How Stephen King Saved The Evil Dead (& Got The Sequel Made)
The Evil Dead franchise may be venerated in the annals of horror cinema now, but the films never had an easy time gathering an audience. It took fellow horror legend Stephen King to save the first film from obscurity, as well as to help the sequel receive financial backing. It's a story that beautifully illustrates the far-reaching and passionate support of the horror community and the possibilities of low-budget filmmaking.
The making of The Evil Dead is arguably one of the greatest success stories in movie history, a misshapen but glorious product of haphazard decision-making and on-the-spot creativity. In order to fund their film, director Sam Raimi and lead actor Bruce Campbell worked odd jobs and asked (and in some cases, pleaded) friends, family, and everyone else they thought would be interested to invest in the project. As a result, the cast and crew consisted mostly of people within Raimi's social circle rather than professional industry workers, and the shooting conditions were unregulated, uncomfortable, and often dangerous.
Yet it's this exact DIY quality of the production that makes The Evil Dead such a horror milestone. Created off of a shoestring budget, the film encapsulates the determination and grit that makes independent cinema such a worthwhile venture. Once Raimi, Campbell, and their friends shot the picture, however, they needed a distributor to make a profit. This was easier said than done, as the film's relentless violence and insanity made it appear ill-suited for a wide audience. That is until a certain well-known horror writer got a chance to see a screening at Cannes.
The Evil Dead had been rejected by several major motion picture studios, including Paramount, by the time producer Irvin Shapiro, who is a founder of Cannes and helped distribute Night of the Living Dead, agreed to screen the film at the 1982 festival. Stephen King happened to be an audience member there and, much to Raimi's delight, was gleefully cheering in the theater. The director asked for a quote from him, but King instead wrote a whole review for the November issue of the Twilight Zone magazine in which he raved:
"The Evil Dead has the simple, stupid power of a good campfire story -- but its simplicity is not a side effect. It is something carefully crafted by Raimi, who is anything but stupid... who is so full of talent that anybody unable to get it together might bet tempted to wonder if gobbling the man's fingernails could possibly do any good..."
Suddenly, The Evil Dead went from obscure grindhouse material to coveted gold for horror fans. The film was picked up by New Line Cinema and experienced a controversial release that led to obscenity charges in the United Kingdom and an X rating in the United States. This seemed to add to the mythical status of the film, though, as it grossed a domestic box office eight times its production budget and was the highest-selling 1983 video release in the U.K. As is often the case in horror classics, a barrier made of taboos had been broken as the film convinced its audiences that it had, in fact, successfully pushed the envelope. After paying back his investors and facing critical and financial failure with his follow-up film Crimewave, however, Raimi was once again struggling to fund his sequel.
Meanwhile, King was working with producer Dino De Laurentiis, known for his prolific support of cult classics, on Maximum Overdrive. When the author-turned-director-at-the-time found out from a former Evil Dead crew member that Raimi was having trouble finding money, he convinced the producer to fund the film, once again saving the franchise. It's a testament to the uniqueness of horror in the sense that, both despite and because of its niche appeal, fans will seek out material based on word-of-mouth. There are legends built around scary movies like The Evil Dead, but that's because of ambitious, on-the-ground distribution campaigns that are as scrappy as their filmmaking.