The Demonic Voices Were Real People
The chilling, inhuman voices of the Deadites weren’t complex digital effects. Director Sam Raimi, star Bruce Campbell, and other crew members simply recorded their own voices, which were then manipulated and played back at different speeds to create the unsettling sounds.
Bruce Campbell Suffered for His Art
For the scenes where Ash is possessed, Bruce Campbell had to wear incredibly painful, custom-made white contact lenses that completely obscured his vision. He described the process of putting them in and taking them out as excruciating.
The Coen Brothers Got Their Start Here
A then-unknown Joel Coen (of the Coen Brothers) was hired as an assistant editor on the original The Evil Dead. He was instrumental in helping Sam Raimi sort through the massive amount of footage and even edited the iconic “shed” sequence.
The Famous Blood Was a Coffee-Infused Concoction
The special effects crew, led by Tom Sullivan, created the film’s signature blood by mixing Karo corn syrup and red food colouring with non-dairy coffee creamer to make it opaque. The secret ingredient was a bit of instant coffee, which gave the blood a darker, more realistic texture on film.
The Film’s Original Title Was “Book of the Dead”
Sam Raimi’s preferred title was Book of the Dead, but producer Irvin Shapiro insisted it needed to be changed. He argued the original title sounded too much like reading and wouldn’t appeal to a younger audience. He suggested The Evil Dead, and it stuck.
The “Shaky Cam” Was a DIY Invention
Unable to afford a professional Steadicam, Raimi and his crew invented their own solutions for the famous “demon’s-eye-view” shots. They mounted the camera to a two-by-four plank of wood, which two operators would run with through the forest, a technique they dubbed the “Shaky Cam.”
Stephen King Saved the Movie
The Evil Dead struggled to find a U.S. distributor until it was screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Horror author Stephen King was in the audience and was so impressed that he gave a roaring endorsement, calling it “the most ferociously original horror film of the year.” His quote was slapped on the marketing materials, and New Line Cinema quickly picked it up for distribution.
The Necronomicon is a H.P. Lovecraft Creation
The “Book of the Dead” is not an original invention of the films. Its proper name, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, was borrowed directly from the works of iconic horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, who used the fictional grimoire as a recurring element in his stories.
The Magic Words Are a Sci-Fi Homage
The famous incantation Ash must recite in Army of Darkness, “Klaatu Barada Nikto,” is a direct tribute to the 1951 science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, where the phrase is used to stop the destructive robot Gort.
A Secret Feud with Wes Craven
In The Evil Dead, a torn poster for Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes can be seen in the cabin’s cellar. This was Raimi cheekily suggesting his film was scarier. Craven responded by having the characters in A Nightmare on Elm Street watch The Evil Dead on TV. Raimi got the last laugh by hanging Freddy Krueger’s glove in the tool shed in Evil Dead II.
Raimi’s Oldsmobile is in (Almost) All His Films
The 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 that the gang drives to the cabin is Sam Raimi’s actual car from his youth. It has become his cinematic trademark, appearing in nearly all of his films, including the Spider-Man trilogy (as Uncle Ben’s car) and even as a wagon in his western The Quick and the Dead.
The Cabin Was Real and Really Destroyed
The cabin used for filming in Morristown, Tennessee, was a genuine, dilapidated cabin the crew found and had to repair. After the brutally difficult shoot wrapped, the cabin was allegedly burned down by Raimi himself, leaving only the stone chimney, which has since become a pilgrimage site for die-hard fans.
Evil Dead II is a “Re-quel” Because of Legal Issues
Many fans are confused why Evil Dead II seems to remake the first film’s setup before continuing the story. This was due to a legal problem: the producers couldn’t get the rights to use footage from the first movie to create a recap. Their solution was to quickly re-shoot the key events of the first film in the opening 10 minutes, creating a hybrid of a remake and a sequel.