But there's still comedy inthere.
So much comedy! I know.
You shouldn't look I mean, Iguess it's tragic to watch
somebody who just got possessedbe funny, but that's where it
comes from, this is an evilentity that was As he's losing
people, it's making fun of him.
Yeah.
You know, that hit me in thelast viewing.
That's what really hit me.
I was like, man, this thing's apiece of shit.

(41:46):
Oh, man.
By the end of filming, everydayBruce Campbell is covered head
to toe in blood.
And if you want to know how,well, if you want to know the
recipe to fake blood, Karosyrup, non dairy creamer.
And lots of red food coloring,and one drop of blue food

(42:10):
coloring to darken it.
So, there is your fake bloodrecipe from the evil dead.
Oh, well, I mean, we all needthat.
Bruce Campbell's shirt that hewas wearing to the film was so
saturated with the fake bloodthat after trying it by the
fire, the shirt becamesolidified and broke when he

(42:33):
tried to put it on.
That just means you're making agood movie.
I know.
The eerie wind noise in themovie was recorded by Sam Raimi.
He first heard it through hisbedroom window while he was
trying to sleep and thought itwould be the best.
Be perfect for the movie.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it works.

(42:54):
Of course, you got to havecreepy wind blows in horror
films guys Uh, and i'm sure youall know this but i'm just gonna
say it anyway, ramey andcampbell Were friends from high
school?
They made a lot of super 8movies together and they would
often collaborate with sam'sbrother ted campbell became the

(43:16):
actor of the group is And Iquote, He was the one that the
girls wanted to look at.
Oh, yeah.
Campbell played brief parts andcameos in most Raimi movies ever
since.
Which I'm kinda sad about.

(43:36):
Like, I love that they stillwork together, but man, I would
love to see Raimi and Campbellmake a full on feature film
again.
Right.
Together.
Together.
And it doesn't even have to bean Evil Dead movie.
You know what I mean?
It could be anything.
Anything.
Actually, I'd like to see a new,some new content.

(43:57):
Yeah, like tell a whole newstory that fits Campbell's age
and like, do something fun, dosomething wacky and crazy.
They should be having a goodtime together.
I agree.
Oh, in case you wanted to knowhow old Rainey was when he, uh,
shot the film, he turned 20 justbefore shooting began.

(44:23):
Nice.
And he considers the project hisrite of passage.
I get it.
Dang, they were young.
In his autobiography, Campbelldescribed the film's production
as a comedy of errors and 12weeks of mirthless exercise in

(44:44):
agony.
But he also admitted that hemanaged to have fun.
Okay.
Uh, the white contact lensesthat he had, that people had to
wear were very painful.
They covered half the eye andhad to be taken out every 15
minutes to allow the eyes tobreathe.
That's scary.

(45:04):
I don't like contacts.
I'm never gonna put a contactlens in my eye.
I keep hearing horror stories ofit, like, going behind the eye
and I'm just like, I can't doit.
I watched my wife go through about once where she thought she
had lost her contact that itslipped behind her eye and it

(45:26):
was like, two hours of And thisis when she first started using
them.
It was rough.
That was a rough night.
Ugh, that gives me the Anyway,yes.
Uh, when they weren't filmingthe movie, Campbell would
actually help out with the crewand prepping shots and props

(45:48):
around the set.
Sam Raimi originally wanted thetitle of the film to be Book of
the Dead.
Okay.
Makes sense.
But producer Irvin Shapirochanged the title to The Evil
Dead for fear that kids would beturned off seeing a movie with a

(46:08):
literary reference.
That's dumb.
You can't have book in the titleof a movie, folks.
Apparently.
Because People won't watch it.
I'm looking at you, Book of Eli.
I actually dug that one, though.
I don't know.
It's been a while.
I don't remember if I liked itor not.

(46:29):
I saw it once in the theater.
I don't have bad thoughts aboutit.
That was just off the top of myhead.
That's the one title I couldremember that had book in the
title.
And I get that.
If you can think of any others,let me know.
One Step Beyond! Do do do do dodo do do do do do.

(46:49):
Alright.
In Germany, the movie's February1984 release was hindered by
public authorities for eightyears.
What?
Okay.
Um, weird.

(47:11):
Yeah.
The original 1982 film and videoreleases of the movie had been
seized.
Making the movie a hit on theblack market video circuit.
I didn't know there was such athing.
With pirated copies.
heavily edited version was firstmade available in 1992.

(47:34):
Okay.
Several high profile horrorenthusiasts, among them even
author Stephen King, publiclycriticized the German ban on the
movie.
In other German languagemarkets, the movie was never
restricted from distribution.
The first legal uncut version ofthe film entered the German
market in 2001 on DVD.

(47:57):
Okay.
This version was seized byGerman authorities less than a
year later.
It was not until July 2016 thatthe uncut version of The Evil
Dead was finally redeemed andmade legally available in
Germany again.

(48:17):
So this is crazy.
Like, what?
If you edit anything out ofthat, any of the scary stuff,
anything like that, this moviemakes no sense.
Yeah, it's already a short movieas it is.
I know so funny.
People are weird.
Anyway, that's a fun littletidbit.

(48:38):
One of the most intricate What?
This is one of my favoriteshots.
Okay, you know where I'm goinghere.
Yeah, one of the most intricatemoments during editing was the
stop motion secret where thecorpses melted which took hours
to cut properly.
Yes, I love that.
That makes me so happy.

(48:59):
Yes.
It's just Yeah, it was justoriginal for its time.
Yeah, I liked it.
Uh, back to Stephen King realquick.
Back to Stephen King real quick.
He, uh, it was because of hisglowing endorsement of the film,
the review he wrote in TwilightZone Magazine and his quote.

(49:23):
Well, you know, they used aquote that was put in the film
ads and the posters and.
That's why the film, like, thathelped push the film to get
picked up by New Line Cinema.
Okay, I mean, yeah.
He was the master of horror atthat time, and he said, hey,
this is just as good.

(49:45):
Let's do it.
It's exactly what happened,Billy.
It's exactly what happened.
Yeah.
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RUUUUUUUUUUUUH I want that to bethe end of this episode too.

(53:49):
Normally you say somethingfunny, but this time it should
just be RUUUUH That's fun.
Yeah, okay.
film production ran out of moneyand only half of it was

(54:10):
completed in the winter of 1980.
Oh wow.
In order to complete it, Ramey,Rob Tappert, Bruce Campbell.
Uh, man, they had to, uh, dosome stuff.
They had to take out some highinterest bank loans.
Uh, borrowed money from familyand friends.

(54:32):
And they even made cold calls tobusinesses around their hometown
in Michigan.
Uh, the cold calls worked.
In that they actually gotcatering, gasoline, and other
necessities that the cast andcrew needed.
That's amazing.
It just shows you, man, ifyou're like driven, and you're

(54:54):
ready to put in the work, andthe hours, and the persevere
through the madness of making amovie that you can actually make
it.
You can do it.
That's crazy.
Anyway, thought that was fun.
Joel Coen of the Coen Brotherswas an assistant editor on the
film.
This was one of his earliestprofessional jobs, and in case

(55:16):
you didn't know, uh, Cohen andRamey were good friends.
I mean, we talked about this inthe, uh, Darkman podcast, where
they had a strong relationship.
They were roomies! They wereroomies.
They were.
Struggling in Hollywood to makemovies, yes.
Now they're just commonhousehold names.

(55:37):
Yep, so Joel and his brotherEthan would go on to produce and
direct films like Blood Simple,The Big Lebowski, Oh, Brother
Where Art Thou?
Oh, Brother Where Art Thou?
Oh man, I like that movie a lot.
Me too, we should talk aboutthat later.
Anyway, Blood Simple is thefirst one that they made
together after, Evil, The EvilDead came out.
That was in 1984.

(55:59):
In preparing to get funding forthat film, the Coens enlisted
the help of Campbell and Rameyto, help out, and they did.
So, Campbell and Ramey alsostarred in a short film based on
scenes of Blood Simple for theCoens to show to potential, uh,
show to potential investors,which proved successful.

(56:20):
I've never seen Drag Me to Hell.
Was that worth it?
Oh, yes! Yes, Billy, yes! I'mgonna have to watch that movie.
It's a great Raimi.
It's all 100 percent Raimi.
To the core.
I really haven't seen.
Oh man, you gotta watch it.
I'm going to tonight.
Sweet.

(56:41):
Over his years as a director,Raimi is 1973 Oldsmobile Delta
88.
Originally bought by, uh,Ramey's father for the family
when he was only 14 years old.
Has played Ash's car in the EvilDead movies, as well as Uncle
Ben and Aunt May's car in theSpider Man movies.

(57:04):
Mm hmm.
And Annie's car in The Gift.
Great movie.
Oh, and uh, Miss Gnush's car inDrag Me to Hell.
I'm a failure.
Just, I haven't seen Drag Me toHell, so I have failed.
You've gotta watch Drag Me toHell, dude.

(57:26):
It's the one that you're gonnalove the most.
The most.
Maybe.
I don't know.
We'll see.
Who knows.
I always thought, after youwatch it, Mm hmm.
Uh, you'll understand what I'mabout to say, but I always
thought it'd be cool if, like,the Drag Me to Hell movies in
the world of I mean, it's almostlike Evil Dead and Drag Me to

(57:47):
Hell could be in the sameuniverse.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I'm gonna have to check this outthen.
Yeah, I'm really gonna have towatch it.
So, I I would have loved to seea crossover film.
Anyway.
I have an idea for a crossoverfilm for Drag Me to Hell and The
Evil Dead that I would love SamRaimi to make.

(58:08):
So, if he's listening, I got apitch for you.
We've got something.
We've got a pitch.
Make a great film.
People will love it.
The cabin that they shot themovie in didn't have a cellar,
Billy.
That's crazy.
Yeah, most of the cellar, uh,scenes were filmed in the stone
cellar of a farmhouse owned byproducer Rob Tappert.

(58:31):
Okay.
Or at least his family inMarshall, Michigan.
The last room of the cellar wasactually Sam Raimi's garage.
Oh.
The hanging gourds and bones area tribute to the Texas Chainsaw
Massacre.
For the scene where the, youknow, the students descend into

(58:53):
the cellar.
A hole was cut into the floor.
A shallow pit was dug and aladder was placed into the pit.
Okay.
So, there you go.
That's how you do it.
That's movie magic, everybody.
It's movie magic.
Uh, I've kind of talked aboutthis before, but I'll just say
it once again.
It was freezing when they madethis movie.

(59:15):
According to the cast and crewmembers, this was one of the
worst experiences they've everhad been involved with due to
freezing temperatures.
And Sam Raimi's filming, whichtook endless hours.
Endless.
Which means They would neverrest, but I'm sure they did

(59:36):
yeah, I mean it goes back towhen you said it was originally
117 minutes of film Yes.
That sounds pretty non stop tome.
It does.
On the first day of shooting,during a scene shot on a bridge,
the crew got lost in the woods.
They should have made a movieabout that.
Oh, yeah.

(59:56):
Lost in the woods?
What a concept.
When Cheryl returns to thecabin, right after the scene
with the vines, where shecomplains about wanting to go
home, Scott goes to saysomething and then suddenly
stops.
Throws his head back and stepsout of the shot.

(01:00:20):
This was due to actor RichardDemanincore.
blowing his line.
It's funny that it made it intothe movie though.
That's pretty awesome.
Yeah, yeah.
That's good, good stuff.
You just can't cut good stuff,Billy.
You can't.
At the premiere screenings ofThe Evil Dead, blood donor

(01:00:40):
stations were giving freetickets to the movie along with
pin badges stating, I bled forThe Evil Dead to blood donors.
I want those.
I love this.
This is such great marketing.
It is.
Uh, Tappert joked in aninterview that it was their way
of giving blood, giving bloodback to the community after so

(01:01:03):
much fake blood was used whenfilming.
That's awesome.
So funny.
I love it.
Bruce Campbell twisted his ankleon a root wall running down a
steep hill because, you know, ithappens.
Raimi and Tapper decided totease him by poking his injury
with sticks, thus causingCampbell to have an obvious limp

(01:01:23):
in some scenes.
Yeah, very nice.
Those are good friends.
I mean, it sounds like somethingwe would do, but yes, I get it.
after the film was shot and allthe crew members were sent home,
Campbell was staying with Raimi,and while they were looking over
the footage that had been shot,Raimi discovered that a few

(01:01:44):
pickups were required to fill inmissing shots.
Four days of reshoots were thendone to complete the film.
The final moment involvedCampbell having monster guts
splattered on him in thebasement.
On the tape in which the demonresurrection passages are read
aloud, some of the words spoken,which appear to be in Latin,

(01:02:07):
sound like, Sam and Rob das isthikers den de road sah.
Which means, Sam and Rob are thehikers on the road.
As it was actually Raimi andTappert who play the fishermen
that wave to the car as itpasses them near the start of

(01:02:29):
the film.
Interesting.
I didn't know you were somultilingual.
I kind of like it.
I am.
I can speak Latin now.
Dead chickens were stabbed toreplicate the sounds of
mutilated flesh.
I said that as happy as I could.
And Bruce Campbell had to screaminto a microphone for several

(01:02:52):
hours.
What would that be?
You know, to get the screamingdown.
There's a rumor that a cameramanslipped during filming, smashing
his camera into Campbell's faceand knocking out several of the
actor's teeth.
But Campbell has since debunkedthis as a good lie.
Oh, okay.
I like it though.
Nothing happened there.
I like the story.

(01:03:13):
Sometimes I wish fake storieswere true, but you never know.
Until you know.
Until people come out and sayit's a good lie.
Sam Raimi showed the film toanyone willing to watch it,
booking meetings withdistribution agents and anyone
with experience in the filmindustry.
Eventually, Raimi came acrossIvan Shapiro, the man who was

(01:03:35):
responsible for the distributionof Night of the Living Dead.
I'm sure you've heard of thatmovie.
And other famous horror films.
Upon first viewing the film, hejoked that while it, I quote,
wasn't gone with the wind, Ithad commercial potential, and he
expressed an interest indistributing it.

(01:03:58):
It was his idea not to use the,the, you know, I already talked,
I talked about this, but I'lljust keep reading.
It was his idea not to use thethen titled Book of the Dead
because it made the film soundboring.
Raimi brainstormed severalideas, eventually going with The
Evil Dead.
Deemed the least worst title.

(01:04:20):
Shapiro also advised The leastworst title.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Shapiro also adviseddistributing the film worldwide
to garner a larger income.
Obviously, that would be thesmart move.
Though it required a furtherfinancial investment by Raimi,
who managed to scrape togetherwhat little money he had.

(01:04:41):
In the end, the movie ended upbeing somewhat successful.
I mean It did well.
It's, it's had a great run.
It's, and it's still going.
Still going.
After Scott says, Don't you seeAsh there alive?
He screams higher than hisnormal voice register.

(01:05:02):
This was actually Raimi's voicemeshed in with Scott's scream.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
So That's cool.
Re listen to it.
I'm gonna have to.
And see what that sounds like.
I will.
Yes.
During the scene where Linda ispossessed, the makeup artist
originally wanted to make herlook like a snake like creature.

(01:05:24):
As can be seen when Ash isdragging her outside.
Yeah, I hate that song.
It's super creepy.
Yes, her makeup was dark and alittle more greenish, but
eventually they changed themakeup to an evil doll face
look.
Yeah, I like the doll face lookstill it's scary.

(01:05:46):
It's the way to go I'm glad theyskipped out on the snake like
creature.
The contacts for the demon eyesYeah the movie how they had to
like, uh They could only wearthem for 15 minutes because the
eyes couldn't breathe with themapplied and campbell talked
about that experience sayingthat he He said they had to, he

(01:06:09):
called them Tupperware.
We had to put Tupperware overtheir eyes.
Interesting.
So that doesn't sound like funat all.
I don't wanna, I'm not one tomess with the eyes.
Like, I don't, I like my eyes.
I like to be able to see.
Yeah, I don't know.
Ugh.
People who wear contact lenses,like, high fives.

(01:06:32):
Yeah, more power to ya.
You guys are doing great thingsthat I could never do.
I don't wanna touch my eye.
No thank you.
Campbell received a lot ofinjuries during the making of
the film.
A noticeable one caught oncamera is in the scene where he

(01:06:53):
possessed Cheryl's hand, wherehe possessed Cheryl's hand burst
through the cabin floor, andlike, to try and grab Ash's
face, and a trickle ofCampbell's actual blood runs
down his head as the actor wasGashed in the head by the
puppeteer, uh, in the floor whoblindly grabbed for Campbell.

(01:07:17):
Oh, interesting.
So.
They made him bleed his ownblood.
Yes.
Inspired by William Castle, youknow, those old school 1960s
William Castle horror movies.
Thirteen Ghosts, The House on aHill.
Man, I love those movies.
So good.
Uh, Raimi had ambulances onstandby as a publicity stunt at

(01:07:40):
the film's premiere.
Good for him.
Yep.
Shots of the moon had to bematted into the night scenes.
In the footage, a square outlineis visible around the moon mat.
In his glowing review of thefilm, Stephen King specifically
cited matted moon footage asbeing part of the film's low

(01:08:02):
budget charm.
Absolutely.
Yes, I love it.
One of the sketches used in TheBook of the Dead comes from
William Blake's painting theGreat Red Dragon and the Woman
Clothed with the Sun.
The painting was the inspirationfor Thomas's, Thomas Harris's
book Red Dragon and the film ofthe same title from 2002.

(01:08:29):
When Ash shoots a Deadeyethrough the window of the cabin
causing an explosion of blood,Campbell is actually firing real
life ammunition at a dummy,causing the scene to look more
realistic, which you would neversee today.
Nope, never.
Unless you were filming a moviein Indonesia.
Hahaha.

(01:08:49):
Yeah, no.
You're shooting a movie inAmerica and no one's using real
ammunition, everybody.
You just can't do it in this dayand age, you gotta be super
chill and super careful.
Heck, people aren't even usingblanks anymore.
It's all digital, and the thingthat And like, I get it, but

(01:09:11):
man, the things with thedigital, sometimes Looks cheap.
It looks cheap, and they needhelp.
Yes.
You can do good CG gun flares,everybody.
It is possible.
And someone needs to, like, workon that if we're not gonna be
using blanks anymore.
Right, something has to,something has to change.

(01:09:33):
Which is fine, I get it.
But, like, let's up the game onthe CG stuff.
Anyway, alright, moving on.
To accommodate Raimi's style ofdirection, several elaborate low
budget rigs had to be builtsince the crew could not afford
a camera dolly.
One involved a, and I quote,Vasocam, which relied on a

(01:09:56):
mounted camera that was sliddown a, uh, long wood platforms
to create a more fluid sense ofmotion, which we talked about
earlier.
So much fun.
That's just a little bit moredetail on it.
the film was released in theUnited States by New Line Cinema
with a X rating.
Holy crap.
Which has obviously since beenrevised to NC 17 in 1994.

(01:10:22):
Are uncut and unrated because ofthe licensing studio.
Renaissance Pictures was notcontractually obligated to
provide an MPAA rating.
But when it was released intheaters, I mean, this was like,
Hey, you wanna go see a hardcorehorror movie?

(01:10:43):
Could go watch, go watch TheEvil Dead.
And it somehow seems worse whenthey say that it's unrated or,
yeah, when it's unrated.
Yeah, I remember, I rememberlike watching movies in the 90s
and like, like being, I rememberfirst seeing these in like the
video stores and stuff beinglike, Oh man, it's unrated.
We have to watch that version.

(01:11:05):
Ugh, some of it wasn't thatgood, but here we are.
Here we are.
This movie was that good.
In a scene where Ash drives awayfrom the cabin, he gets out of
the car and seems to walk at anangle, creating an eerie,
otherworldly effect.
This was accomplished by parkingthe car on a slight incline and
tilting the camera at the sameangle so that the car appeared

(01:11:30):
straight.
When Bruce Campbell gets out ofthe car, he is walking On the
flat ground, which looks crookedbecause the car and camera are
both tilted sideways.
I like it.
This is what I like about Raimi.
Doing things and being creativeand inventive with his camera
shots.
The whole movie is an inventivecamera shot.

(01:11:53):
It's always a lot of fun.
Yeah.
Cigarette smoke stood in fordust caught in the sunlight when
Scott first opens the door tothe cabin.
According to Ramey, it was RobTappert who stood just off
camera smoking while the shotwas being filmed.

(01:12:16):
The rednecks that wave at thepassing car Are played by Raimi
and Tappert.
That day they, uh, had cut eachother's hair in order to look
more like idiots.
Later, Tappert accidentallyappears on the right side of the
frame just as the car starts todrive over the bridge.

(01:12:37):
Uh, here's, here's, here'ssomething funny.
Lucy Lawless saw the film uponits release and she was appalled
by the movie, particularly theinfamous vine rape sequence.
And she wondered what kind ofhorrible people would make such
a film.
Well, ironically, she wouldlater marry the film's producer,

(01:13:00):
Rob Tabbert, who was the guy whoinsisted on making the scene
more sexually violent.
And then she also worked inproductions directed by Ramey.
Like, uh, you know, Xena theWarrior Princess.
She even had a small cameo inSpider Man.
And played Ruby in Ash vs.

(01:13:20):
Evil Dead.
So it grew on her.
I guess so.
She I guess she forgave him.
Yeah, when she married him.
The earring how the eeriehowling wind audio heard in the
background of the of the moviewasn't stock sound effects Ramy
actually recorded this audio andsell himself while staying in a

(01:13:41):
hotel During filming one nightRamy awoke to hear the wind
blowing through the mountainscreating a haunting sound Ramey
quickly got his sound equipmentand recorded several minutes of
it.
Ramey said that the audio was soeffectively creepy that he'd rec
that he'd, uh, recognized itused in several other horror

(01:14:03):
films since the Evil Dead'srelease.
So that's kinda cool.
Yeah, that is cool.
It is a creepy sound, man.
Yeah.
During the car scene, Scotty hasa glass of moonshine in his hand
and Because as Scotty does, youknow, he, moonshine, uh, Billy's
got a glass of moonshine in hishand right now, too.

(01:14:25):
I do, it's great.
I, yes.
And, uh, Ash makes a funny face.
Originally, they were allsupposed to be drinking
moonshine, and Ash's expressionwas a reaction to the drink, but
the scene was cut out.
Clever.
The affordable single barrelshotgun was purchased by
Campbell at a Kmart for itsspecific use of the film.

(01:14:50):
Since the budget was extremelylow And where they were filming
was secluded in the woods.
Live ammunition was used for acouple of scenes.
Scenes such as when Ash shoots.
The window and also a dummyfilled with blood was shot.
Most of these scenes were filmedat low angles.
So the camera would not be hit.

(01:15:12):
Thank goodness.
Uh, for other scenes, uh,Campbell simply mime fires the
shotgun.
At the end of production,Campbell and Tapper, bought
about a hundred shells and shotup every prop used in the cabin.
The resulting rumble was thenlit into a huge barn fire by the

(01:15:35):
director, by director Sam Raimi.
Okay! They were on a destructivestreak.
I guess so.
It happens.
Yeah.
The hectic location shooting inTennessee often called for night
scenes to be shot duringdaylight hours.
So the windows of the cabin hadto be covered to make it appear

(01:15:59):
night outside.
At least one shot from thefinale had the opposite
situation.
Filmed during the evening with abright light outside a window to
make it appear that it was dawn.
Oh, that's crazy.
When Ash re I'm gonna have to rewatch this because I didn't
catch this when I watched it.

(01:16:19):
But when Ash reaches for thenecklace on the form, the chain
forms Sorry, when Ash reachesfor the necklace on the floor,
the chain forms the shape of askull.
That's crazy, I'm gonna have tosee that gun.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to seethat.
I didn't catch that.
Me either.
Ellen Sandweiss said the treescene would be filmed a

(01:16:42):
different way today.
Saying, yes, I'm sure that thetree scene would have been done
differently if it was filmedtoday.
First, I'm not sure that itwould be characterized as a tree
rape, as Ramey has since said heregrets that it ended up that
way.
I think it would have gone backto what was originally intended

(01:17:04):
in the script.
Trees coming to life andattacking Cheryl, which would
also satisfy today's morefeminist audiences and
actresses.
And I'm sure that CGI would beused instead of the reverse
filming or whatever it's calledto show the vines wrapping
around me.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't know.

(01:17:24):
I mean, they did it in theremake of Evil Dead.
They pretty much They did do itin the remake.
100%.
Or Evil Dead 2.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Raimi chose to use variouscolors of liquids, including
white, black, and even brightblue, uh, that spewed from
mouths of the possessed becausehe thought the censor's board

(01:17:45):
would be more lingering on thefilm if it wasn't bright red
blood.
However, the color of the liquiddidn't matter.
To them, as much as there werebodily fluids spraying out of
orifices.
And the movie ended up, youknow, got an X rating, so you
got that.
Ash flirtatiously peeks at LinEugh, hello! Um.

(01:18:09):
Hahaha, hello.
Ash flirtatiously peeks at Lindawhile pretending to be asleep,
shutting his eyes when shelooked back at him.
Ironically, after she'spossessed and apparently killed,
her corpse does the same thingto him.
Creepy.
I like the fun details likethat.
That's what I'm saying.
A tin box of band aids can beseen floating in the puddle of

(01:18:33):
blood that Ash steps into in thecellar.
This, of course, was a cheekybit of black humor after the
cellar literally shows showersof Ash's blood.
This, of course, was a cheekybit of black humor after the
cellar literally showers ash andblood.
The shot of the demonicinfection spreading across

(01:18:55):
Linda's leg was shot later witha different actress.
She had to keep perfectly stillas the infection was drawn onto
her leg frame by frame.
A process that approximatelytook an hour to complete.
According to Tappert, once theshot was finished, the stand in
actress promptly threw up.

(01:19:19):
Yeah, that's what you get forstarring in an Evil Dead movie.
At the premiere of the film, oneof the investors came up to Sam
Raimi and said, I'm very upset.
I thought you boys said you weremaking a horror picture, not a
comedy.
It's got both.
You know, sometimes movieproducers just need to be

(01:19:39):
slapped in the face.
Let's be honest.
Oh, I should be that guy.
Let's do that.
You should be the producerslapper.
I love that idea.
Let's do it.
On the opening night of thefilm, at the Rivoli Theater, the
audience yelled at the screenduring many of the typically
stupid decisions of the horrormovie characters.

(01:20:02):
Robert Hsieh, whose New LineCinema was distributing the
film, told Raimi that they wouldhave to make cuts to those
scenes.
However, when they passed theRialto Theater on 42nd Street
later that night, they saw soldout shows for the entire night
and heard people praising thefilm.
Shea quickly changed his mind.

(01:20:22):
He said, or Raimi said, It wasthe shortest change of an
editing plan.
Well, yeah.
Sold out is sold out, man.
You gotta keep it that way.
Yep.
Originally, the script calledfor Lynn to be stabbed in the
foot, however, producer RobertTappert insisted that possessed
Shelly stab her in the Achillestendon to punish the audience

(01:20:44):
more.
And yes, whenever somethinghappens to the Achilles tendon,
I just wanna die.
Oh my gosh.
I just can't do it.
And the worst Achilles tendon,Shot?
Shot ever put on screen?
Pet Cemetery.
This was pretty bad.
But Pet Cemetery was, was justthe one that is like stuck in my

(01:21:09):
head.
It's like that one's likeembedded in my memory forever.
The pain.
Oh, the pain.
That's gotta be the worst.
I just felt so bad for HermanMunster.
Well, I mean He became one ofthe most famous, uh, dead men in
the world, so that's fine.
It's true.
You know, he's Frankenstein.

(01:21:30):
In the original script, beforereaching the cabin, the group
was supposed to stop at a gasstation where Ash would talk to
the owner of the station andretrieve the keys for the cabin.
It was also supposed to have anold man playing a banjo, uh,
warning the group that, and Iquote, Some evil forces stalk
those woods.

(01:21:52):
It's probably better that theydidn't do that.
I like that they just kinda showup.
Yeah.
With no warning.
I mean And then shit goes down.
When the shit goes down, youbetter be ready.
Yes.
I get it.
Obviously, uh, the movie wasinspired by George Romero's

(01:22:12):
Night of the Living Dead.
Raimi points to the filmspecifically for its use of 16mm
film, its small budget, and itssmart use of a single location.
Yeah, I mean, like you said, itfeels claustrophobic.
The whole thing.
There's no way of getting out.
The bridge is broken.
Yeah, that gives me the creeps.

(01:22:36):
Yeah.
When Ash carries Linda outsideto bury her, the image of her
flowing white robe in a man'sarms was a tribute to the look
of the Hammerhorn movies.
Which are some of Joey'sfavorites.
I love the hammer horror films,man.
Those classic films are greatWhat's the hammer horror movies?

(01:22:57):
I wish they would do them inlike a You know, we could go see
them back to back.
Yes movie marathon style That'dbe cool the sound of the clock
chiming when ash emerges fromthe basement near the end of the
film comes from the movie thetime machine Nice.
25 percent of the film's US boxoffice came from drive in

(01:23:20):
theaters.
Perfect movie for drive intheaters.
Absolutely.
Ugh.
It would add to the whole chillof the thing.
Yes.
As for the vine rape scene,cause we talk about this a lot.
It just keeps coming up in ournotes here.
Uh, Tappert says that it wasinspired by a scene in

(01:23:43):
Shakespeare's Macbeth, in whichBurnham Woods comes to life.
Ramey said that it was inspiredby The Incredible Hulk.
So, you choose.
Yeah, take, take whichever oneyou want.
The ball's in your court,audience.
Do it.
Originally the forest justattacked Cheryl.

(01:24:05):
Oh, yeah, we kind of talkedabout this But I guess there's a
little bit more context hereOriginally the forest just
attacked Cheryl, but afterseeing the dailies producer
Robert Tapper Insisted the sceneshould go a little bit farther.
So they added the penetrationshot Ah! Yeah! Ah! No one likes

(01:24:27):
that.
Ah! Don't go in the woods Stayaway.
it is not easily visible, Scottyhas a stick poking through his
abdomen after coming back fromthe woods.
This stick is later pulled outby ash, resulting in a fountain
of blood.
Because many people didn'tnotice the stick, it is often

(01:24:48):
suggested that Ash pulls Skye'spenis off.
And I just had to say thatbecause it's so ridiculously
funny.
We're just pulling dicks offover here.
Oh, man.
It's interesting because, uh,the sensor board.

(01:25:09):
That was one of their biggestissues, was the stick coming out
of Scotty's abdomen.
Really?
Abdomen.
Ab Abdomen?
Ab Abdomen.
Ha ha! Abdomen! Why can't I saythat?
I don't know, but it's funnythat you get it.
Scotty's stomach.
Ha ha ha ha! Excellent.

(01:25:34):
Oh, this next one, dude, ah.
Okay, go ahead and read it.
Son of a bitch.
I forgot this.
Okay.
Okay, so here we go.
The crew's famous time capsulewas dug up by a Kentucky
filmmaker, Dane Sears, who iscurrently known for the Hope
Will Haunting, which wasreleased in 2023.

(01:25:54):
He showcases its remains in aYouTube video uploaded to his
Quick Hill Films channel.
We're gonna have to check thatout and add that on our site.
And what?
Who is this guy to dig it up?
I know, right?
It was supposed to be us.
Well, not only that, but like.
It was supposed to be us.

(01:26:15):
Who is this guy?
I don't know.
Honestly, though, it should havebeen someone from the
production.
You would think so.
Anyway, whatever.
Yeah, I don't know, Billy.
I don't know.
Me either.
So why do, why do fans hold theEvil Dead so close to their

(01:26:37):
hearts and souls, Billy?
Because it is so, it's becauseof the low budget in it.
And this is just my opinion, Iam no professional in this
scenario.
But I think it's because of thelow budget.
The way it was shot made it feelreal.
The whole DIY thing, theresourcefulness, the passion of

(01:26:57):
the filmmakers.
It just makes it feel more,gritty and more scary.
Cause it feels like it's, like Isaid, like it's the Blair Witch
Project of the 80's.
Took us by surprise and it leftan impression.
And it's just, it's just proofthat you don't need a huge

(01:27:21):
budget or big studios backingyou to create something
memorable and impactful.
You know what I mean?
Like, you've got a good story,you've got a camera, you've got
a few bucks, you can go out andmake a great movie, guys.
Seriously.
This movie It's inspirational.

(01:27:42):
It is.
And no matter how many timesI've seen it, it's still so much
fun.
Yes.
And we still find something newin it that we didn't notice
before, or It's great.
Yeah, and I just, I enjoy theover the top gore.
I enjoy the grittiness.
I enjoy Bruce Campbell's, uh,charm.
Reactions to everything.

(01:28:03):
His ridiculousness.
It's just fun to constantlyrevisit.
I actually had a chance tofinally see this movie on the
big screen.
It was like five years ago.
They did this screening at oneof the old theaters in downtown
Los Angeles on Halloween.
I went to it and it was awesome.
It was such a cool experience.
They did it with like a liveorchestra there too.

(01:28:25):
So they did all the music live.
It was really cool.
Really cool.
Oh man, I'm super jealous, thatsounds like a lot of fun.
Yeah, that was one of myfavorite things, but Evil Dead
stands as like this testament tocreativity, innovation, and the
influence can be seen incountless other horror movies
that followed.

(01:28:46):
You know what I mean?
I do, and it's, I think that'sthe fun of it, because then you
We've watched hundreds of horrormovies, but then you see
something in Evil Dead thatyou're like, oh, that's where
they got that from.
Exactly.
Oh, now I see that.
And it's just cool to have,like, the starting point to
compare it to.
Yeah.

(01:29:08):
The movie is a reminder thatpassion and ingenuity and a
little bit of madness can resultin something truly special.
And a haunted cabin.
Yeah.
The movie leaves Fans in awe ofwhat can be achieved when the
odds are stacked against you.

(01:29:29):
That was inspirational.
Yes! Inspiration.
You're like the Evil Dead ofpodcasters.
But that's it everybody.
That's, that's our Evil Deadepisode.
Yeah.
Thank you for listening.
We really appreciate it.
We do, and I'm excited for moreto come.
Thank you again for listening tous.

(01:29:50):
We really appreciate it.
we're having a good time overhere.
We're, you know, doing thesewhenever we can.
Life gets in the way.
We wish we could do them moreand hopefully one day we'll be
able to like, do these thingsweekly.
But in the meantime, we're doingthem when we can.
So you can follow us on X, andFacebook, and Blue Sky.

(01:30:13):
All at GTSecretLevel is ourhandle.
So, at GTSecretLevel.
But thank you very much anduntil next time everybody.
Good journey.
Good journey.

(01:30:46):
Oh, what's a jingle?
Gimme a jingle.
We need a good jingle.
Um.
If your house smells nice, wellthat's a shame.
You need something bold,something untame.

(01:31:08):
Light up a candle and hear theboom.
Sasquatch scented candles, itclears the room.
It's stinky, it's funky, it's ohso rank.
But that Sasquatch scent, you'llgive us a thanks.

(01:31:31):
Rrrrrrrrrr! That's