It’s all true! According to Evil Dead director Sam Raimi, you can thank none other than Stephen King for the long-lived franchise that spawned Deadites, boomsticks, and of course, that immortal dimwit Ash. And now, the Evil Dead return in Ash vs. Evil Dead, the new Starz TV series which debuts this weekend. Judging by the first episode (directed by Raimi), AvED is everything a fan could hope for and more, a bloody fun return to the insanity of the beloved original trilogy of films.

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In anticipation of the show’s debut, I spoke with Mr. Raimi recently about the history of the Evil Dead -- how the first low-budget film came about, why a sequel was even made, and yes, how years ago it was Stephen King who made sure that we could all now live in an Evil Dead world. It’s always fun to talk to Mr. Raimi, but I must confess this was a particularly thrilling chat for me as we geeked out over a franchise that we both love so dearly. I hope you guys enjoy our discussion as much as I (and I think he) did!

Sam Raimi (and Ash)

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Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi during the making of “Within the Woods”

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Yes. “Within the Woods” was made I think in 1979. It was made to be a tool to help us raise money from potential investors. So it wasn't really a prototype, like a "pilot" or anything like that, for Evil Dead. It was really just something that we could show investors. "See, we're going to make a horror movie, and it's going to be like this. We'll have monsters, monster makeup. Bruce Campbell will be in it as one of the actors. Ellen Sandweiss will be in it as another." So they could see them acting, even though it wasn't exactly the same story. "We'll have suspense sequences and scares, and the monster will be something like this" -- you know, the point of view of the camera. "We'll never show it." So it's really a tool for these kids -- Bruce Campbell, [producer] Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi, me -- to show potential investors what we were doing. Because, in Detroit, the idea is so insane to ask somebody for money to invest in a movie -- especially 30 years ago. They had no idea what we were talking about. So we needed something to show them.That's exactly right.Yes, it was the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life.Yes, I was very young. There was no running water, and it was in the 20s and 30s -- we didn't have any winter wear. It was freezing. When you're in that cold for 16 hours, you start to -- I started to die. There was no food, and everything was covered in Karo syrup in that temperature. So I'd be running the camera, but my hands were covered in Karo syrup. You'd lean against something and get it all over your hands. The only water we had was in a hot water heater so you could make instant coffee. Boiling water over your hands from the tap; that's how you'd wash them, to load the film into the camera.You know, in a weird way, yes. Because it got so hard, it was really slow, and eventually the cast, one by one, dropped out and said, "I've got to go home. You said this would only be for like four weeks. It's been like eight weeks." Even our cameraman and what little sound we had left said, "We've gotta go." So we were left with just Bruce, Rob, myself, my friend Josh Becker and my other friend David Goodman. David never came down to the set. He was always our cook back at the house, so it was really the four of us. And the four of us -- Bruce was on camera all the time. So by having to do the things ourselves -- sound, lighting, photography, props, everything -- I think we were allowed creativity. Everything could be dressed just so. Everything could be designed to the eye of the filmmaker, to point toward a desired effect, without any interpretation from department heads. It didn't have to make sense. You know, oftentimes you'd say, "In this scene, Ash feels persecuted. Let's secretly take all the pens in the room, the 16 pens, and point them at Ash. People may or may not pick up on it, but everything is indicating that he is the guilty one." That's not something you would even suggest to a prop master, because it's such a dumb idea. [Laughs] Continuity would have a fit, "You can't change all the pen directions!" But working on your own you'll say, "Yeah. I'm just gonna twist all these pens to point toward Bruce, and we'll have a shot that kind of frames it dynamically." Suddenly, what was a dumb idea in the minds of other people in other departments and would break continuity is now… everything is working toward a desired goal. You're in control of every aspect of the shot. It's not something you can do except with a crew of like four on a very minuscule budget. But it was a wonderful experience in that way. So the harsh conditions made a [mess of] the crew, and the fact that we had to do everything ourselves did spur on our creativity.Yes, absolutely. When you get on a big picture and you look through the camera and you want to move a bottle over a little -- I would grab the bottle and move it, and they'd be like, "Ah! The prop, the prop!" I'd be like, "Oh, okay." You know, "Prop master!" "Yessir?" "Can I move that bottle a few inches, or we won't get the shot." "Yessir, how far would you like it?" So you lose the hands-on -- it's not that I have to move the bottle, but you just become a little bit more of a conductor of a fine-quality orchestra, rather than a guy jamming on his guitar and harmonica. You delegate a lot of authority to a lot of different departments -- and they do it beautifully, and they do it better individually than I could do it. But you do lose something not doing it yourself.Not really so much. I'd read a few of his stories and one of his novels, and that was about it. Really, I think George Romero's Night of the Living Dead had a giant influence on Evil Dead. You know, zombies and his cabin setting. It was so scary and intense. That really had a giant impact on me. I think we were also influenced by the great work of Tobe Hooper, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And the fact that these guys -- I hope I get this right -- shot in 16 millimeter. Didn't they both, and blow it up to 35?I think we followed their -- I may get this wrong; at the end, I'll be furious -- but we followed that idea that we would shoot it in the affordable medium that we could get our hands on and blow it up later to professional-quality 35 millimeter, which is what the theaters showed at that time. And just the idea of making it really cheap with a lot of intensity came from them. So I think they were the big influences on me.Yeah, that really is the case with Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre -- and Evil Dead a little bit. We get into a goofy zone with claymation and fantasy a little more than those guys. But yeah, that, I agree, is brilliant in their movies and works a little bit in ours too.Yes. We could not find distribution for our film. No American distributor wanted to touch it once we were done. It was a very depressing process, going to every single distributor in America and getting a "no." But we were lucky enough to find a man by the name of Irvin Shapiro, who was a film sales agent. He said to us when he saw the movie, "Well, it ain't Gone with the Wind, but I think I can make some money with it." So he took it to Cannes -- not the festival, per se, but the film market, which happens concurrently with the famous film festival. At this market, a good sales agent knows, "Oh, with this unrated horror film, I know that 20 theaters in France will play it. They'll probably make a thousand dollars each, so I know I can get $20,000." They know the markets, and they take films and sell them to distributors in each of the different territories. During one of these marketing screenings at the Cannes film festival, where there were different distributors watching the films trying to make their judgments as to what they'll buy that year, Stephen King was in the audience, and we heard, "Oh, he was really screaming and shouting during the movie." And I was the biggest Stephen King fan in the world.Yeah. And Irvin Shapiro said to me, "Ask him for a quote, if he liked the movie." So I called him, because he was also represented by Irvin Shapiro, and his movie Creepshow, and said, "Could you give us a quote, what you honestly thought of the film?" He said, "I won't do that, but I will write a review. If there's something in the review that you want to use as a quote, you can." So he wrote a review for Twilight Zone Magazine. It was very generous of him, and we were able to use the very positive quote that he gave us. Without that, the movie may have been lost, but with Stephen King's endorsement, we were able to make our first sales. Then the film started to be successful where it had been sold. Then, after that British success, we were able to enter it into film festivals and awards. Then we were able to find an American distributor. So really, his endorsement opened the doorway for the film to be seen.