60 Fun Facts About Evil Dead

In Army of Darkness, what kind of weapon does Ash brandish as his 'boomstick'?

A shotgun: Ash fires it to silence a hostile crowd, then pitches it like a salesman as a twelve-gauge, double-barrelled Remington from the sporting goods department.

What is Ash Williams's full first name?

Ashley is the full name behind the nickname, and the wisecracking hero's middle name is no tougher: he is Ashley Joanna Williams.

What short film did Raimi and Campbell make as a prototype to win investors for The Evil Dead?

Within the Woods was shot for about $1,600 on a farm in spring 1979; its one cinema booking put it on ahead of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, where the cult crowd took to it.

In which state did The Evil Dead's crew shoot in a remote cabin that had no running water?

Tennessee: the cabin stood near Morristown, where filming began in November 1979; a shoot planned for six weeks stretched towards twelve, and most of the cast and crew had left before the end.

Which horror novelist saw The Evil Dead at Cannes in 1982 and wrote a rave that helped it find a US distributor?

Stephen King saw it at the festival and raved in print; his quote went onto the posters, and critics who might have ignored a cheap shocker took notice.

What was The Evil Dead's working title, dropped when sales agent Irvin Shapiro asked for a change?

Book of the Dead, a title that grew out of Raimi's reading of H. P. Lovecraft, lasted through the shoot; Shapiro, the agent who sold the film abroad, had it renamed The Evil Dead.

Which university do Ash and his friends attend in The Evil Dead?

Michigan State University was Raimi's own campus: he was studying literature there with Rob Tapert when the two began planning a horror feature.

In The Evil Dead, which two companions are Ash's girlfriend and his sister, in that order?

Linda and Cheryl: Ash's sister Cheryl is possessed first, after the woods attack her, and promptly stabs his girlfriend Linda in the ankle with a pencil.

In Evil Dead II, what does Annie Knowby bring back to the cabin from the dig?

The book's missing pages return from the dig with Annie; they hold the ritual she recites with her dying breath to open the vortex and banish the demon.

What nickname, inspired by Raimi's Three Stooges fandom, was given to stand-ins replacing unavailable actors?

Fake Shemps honoured the Three Stooges, whose producers hid doubles after Shemp Howard died in 1955; The Evil Dead's credits list several cast members as Fake Shemps.

Which future Oscar-winning director worked as an assistant editor on The Evil Dead?

Joel Coen, later an Oscar winner for Fargo and No Country for Old Men, was an assistant editor; he borrowed the prototype-trailer trick to raise money for Blood Simple.

In the UK, The Evil Dead was famously branded and banned as what kind of release in the 1980s?

A video nasty was the press label for tapes blamed for corrupting viewers; The Evil Dead's video was banned once the 1984 Video Recordings Act arrived, and the censors passed it uncut only in 2000.

What did the Evil Dead crew call the camera-on-a-plank rig that two runners carried in place of a Steadicam?

The shaky cam was a camera fixed to the middle of a plank with a runner on each end, skimming low over the ground for the demon's point of view when a real Steadicam proved too costly.

Which company released The Evil Dead in American theaters in April 1983?

New Line Cinema picked it up after festival praise and a strong British run raised the film's profile at home, and opened it in New York on April 15, 1983.

Evil Dead II carried which subtitle on its 1987 posters and publicity?

Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn was the full title on its 1987 posters; the opening recap rewrites the first film so only Ash and his girlfriend visit the cabin.

Which Italian producer funded Evil Dead II after the novelist who championed the first film phoned him?

Dino De Laurentiis, then producing Maximum Overdrive with the novelist, put up the sequel's roughly $3.6 million budget and kept the story in the cabin.

In Evil Dead II, what does Ash attach to the stump of his right arm after cutting off his possessed hand?

A chainsaw: the effects crew swapped the real saw's petrol engine for a small electric motor so Campbell's hand could fit inside the casing, and filed down the teeth for safety.

In Evil Dead II, which Hemingway novel tops the books Ash piles on his severed hand?

A Farewell to Arms tops the pile, one of the sight gags co-writer Scott Spiegel pushed for after arguing that the sequel should play less as straight horror.

Which horror villain's signature weapon hangs in the tool shed in Evil Dead II, a nod to a rival film?

Freddy Krueger's bladed glove hangs in the shed, a reply to A Nightmare on Elm Street, where Nancy fights off sleep with The Evil Dead playing on her television.

Who played the possessed Henrietta in Evil Dead II, inside a full-body latex suit?

Ted Raimi, the director's younger brother, wore the suit in sweltering heat that Lou Hancock, who plays Henrietta before her possession, was spared.

To dodge an X rating, Evil Dead II reached US cinemas unrated through a shell company with what name?

Rosebud Releasing Corporation was a shell set up so the producer's own company, bound by ratings-board rules, never had to submit the film; Raimi himself designed its blooming-rose logo.

The North Carolina farmhouse that housed Evil Dead II's production office had just appeared in which film?

The Color Purple had used the farmhouse near Wadesboro; Raimi's team based itself there, three hours from its producer's studio, to keep him at arm's length.

At the end of Evil Dead II, Ash and his car are sucked through a vortex to which period?

The Middle Ages, around 1300 AD: Raimi had wanted that whole story for the sequel, but his backer asked for another cabin film, so the idea waited for the third one.

What model of car does Ash own throughout the original Evil Dead trilogy?

Oldsmobile Delta 88: the 1973 sedan began as the Raimi family car, and the director has slipped it into nearly every film since; in Army of Darkness it becomes the steam-powered Deathcoaster.

Ash's incantation for taking the Necronomicon in Army of Darkness is borrowed from which 1951 science-fiction film?

The Day the Earth Stood Still supplied the alien command the film borrows; Ash forgets its last word, coughs his way through it, and so wakes the army of the dead.

In Army of Darkness, Ash works at which department store?

Ash is a housewares clerk at S-Mart, the store whose slogan he recites; by Ash vs Evil Dead, three decades on, he is stocking shelves at Value Stop instead.

Which line does Ash deliver after killing the Deadite in the store at the end of Army of Darkness?

Ash blasts the Deadite and says 'Hail to the king, baby' in the upbeat store ending, reshot after Universal rejected Raimi's bleaker original finale.

In Raimi's original, rejected ending for Army of Darkness, Ash oversleeps and wakes up where?

A post-apocalyptic London greets Ash after he swallows too much of the sleeping potion and wakes centuries late; Universal found that ending too bleak, so a happier one was shot.

What was Army of Darkness's working title?

Medieval Dead was the working title Raimi preferred; the final name went back to sales agent Irvin Shapiro, who had advertised a sequel called Evil Dead and the Army of Darkness years earlier.

Which actress played Ash's love interest Sheila in Army of Darkness?

Embeth Davidtz, later Miss Honey in Matilda, plays Sheila, who is carried off by a flying Deadite and turned against Ash by his evil double; Bridget Fonda appears too, but only in the opening recap.

Which composer wrote Army of Darkness's 'March of the Dead' before LoDuca scored the rest?

Danny Elfman had just scored Raimi's Darkman and contributed that one theme; Joseph LoDuca, composer of both earlier films, came back to score everything else.

Who directed the 2013 Evil Dead, in his feature debut?

Fede Álvarez posted Panic Attack!, a short about giant robots wrecking Montevideo, online in 2009; it won him a Hollywood deal backed by Raimi, whose company then handed him this remake.

Who plays Mia, the recovering addict at the centre of 2013's Evil Dead?

Jane Levy, then of Suburgatory, plays Mia after Lily Collins dropped out in early 2012; Mia's cabin detox is the reason the friends gather.

In which country was the 2013 Evil Dead shot?

New Zealand hosted the shoot, and the franchise stayed: Ash vs Evil Dead, Evil Dead Rise and Evil Dead Burn were all filmed there afterwards.

Which single word does an older Ash say in the post-credits scene of 2013's Evil Dead?

Groovy, says Campbell's Ash in shadowed profile, his only moment in the film; the same word is his last in the Ash vs Evil Dead finale as he drives off to fight on.

On which US cable network did Ash vs Evil Dead premiere on Halloween 2015?

Starz premiered it on October 31, 2015 and ran three seasons before low ratings ended the show in April 2018, after which Campbell retired from playing Ash on screen.

In Ash vs Evil Dead, what does Ash's sidekick Pablo call him as a mark of respect?

El Jefe means 'the boss': Pablo, raised by a shaman uncle, believes Ash is a true hero, and in season three a ritual makes Pablo a brujo himself, in his uncle's place.

Which actress plays the mysterious Ruby in Ash vs Evil Dead?

Lucy Lawless, television's Xena, plays Ruby; the casting reunited her with Campbell, a recurring guest on that Raimi-and-Tapert-produced series.

What insulting nickname did the people of Ash's hometown, Elk Grove, give him after his friends died?

Elk Grove dubbed him 'Ashy Slashy', convinced he had murdered his friends and sister at the cabin; a hand puppet of him even appears in season two.

Which 1970s TV action star plays Ash's father Brock in Ash vs Evil Dead?

Lee Majors, TV's Six Million Dollar Man, plays Brock Williams, who runs a hardware store in Elk Grove until Ash's possessed car runs him down in season two.

Evil Dead Rise (2023) moves the horror out of the woods and into what kind of setting?

The story moves to a condemned Los Angeles apartment building; an earthquake opens a hidden vault under the car park, where teenager Danny finds the book and 1923 phonograph records.

Who wrote and directed Evil Dead Rise?

Lee Cronin, the Irish director of The Hole in the Ground, was hand-picked by Raimi after directing episodes of his Quibi series 50 States of Fright.

In Evil Dead Rise, what fills with blood while Beth and Kassie are trapped inside it?

The elevator floods with gore as the creature climbs onto its roof; the director said the shoot went through more than 6,500 litres of fake blood.

Evil Dead Rise was originally going to premiere on which streaming service?

HBO Max was the plan when the film was announced in 2021; after strong test screenings the following year, Warner Bros. gave it a full cinema release instead.

In Evil Dead Rise, what machine do Beth and Kassie use to destroy the fused Deadite family?

A wood chipper shreds the Marauder, as the fused creature is known; the severed head of Beth's sister Ellie keeps taunting her until she kicks that into the chipper too.

Which French director made 2026's Evil Dead Burn?

Sébastien Vaniček had made one feature, the spider horror Infested, when Raimi's team saw it and asked what his Evil Dead would be; he wrote the answer with Florent Bernard.

How did Evil Dead: The Game (2022) split its players in a standard match?

Four against one: a team of four survivors searched for the items needed to banish evil while one player commanded the demon and its Deadites against them, with Campbell voicing Ash.

In which city was Evil Dead: The Musical first staged, in 2003?

Toronto's Tranzac Club hosted the debut in August 2003; the show comes with a Splatter Zone, seats where the audience gets covered in fake blood.

In the Evil Dead films, the Necronomicon is an ancient text from which civilisation?

Sumerian burial rites fill the book, which the professor's tape says is bound in human flesh and inked in blood; the first film calls it Naturom Demonto, and the Necronomicon name arrives with the sequel.

In Army of Darkness, where does Ash battle a swarm of tiny versions of himself?

A windmill is where Ash smashes a mirror and its shards spawn tiny copies of him; one dives down his throat and grows into Evil Ash, the double who later leads the army of the dead.

As The Evil Dead's shoot dragged into winter, what did the last crew members burn in the cabin to stay warm?

The furniture went on the fire once only exterior shots were left; the shoot had run to twice its planned six weeks, and the final cost, by Raimi's count, was about $375,000.

In Evil Dead II, where did Professor Knowby bury his wife Henrietta after she was possessed?

In the cabin's cellar, as his tape recording confesses; Henrietta bursts out of the dirt floor while Ash is locked down there with her.

What did Raimi, Tapert and Campbell name the partnership they formed to fund The Evil Dead?

Renaissance Pictures raised its money from relatives, friends and anyone else who might invest; short of the sum they wanted, the three partners started shooting with what they had.

In which city did The Evil Dead have its first big screening, before about a thousand people, in October 1981?

Detroit's Redford Theatre hosted the premiere on October 15, 1981; the turnout beat the filmmakers' hopes, with about a thousand people filling the old movie palace.

What was the main ingredient of the fake blood used in The Evil Dead?

Corn syrup of the Karo brand, dyed with food colouring, did the job; the stuff was so horribly sticky that dealing with it became one of the shoot's chores.

What became of The Evil Dead's cabin in 1982?

It was burned down by its owners one night in spring 1982, tired of trespassers on their land; only the chimney was left, and visiting fans have carried off many of its stones.

Which 1985 Raimi comedy flopped so badly that he fell back on making Evil Dead II?

Crimewave, a crime comedy that critics and audiences ignored, left Raimi, Tapert and Campbell needing a safe hit, so they took up their sales agent's standing offer of a sequel.

Which 1990s video game hero borrows several of Ash's one-liners, including 'Come get some'?

Duke Nukem barks 'Come get some' and other Ash lines in 1996's Duke Nukem 3D, whose hero was stitched together from quotes out of 1980s and 1990s action films.

In My Name Is Bruce, a fan kidnaps Bruce Campbell to save an Oregon mining town from what?

A Chinese god, Guan Di, is set loose when teenagers disturb a cemetery; Campbell, directing himself as a B-movie star, assumes the kidnap is a birthday surprise from his agent and plays along.

A studio fight over the sequel rights to which movie villain delayed Army of Darkness's US release into 1993?

Hannibal Lecter's sequel rights were disputed between Universal and the film's producer, and Universal held back the finished film for months as leverage; it finally opened in February 1993.