Chickens! Cultural Moment: Evil Dead The Musical

Weee! So much belated birthday fun thanks to my awesome bro LP (all it took was a whirlwind weekend drive to Calgary. FYI Drumheller had the cheapest gas by far). The story of Evil Dead: The Musical was actually a combo of the 3 Evil Dead movies with some poetic license. For example, many of the characters from "Evil Dead II" are missing and "Army of Darkness" was relegated to a few quotes (like the "boom stick" monologue) and a statement at the end. Also, Ash's hand gets bitten by the demon moose head instead of evil Linda and that's why it turns evil. Anyway, especially amusing in the play were all the inside jokes making reference to Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, or horror movie standard plot devices. The show is put on by Ground Zero Theatre and Hit & Myth Productions at the Playhouse at Vertigo Theatre Centre in Calgary (which I had never been to before) and it is the first Canadian EDtM show outside of Toronto.

The fist half of the show basically covers the first movie (Evil Dead) in which our main characters Ash (sole survivor who, as such, loses all loved ones and his own hand to evil forces and is covered in blood repeatedly), Scotty (Ash's friend, man slut, coward), Linda (Ash's love interest and fellow S-Mart employee come evil demon), Shelly (ho that Scotty picked up in a bar), and Cheryl (Ash's sister, accosted by trees while following mother's advice to always investigate scary nigh-time forest noises alone with out waking the others) head to a cabin in the woods for some romance and relaxation (1 - Cabin in the Woods, Housewares Employee). They find a recording in the basement which turns out to be translations of the "Necronomicon" by the ill-fated Professor Knowby. [Side note: This was actually called the "Naturon Demonto" in the first movie and renamed "Necronomicon Ex-Mortis" in the sequels. Both are translated to mean "book of the Dead".] They then inadvertently bring on their own personal zombie laden gore-fest by playing the recording and all of the main characters proceed to by horribly killed except for Ash (2 - Look Who's Evil Now, What the F^%# Was That?, Join Us). Now the first movie ends around here with Ash destroying the book but with a cliffhanger of a demon coming out of the forest to get him.

Fun facts about Evil Dead:
The film was shot over a period of 1.5 years with an operating budget of $375,000 (even though it went on to be one of the highest grossing horror movies of all time). Not surprising then that the inconsistencies within the film are both rampant and glaring (imdb has a big list of them), but I think that adds to the humour. It was non-union so a lot of the actors used stage names to avoid penalties from the screen actors guild. Bruce Campbell was basically the only actor who stuck with the project to the end and was available for re-shoots so Sam Raimi resorted to using "Fake Shemps" for replacements. Although it featured a lot of slapstick, the movie was before its time in gore level (and also featured an infamous "tree rape" scene that garnered it wide disapproval), which got it banned in several countries including the UK (and an X rating before that). Although Quebec rated it 13+, go figure.

In the second half of the play we got mostly Evil Dead II plot stuff but they basically culled the characters down to Annie and Ed (archaeologists) and Jake (reliable). Features a lot of people running out of the cabin and coming back dead and Ash gets his chainsaw hand (3 - I'm Not A Killer, Bit Part Demon, All the Men in My Life Get Killed by Candarian Demons). Annie explains how to summon/kill all the demons then gets demonized herself (4 - Ode to an Accidental Stabbing, Do the Necronomicon, It's Time). Finally Ash kills everyone and all the demons spray blood on the people in the "splatter zone" and we find Ash back a S-Mart telling of his adventures (5 - Blew That B@#%* Away). The review "play enjoyed by all" speaks for itself.











Fun Facts about Evil Dead 2:
Goofs continue to be rampantly hilarious. Did you know that you can see the clawed Freddy Krueger glove at various points during the movie? They did that because the Nancy character in Wes Craven's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" can be seen watching Evil Dead while trying to stay awake near the end of the movie. Which was in reference to the torn 1977 "The Hills Have Eyes" (also by Wes Craven) poster visible in the cellar in Evil Dead. Oh movie types and their inside references.

History of the Necronomicon:
Made up by horror writer H.P.Lovecraft and included in several of his short stories. Lovecraft also wrote a fictional "History of the Necronomicon" story. Pop culture references include "Evil Dead" (duh!) and the Simpsons (of course) in which Bob Dole reads a snippet at the Republican party meeting in the first 2 minutes of Season13Episode7 (Brawl in the Family). Also the crux of a low budget movie called Necronomicon (1993).

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I love the spoof advertisements of posters for the Broadway mainstays Les Miserables, Hairspray, and Mama Mia! that were done up for the Toronto incarnation of the musical (click to embiggen):










Original "Evil Dead" (1981) Movie Trailer

Original "Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn" (1987) Movie Trailer

Original "Army of Darkness" (1992) Movie Trailer

p.s. I don't know how many of you watched the cartoon Reboot but they did an homage to Evil Dead 2 and the Evil Dead series of games (and there's also a Michael Jackson reference in there - RIP). The various games actually added significantly to the storyline. And speaking of games did you know that Bruce Campbell does the voice over instructions for the Spider Man movie games? Funny times.
p.p.s. FYI a movie version of the musical is in negotiations. Also, an Evil Dead 4 movie is in the works with Sam Raimi in the process of writing the script.