Production
THE EVIL DEAD

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This page is divided into two sections, first we will deal with production of the film, including f/x information and a whole host of problems that the cast and crew had to deal with.

The production process for 'The Evil Dead' was fairly rigorous and turned into a full time three year project.

Note:the text featured is colour coded, the pale yellow signifies a quotaion or an imporatnt fact. Grey was used to differentiate between the numerous points so your eyes don't hurt.

Shooting:

  • Scheduled for 6 weeks extended to 12, 1979 under the original title 'The Book of the Dead'.
  • Shooting began November 1979 and finished in December 1980
  • Origin intention was to shoot the movie close to Michigan during the summer. Factors such as financing delayed shooting and eventually Michigan became too cold. Filming was moved to Tennessee on the notion that it would be warmer during the fall or winter season. Ironically Michigan experienced its mildest winter that year and Tennessee it's worst.
  • Raimi and the crew were shocked by the help they recieved from the Tennessee State Film Commission. "I'm not entirely sure they knew how low-budget we were, " says Raimi. "We told them we were making a picture, they said great, and put us in touch with a gentleman named George Holt, who was very helpful in finding those locations. About a month into the picture, some members of the commission came down to the location and, to say the least, they were shocked. We had a road leading to the location that you couldn't drive down, because it had been raining steadily; they came in suits and dresses and high heels and had to walk down a half-mile of mud. Then when t hey saw the place, it looked like a neutron bomb had gone off in there -- karo syrup blood covering every inch of the floor, everything destroyed, a shotgun lying around... I think they thought we were part of the Manson family."

    • Location:

  • Remote woodland Morristown near Knoxville, Tennessee USA.
  • The cabin originally selected for the shooting was unavailable when the crew arrived. Raimi found another shack close by. The new Cabin was located in a small valley around half-a-mile from the nearest public dirt road, "People would stand up on the ridge over the cabin and watch what we were doing.", explained producer Rob Tapert in a 1982 magazine interview, "Once, we were away from the cabin for about 10 minutes -- when we came back, all the power tools were gone. That was a little unsettling. But just about everybody we had personal contact with down there was very nice to us; we were down there for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and a family prepared us these tremendous Southern meals that we'd never seen the likes of."
  • However, the new cabin was far from ready for the shoot and the set department or staff had alot of work to do, the cabin had no windows, heat or electricity, a porch and a general disinfection process of the interior was needed after local wildlife had used it for a lavatory.
  • The new location had to have a cellar door built into it. A door was built along with a staircase that led down into a six-foot hole dug beneath the cabin. The cellar footage was filmed 6 months aftre principal photography finished in Tennessee in January 1980. The set was located at a farm house owned by Tapert's family. The same location was used to film 'Within the Woods'. The cellar was decorted with 'gourds' the nickname for the cellar set became 'The Gourd Zone!'. Pick-up shots of the cellar where shot in Raimi's basement.
  • By the end of the shoot the main cast and crew had left the location. For the films climax all that remained were Campbell, Raimi and Tapert and young Ted Raimi, who acted as stand-in for any shots featuring the zombified remains of Scott or Cheryl. Campbell became the 'make-up f/x guy' to some extent by applying the scleral contact lenses.

    • Special Effects and X-Acto blades!

  • The f/x were handled by MSUCF member Tom Sullivan assisted by Bart Pierce
  • Scleral contact lenses were used for the 'possessed' actors and 'shemps', lenses which Sullivan described as "[taking] a bent quarter and sticking it in your eye." These lenses could only be worn by the actor for 15 minutes before they had to be removed
  • Plaster casts of actors faces were made by applying plaster directlty to their faces without any use of alginate - a protective substance which prevents the plaster sticking to the faces of the actors. Actress Betsy Baker, who plays Linda, got plaster stuck in her hair and on her forehead which Sullivan had to remove with an X-Acto blade.
  • Bart Pierce came up with 'Do-it-yourself' blood bags. Pierce used 'cling film' or Saran wrap to cover a styrofoam cup, using fishing line attached to a construction staple which was connected via an elastic band and string. When the string was pulled the staple would pierce the cup and the contents within would pour out.
  • A mannequin was used as a substitute for actress Ellen Sandweiss for a sequence near the films conclusion. The mannequin was painted and a wig was stapled to the head. Scott Spiegel provided a set of ribs from the shop where he worked which was taped to the mannequins body along with a series of blood bags. The scene required Ash to shoot the possessed Cheryl with a shotgun blast to the body. The crew used an actual shotgun to shoot the mannequin for the scene that was filmed in Raimi's basement. The blast was so powerful the originally white interior of the garage turned pink under the force of the liquid shrapnel.
  • Raimi has his own recipe for blood, Kayo Syrup (treacle), red food colouring and water, with instant coffee mixed in for texture and thickness.
  • Raimi edited out a scene from the films conclusion that showed large quantities of blood, bile, cockroaches and snakes bursting from the decomposing remains of Scott and Cheryl. His reason? Too extreme.
  • The car used in the film was Raimi's actual car. His Oldsmobile 88 was used in every movie he made up until 'The Quick and the Dead' in 1995. It was used briefly in his 1998 movie 'A Simple Plan'.

    • Post-production:

  • Recording Engineer Mel Zelniker had previously worked on 'Reds', 'Raging Bull' and 'Blow Out'
  • The process lasted three years
  • Pick-up shots were filmed in the basement of the Raimi family home in Detroit, Michigan USA. Raimi's pet dog Montgomery stole a prop arm filled with meat from a butchers shop and ran outside scaring passersby
  • The meat was provided by Raimi affiliate Scott Spiegel who worked in a local butchers shop
  • The editing, mixing and dubbing processes were carried out in New York City

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