Fans keep 'Evil Dead' franchise alive and bleeding

As "Evil Dead: The Musical" enters its final week at Detroit's City Theatre, the blood continues to flow. The production has gone through gallons and gallons of fake blood, some of it aimed at the plastic-covered front rows nicknamed the splatter zone.

"The fans are insane, in the best possible way," says Brandy Joe Plambeck, the parody musical's director. "They come and they yell out lines from the movie along with the actors. ... We had a guy a couple of weeks ago and he'd built a cardboard chain saw for his hand. People really go all out."

Wipe away the plasma and an essential truth remains. The "Evil Dead" phenomenon will never die, not when the fans are this enthusiastic.

When three young metro Detroit friends made a 1981 shoestring-budget movie that represented a new kind of horror, they didn't know that it would still have a lively, thriving fan base 34 years later.

"Evil Dead" followers are a lively, thriving community that gathers through websites and social media. They shop online for merchandise ranging from modest Book of the Dead necklaces to actual working replicas of lead character Ash's trademark chain saw. And they attend live events with "Evil Dead" tie-ins, like comic conventions and the parody musical that's been staged around the world.

Although they come from many walks of life, what binds them together is the joy for movies that's always been the other side of the gory "Evil Dead" coin.

Now the "Evil Dead" empire — which stretches from three movies (1981's "The Evil Dead," 1987's "Evil Dead II" and 1992's "Army of Darkness") to a 2013 remake — is moving to premium cable television.

At 9 on Halloween night, Starz will premiere "Ash vs. Evil Dead," a 10-episode, half-hour series that reunites the franchise's key creators: director Sam Raimi, producer Rob Tapert and actor Bruce Campbell — each of whom grew up in the Detroit suburbs and has gone on to Hollywood fame.

Campbell returns as Ash, the character who traveled all those years ago to a cabin in the woods and wound up fighting demonic creatures unleashed by a Book of the Dead. Raimi and Tapert (along with Campbell) are executive producers of the series, and Raimi directed the first episode and helped develop the story, which captures the outrageous gruesomeness and "splatstick" humor of their "Evil Dead" mythology.

All of this is important because, as a rule, "Evil Dead" fans accept no substitute for the real deal. They were divided on the 2013 "Evil Dead" reboot, in no small part because it didn't feature Campbell onscreen. The TV show, however, is getting early praise for seeming true to the original.

"When I first watched (the trailer), I had to watch it a second time just for it to sink in. I just couldn't believe that an 'Evil Dead' show was being done in my lifetime and I would be able to see it in real time as it came out," says Elise Holmes, founder of the Deadite Slayer site.

The Montreal-based Holmes puts several hours a day into her website alone. She also is interested in "Evil Dead" collectibles and considers a crew jacket from the third film, "Army of Darkness," a prize possession. She's made friends in the United Kingdom, Italy and Denmark through her passion for the "Evil Dead" franchise.

"If you like 'Evil Dead,' you tend to reaaaally like it," says Holmes, whose site is one of several Starz has connected with for "Ash vs. Evil Dead" giveaways and contests. "I'm always on eBay looking to see if there's new stuff to buy. I'm reading every single article that's out there, every single interview, everything I can get my hands on. I simply cannot go one day without it. It's really a drug."

What do the "Evil Dead" founding fathers think about such appreciation? Call it a mutual admiration society.

"The fans have been amazing," says Campbell, whose term for them in his 2002 "If Chins Could Kill" memoir was "smart people."

Local pals

By now, volumes have been written about 1981's "The Evil Dead," which Raimi wrote, directed and left Michigan State University to make with Tapert, a friend from MSU, and Campbell, whom he's known since his West Maple Junior High and Groves High days in Oakland County.

Now Raimi is the A-list director of movies like the "Spider-Man" trilogy, Tapert has remained his producing partner and launched successful series like "Xena: Warrior Princess." And Campbell is a busy TV actor and fan favorite for his genre film work. But back then they were newcomers who, long before you could shoot a movie with an iPhone, had the guts to become do-it-yourself filmmakers.

Scrounging up about $400,000 from local investors, the trio convinced many of their local pals to be part of a grueling shoot in Morristown, Tenn., (and several extra weeks of filming in Michigan) that participants now describe like an old war story.

"The Evil Dead" had a theatrical release, but it became a cult classic through VHS and DVD and wound up having a big impact on the horror genre. The DIY nature of the film, coupled with Raimi's visual brilliance, helped inspire many fans to go into filmmaking.

Rob Mclaine, who works as a special effects artist for the venerable Shepperton Studios near London, saw "The Evil Dead" growing up in Newcastle, England, and was fascinated by the gory effects. He later went on to study 3D design and theater and media production.

"It's almost more interesting to see a shoestring-budget film than something that's very, very polished, a modern CGI film," says Mclaine. "I think seeing 'Evil Dead' at that age made me more interested in filmmaking, because you could see how they were trying to do something, and I could understand. Not only did it scare me and take me on a bit of a thrill ride, but also it showed me something I thought I could emulate."

In 2009, Mclaine started the Book of the Dead website, a huge source of information on the "Evil Dead" trilogy of movies. He's amassed 9,000 images, done interviews with various cast and crew members and visited filming locations in Tennessee and North Carolina.

Mclaine doesn't post items on the reboot or the Starz series, because his interest lies in the main three films. "I could put it on the site for the sake of having it on the website. But it's my website. I'm not being paid by anyone, not making money from advertising. If I don't want to put it on there, I'm quite happy to stick with what I've got," he says.

While he considers the 2013 remake a "perfectly fine film" with superior technology, he thinks the original has an appeal that keeps fueling the fan fires.

"It seemed like it had a heart to it. People really, really cared and they were taking all this effort to make the film," says Mclaine, "where something like the remake would seem like a by-the-numbers, just get this done and we'll make the money thing."

As with "Star Trek" fans, those who love the "Evil Dead" franchise sometimes zero in on differing aspects of it. Kain Vuong, a New York City web developer, has one of the oldest and most popular sites in Deadites Online, which he began in 1997. He says it gets a million hits a month during times of peak interest like the current "Ash vs. Evil Dead" rollout.

Vuong was drawn to the movies by the blend of horror and humor and Campbell's performance as the immature, goofy, yet heroic Ash. He says fans have all sorts of favorite focuses, noting the subset of fans who like "Army of Darkness" and aren't really aware of the first two films.

This weekend, Vuong plans to do a soft launch of a redesign for the 18-year-old site. "I definitely plan to keep it going for years to come," he says.

In contrast, the Evil Dead Fan Club site run by Danny Bohnen is only a few months old. A merchandise offshoot of Bohnen's year-old "Evil Dead" fan site on Facebook, Bohnen got the idea for it because he couldn't find "Evil Dead' apparel he liked.

"There was nothing that really resonated with me. I figured, what the heck, I'll make some of my own and see if other fans like them."

So far, he has sold about 5,000 garments and expects to expand soon into "Evil Dead II'' items through an agreement with a comic publishing company. He also wants to involve fan artists who design their own grassroots products.

Bohnen, who's 30 and lives near Boulder, Colo., says the DIY spirit of the original "Evil Dead" speaks to millennials seeking creative independence.

"It almost leaves the possibility of, 'Hey, we could grab a camera and do something like this, with a lot of hard work.' "

He recalls first seeing the 1981 movie when he was probably 12. "It was at a friend's house, at a sleepover. His mom was a huge 'Evil Dead' fan, so she had rented the whole trilogy and we were watching it."

The passing of the 'Evil Dead' baton from generation to generation is helping to sustain the fan base. In early October at the Beyond Fest in Los Angeles, which bills itself the highest-attended genre film festival in America, a dedicated 8-year-old fan and his mother were invited onstage before a double feature of "The Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead II."

Beyond Fest cofounder Christian Parkes says that the boy's parents had phoned the festival in advance to make sure it would be OK for him to accompany them to the event, which could best be described as a true Evil Deadapalooza.

That evening, about 70 people signed up for free on-site "Evil Dead" tattoos. Foam chain saws were tossed to the audience of about 600 people, who thought only a handful of the freebies were available and were delighted to find out it was more like hundreds.

"You had chain saws raining from the balcony. We had people running down the aisle throwing chain saws up in the air. It was just a completely ridiculous intro to the film, but it really created a total party, a carnival atmosphere," says Parkes.

"Shaun of the Dead" director Edgar Wright was present to moderate a conversation with "Evil Dead" star Campbell, who whipped the crowd into a near frenzy when he brought out a surprise guest — director Raimi himself.

"(Campbell) said when they pulled over and parked at the theater, he saw a homeless man in the gutter lying facedown. He went over to the guy and rolled him over and, holy s---, it was Sam Raimi!" says Parkes, recalling the big reveal.

A fun time was had by all, which may be the ultimate secret to what Parkes calls "the 'Dead' movies that won't die."

"It still stands as one of the most exhilarating and outrageously good times you can have. It's both terrifying and hilarious and gratuitously over the top. It's really a singular experience. Certainly in the horror film world, it's a bucket list film," says Parkes.

Only in this case, the bucket is filled with gooey fake blood.

Contact Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.

"Ash vs. Evil Dead"

9 p.m. Saturday, October 31

Starz

"Evil Dead: The Musical"

Through Oct. 31

City Theatre, 2301 Woodward, Detroit

$27, 313-471-3464, www.olympiaentertainment.com