Evil Dead Memories

With the EVIL DEAD remake just days away, I've been absorbing all the positive and negative discussions about the film on the web. I watch every trailer and TV spot that comes my way (even if I'm watching something I DVR'd) and I just can't help but get psyched out for this new retelling of an old favorite. I've always been a big fan of the Evil Dead series (I own toys, comic books, and various DVD and Blu-ray releases of the films, plus I've seen them all on the big screen in 35mm!) and though I had myself convinced that I was pretty much sick of them (and remakes), I have to admit that I'm becoming a Deadite all over again with the impending release of Fede Alvarez' take on Raimi's horror classic.

Gah! So. Damned. CREEPY!

What's even cooler? Kids that never even knew the original trilogy existed have been checking them out (mostly via NetFlix) and LOVING THEM. It's cool to see today's youth discovering and embracing these classic comedic Horror flicks and listening intently as I share trivia and notify them that there is in fact a third Evil Dead called ARMY OF DARKNESS.


All this Evil Dead talk lately has been making feel quite nostalgic, so I thought I'd type up a quick blog post and share my past with Sam Raimi's beloved horror trilogy. First, let me kick things off with a confession: I saw EVIL DEAD II first! I originally heard about the film decades ago from a relative of mine. I lived a sort of sheltered life and my mother disapproved of me watching any horror films. (Though, oddly enough, JAWS was ok, as was Q: The Winged Serpent, and various other films featuring dinosaurs, dragons, monsters, and sharks.) My cousin Tony on the other hand, though younger than myself, was allowed to watch all the good stuff. He is the reason I even discovered that Evil Dead existed.

One afternoon as I was hanging out with him, and we were talking about various things that pre-teens discuss (cartoons, toys, Nintendo games, boobies, etc.) when he told me about a cool movie where a guy in a cabin fought monsters with a chainsaw and a shotgun. The concept floored me; I had to see it! But there was no internet, video store visits were patrolled by the parents, and I didn't know anyone who owned a copy. Even if I did, the parental units would have shut down my mission to watch anything involving blood, guts, and human dismemberment.

And then, on a fateful day whilst wandering around a Sam's Club (I was 14 going on 15 at the time), I made an awesome discovery: VHS double features on sale for ten bucks! Already a VHS hoarder with a collection of hundreds of alphabetized cassettes, I was drawn to them like a moth to a flame. Upon glancing over the stacks of movies, one double feature in particular immediately caught my eye: EVIL DEAD II and DAY OF THE DEAD! I felt a rush of adrenaline and grabbed the two tapes! I stared wide-eyed at the covers..... I had finally found my cinematic holy grail plus it came with the sequel to Night and Dawn of the Dead! SURELY A GOD, OR EVEN THE GOD HAD SMILED UPON ME! CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH?! CAN I GET AN AMEN?!!

THE HOLY GRAIL OF A YOUNG, ASPIRING HORROR FAN!

I made an instant beeline to my parents, shoved it at them and begged for it. I'm sure in another universe, young Jordan was told "no," and he never got to experience the awesome that was contained on those two VHS tapes. But in this universe, I was given the standard, "OK, but you gotta do yardwork/chores/homework to earn it," and victory was mine! As soon as we got home, I popped some popcorn, grabbed a soda, and ran upstairs to my bedroom with my treasured VHS tapes. Though I was very curious about DAY OF THE DEAD, I knew which film I would be watching first.

I tore off the plastic, shoved EVIL DEAD II into my VCR, and braced myself for terrors beyond my wildest dreams; for one man's brutal survival against supernatural forces. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that the movie was not all that frightening. Still it was cool as hell, and full of glorious gore, gruesome stop-motion animation, impressive makeup f/x, plus  it was really funny too! (The scene with all the laughing furniture put a big dumb grin on my face!) Once I finished it, I rewound the tape, then watched it again! I was enamored with EVIL DEAD II and couldn't get enough of it! I then decreed that the first one would also be mine!

As time passed, I made sure to share this cinematic gem with others when possible, and made sure to talk it up at every chance I got. Eventually, my friends were worn down by my constant praising of the adventures of Ash, and one night I FINALLY got them to watch it. We crowded into the living room of my buddy Mike's house, and popped the tape in. At first everyone was heckling the movie and taking some potshots at it (threats of tugging it from the VCR were also made), but it quickly began to win them over. When the end credits began to roll they agreed that what I had visited upon then was weird, but that they actually really liked it. (Sadly years later, when I tried to introduce them to Army of Darkness, they were not as receptive. THE FOOLS!)

A few short years later, I reached a milestone in my life: My folks purchased a brand new computer just for me, plus they had a second phone line installed! This was doubly awesome because having my own phone line meant that I could connect to that newfangled internet thing that allowed you to download pictures and videos, and tap into the collective knowledge of humanity. (Plus you could play games over the web and look at porn!) This is when I discovered Sgt. Andrew Borntreger's Badmovies.Org. I had never seen anything like it and I eagerly read through the entire site in a few days. Because of Andrew's awesome online hub of b-movie knowledge, I got my first taste of the original Evil Dead and also discovered that there was a third movie: ARMY OF DARKNESS!

More importantly, my discovery of Badmovies.Org inspired me to learn how to build a website from scratch, and share my opinions and movie knowledge with the world. Because of Sgt. Borntreger, The B-Movie Film Vault exists. He was my muse, provided tips and ideas, and was the first major site to link to my chintzy little Geocities b-movie site. As we joke about from time to time: The Vault is the illegitimate child of Badmovies.Org! For that, I thank you immensely Andrew!

In any case (got a little sidetracked there) I eventually started work at a Suncoast (a dying breed of DVD and movie memorabilia stores that was typically overpriced and terribly managed) just before the big DVD boom hit, and that's where I picked up my VHS tape of Army of Darkness! Naturally I loved it, but the original film that started it all still eluded me. Also, since I was working alongside some hardcore horror fans (who also thankfully introduced me to the films of Lucio Fulci, Dario Argento, and Peter Jackson), I learned that Army of Darkness had an alternate ending (i.e. the original ending that test audiences didn't care for), which I would eventually see for myself when I bought Anchor Bay's "Bootleg Edition" of "AoD," not once, but twice!

For the record, I actually prefer the director's cut with the post-apocalyptic ending. As fun as it is to see Ash battling a "she-bitch" in the aisles of S-Mart, I totally dig the original ending where he ends up sleeping too long and exits his burial chamber to discover modern day England in shambles.

HAHAHA! MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS!

And I did eventually get my paws on THE EVIL DEAD (procured rather cheaply on VHS at Wal-Mart of all places) but my young mind processed it as the weakest of the trilogy. Quite frankly... I hated it.

Now before you shout "HERETIC!" and starting lobbing stones (both literal and figurative), bear in mind that I saw the original film LAST. Both Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness had higher budgets, "splatstick" craziness, and a really cool antagonist that was highly quotable. In the original "Evil Dead," things are played straight for the most part, and Ash is not the one-liner spewing bad-ass we've all come to love and know. It was just too much of a slowburn horror film for me, especially after experiencing its two followups.

Skip ahead to recent years and I now have a definite appreciation for the original Evil Dead (though I still prefer Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness). Considering what Raimi and his buddies had to go through to get that movie made (chronicled in IF CHINS COULD KILL by Bruce Campbell, a damned good book that you should own), and the fact that it was released uncut in theaters and still made a nice profit (take that MPAA!), the film's sequels, continuously growing fanbase, and heck, even its very existence is miraculous!

Since discovering Evil Dead II so many years ago, I have accrued a small collection of Evil Dead-related goodies. My current collection includes: The out of print Army of Darkness Boomstick Edition DVD, Evil Dead (2-disc Limited Edition Blu-ray), Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (the beautiful and non-expensive Lionsgate Blu-ray), Evil Dead and Evil Dead II Book of the Dead Editions on DVD (which are slowly rotting away now in a display case), bootlegs of WITHIN THE WOODS (the short film that Raimi shot in order to get funding for Evil Dead), Evil Dead: The Musical, and Army of Darkness: The Musical, an S-Mart Ash figure, a McFarlane Toys Ash and Evil Ash (Series 3 I believe), an Ashley J. Williams tee from Fright-Rags, and finally a small Evil Dead II poster.

I'm not as hardcore as some Deadites, but I think I occupy a comfortable middle ground. Though my collection may be small, I think the fact that I've worn out/upgraded several items in my Evil Dead collection gives me a definite edge over more casual fans. Just for fun, I've included a tally below of how many times I've purchased each movie, how many Evil Dead-related shirts I've worn out, and how many times I've seen each movie on the big screen.

My Evil Dead tallies:
EVIL DEAD - Saw it once theatrically; purchased it 4 times. (VHS tape, Single disc DVD, Book of the Dead Edition DVD, and 2-Disc Limited Edition Blu-ray).

EVIL DEAD II - Saw it once theatrically; purchased it 5 times. (VHS tape, Anchor Bay DVD, Book of the Dead Edition DVD, Anchor Bay Blu-ray, Lionsgate Blu-ray)

ARMY OF DARKNESS - Saw it once theatrically; purchased it 4 times. (VHS tape, Bootleg Edition VHS tape, Bootleg Edition DVD, 2-disc Boomstick Edition DVD) Note: I will be seeing it again on the big screen on June 8th at the Hudson Horror Show!

Evil Dead shirts worn out: 2. I wore my THIS IS MY BOOMSTICK! and my HAIL TO THE KING BABY! tees so often that the graphics were nearly worn off, and each one was full of holes. Even though they were basically rags when I finally threw them out, it pained me to do it.


So how big is your Evil Dead collection? How many times have you seen the movies? How many times have you bought them? What's your most prized Evil Dead collectible? Have you met Bruce Campbell, Ted Raimi, or Sam Raimi? Are you stoked for the new EVIL DEAD?! Do you think Raimi and The Chin will actually go through with a second Army of Darkness?! Share your thoughts below or over on Facebook or Twitter!

By the way, EVIL DEAD premieres tomorrow night at 10 PM at most theaters. Get your tickets online or get there early because I think this movie is going to rock the box office!

New Fright-Rags tees + FANTASM documentary in the works!

It has been far too long since I've given my friends at Fright-Rags any love. They've continued to supply the Horror community with an array of awesome shirts that just can't be topped. Their designs are unparallelled, their staff is insanely knowledgeable and friendly, and their company has continued to grow and cater to us Horror fans with highly collectible tees that are guaranteed to turn heads when seen in public.

And speaking of which, they have three new designs out that will make your mouth water. For fans of classic slasher cinema, there's a great new TERROR TRAIN shirt; fans of Stephen King will surely dig the new MISERY tee; there's even a hilarious new design that riffs on the Christmas classic "Home Alone," and features the SOUTH BEND SHOVEL SLAYER (a.k.a. Murphy). Each shirt comes in sizes Small to 5XL, and costs $21.95 apiece; scope out the designs below:

I never realized Kathy Bates was a Peter Gabriel fan.

I guess the "Wet Bandits" are now the "Dead Bandits?"

Awesome design though there is a distinct lack of David Copperfield on this shirt.

Also, as of my posting this, Fright-Rags still have less than 60 of their EVIL DEAD II: GROOVY EDITION COLLECTOR'S BOXES left in stock. For $37.95 you get a gorgeous t-shirt, prismatic sticker, and a "Home Sweet Home" magnet, all inside a cool Necronomicon box with artwork by Jeff Zornow! Once these are sold out, they are gone for good, so grab one now!

And finally, before I quit blogging for the night, I'd like to bring a new documentary to your attention, namely FANTASM. Directed by a gent named Kyle Kuchta, this doc looks to spread awareness about all the various Horror conventions happening across America, and show how tight-knit the Horror community is. As someone that has attended a handful of cons, I can attest to the family atmosphere they have. Every time you go you see familiar faces (some famous, some not) and you usually walk away with a few new friends and usually some pretty crazy/cool stories (especially if Gary Busey is on the premises).

Here's the teaser trailer to give you a taste of what's to come:


If you looked closely amongst the rapid-fire edits, you probably caught a few familiar faces, amongst shots of fans and cosplayers, including actor Tom Atkins (who is just an awesome human being), actress Heather Langenkamp, and Fright-Rags owner Ben Scrivens (and Kristy Jett, Fright-Rags' very own Director of Service & Sass). This comprehensive documentary (that is also Kyle's senior thesis to get his BFA in film) will feature interviews with celebrities and fans, and will hopefully bring more people out to visit the numerous conventions that have popped up over the years.

Kyle plans on completing FANTASM in May of this year, but still has some principal photography to shoot in March at MONSTER-MANIA CON at Cherry Hill, NJ (which is boasting CARRIE FISHER as well as a FREDDY VS. JASON reunion) and HORROR HOUND WEEKEND in Cincinnati, OH. So if you attend either con in March, YOU just may end up in the film!

Kyle, godspeed and good luck with your film; I hope I can get a chance to check it out!

Evil Dead II.... Mentos Commercial

I didn't post anything Halloween-oriented yesterday, so here's the consolation prize: A short Mentos commercial parody made with footage from "Evil Dead II!"



I started cleaning up the house for my eminent (post) Halloween party and my god.... I lived in this filth for the last few weeks? My DVD collection had an inch of dust on it and that is inexcusable! In any case, I should have this place whipped into shape in another day or two, then I've gotta get some junk food and beverages for my guests on Sunday. This task will be a little hard to accomplish as I have Guitar Hero World Tour and the new MST3K boxed set arriving via UPS tomorrow, but I shall persevere and be 100% ready to watch some horror flicks and chow down on some copious amounts of chips, candy, pizza, wings, and whatever else I can get my hands on.

There's only a few more days left until Halloween, so you best be ready b-movie fans! Blog ya later!