10 Trivial Facts About ‘The Evil Dead’

A group of people went into the woods in Tennessee not knowing that in 1981 they would release one of the horror genre’s biggest films, The Evil Dead. Not only is the film a classic, but the events of production of the film itself has brought some of the most bizarre and interesting stories of any other film. Here are 10 trivial facts about The Evil Dead.

10. Tape Scene Re-shoot

The script called for the characters to be smoking marijuana during the scene where they are listening to the tape; the cast decided to take it a step further and decided to actually smoke. This lead to the scene having to be later re-shot due to uncontrollable behavior.

9. Bruce Campbell and the Broken Shirt

The blood used in the film was made up of a concoction of Karo syrup, non-dairy creamer and red food coloring. During the course of filming, Bruce Campbell was completely drenched in the mixture, and after attempting to dry his shirt, the mixture solidified and when Campbell tried to put the shirt back on, it broke.

8. Missing Teeth

Since filming took place in a wooded area and inside of a small cabin, moving around proved to be complicated at times. While filming, a cameraman tripped and his camera smashed into Bruce Campbell’s face resulting in him losing several teeth.

7. King was a Fan

The film was shown to Stephen King and it was his praise that really sold the public and would later grace the poster. His praise even aided in the funding for Evil Dead II by the same company that worked with him on Maximum Overdrive.

6. Blood Donations

At the premier, blood donor stations were giving out free tickets in exchange for a blood donation. Participants also received pins that read “I bled for The Evil Dead”.

5. Workplace Hazards

Several actors were inadvertently stabbed or thrown into objects during production.

4. Video Nasty

The Evil Dead was one of the first films to be labeled a “video nasty” (a term used in the UK to describe a film that has been released to VHS that was criticized for its violent content by the press, social commentators and religious organisations) and was banned in the UK because of it.

3. Real Boomstick

When Ash shoots a Deadite through the window of he cabin resulting in an explosion of blood, Bruce Campbell was firing a real gun at a dummy for a more realistic shot.

2. Real-Life Cabin Horror Story

Raimi stated that the cabin’s eerie vibe was completely justified. During an interview, he recounted a real-life horror story that unfolded in the cabin years before:

“One night, during a thunderstorm, this little girl woke up and was scared by the lightning happening around the cabin. She ran into her mother’s room and pulling back the covers climbing into bed with her, she found that her mother was dead. She was so frightened she ran into her grandmother’s room and somehow that same evening, she had died also,” Raimi recalled. “The little girl ran into the storm … to this little farmhouse and [the family living there] found her screaming and banging on the doors. They took care of her after that and no one lived in the cabin since. The [little girl], who’s now an old woman, during thunderstorms after that … would often be found wandering around the woods.”

The kicker, however, was that story came to life during the film’s shoot. Raimi continued, “As we were shooting, this fella [from the farmhouse that took in the little girl] was looking for the [now old] woman, saying that because there was a thunderstorm the night before, he was looking for this woman, because it was possible that she had returned to the cabin … As far as we know, they never found [her.]”

1. Homage Tag

The Hills Have Eyes poster seen in The Evil Dead was Raimi’s way of paying tribute to the ripped Jaws poster that can be seen in Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes. Craven responded by having Nancy watch The Evil Dead in A Nightmare on Elm Street to which Raimi responded by hanging a Freddy glove about the tool shed door in Evil Dead II.