Bruce Campbell on Going from Comedy to Horror, The Evil Dead, and Ash on Starz

Bruce Campbell, Sam Raimi, and Rob Tapert may be well-known in Hollywood now, but the three friends weren’t back in the late 1970s when they started work on a horror film that would become The Evil Dead.

Campbell met Raimi back in 1972 when the two were in junior high school. When they both took the same radio speech class in high school a few years later, a friendship was born. In 1978, Tapert was one of Raimi’s brother’s roommates, and the trio became friends.

Campbell recalls that the beginnings for The Evil Dead happened when he realized that Raimi had a bunch of Super 8 film equipment. They combined forces and pooled their equipment with that of guys from other neighborhoods in Detroit.

“We had always done slapstick comedy before this. We were all big fans of the Three Stooges. But we felt like if you did a big comedy, you had to have named comedians,” says Campbell. Raimi began experimenting with short films. After he made a creepy short film called Clockwork, the two decided they could make a horror film.

“Horror movies were the only genre at that time in the late ‘70s that you could still make a drive-in movie. You could have kids going to a cabin and crazy stuff happens,” Campbell says. “Look at The Hills Have Eyes. These young people get into a bad situation when their car breaks down. Or Night of the Living Dead—these creepy crazies come back and attack a town.”

When they told Tapert they wanted to do a movie, he told them they needed a budget. Before long, Tapert had gotten the family lawyer involved, and they forged a limited partnership. Investors gave certain amounts of money. Everything was spelled out. While the film was made with hand-held cameras and low budget, it was made professionally from a business standpoint.”

“Everyone thinks that The Evil Dead is a college production,” explains Campbell. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Campbell remembers a guy who owned a chain of theaters in Detroit giving them advice. The old-time, cigar-chomping guy said, “Fellows, you gotta keep the blood running down the screen!” They remembered it while making their movie and even paid him a tribute.

“There’s a scene in the original The Evil Dead where Ash is in the basement, and an old projector turns on, and these drops of blood hit the projector lens. Literally Ash has blood coming down the screen in front of him. That was an homage to what that guy told us, and we haven’t forgotten it,” says Campbell. “If you’re going to have a horror movie, you’ve got to have blood.” He acknowledges that there can be good horror/suspense movies made without it that mess with people’s minds like The Sixth Sense. “That’s a whole different ballgame. Most people want some carnage.”

The carnage is returning with the trio of Campbell, Raimi, and Tapert at the helm of the new TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead, which premieres on the Starz network on Halloween night. The series takes place 30 years after the original movie, and Ash is a total loser in a rotten place in his life. Campbell says that Ash is in a “sleazy bar phase” of his life. “He’s drinking, going to bars, and doing a bunch of nothing,” says Campbell. “He has one night that he regrets because he triggers everything again at a time in his life where he would really just rather be lying to women at bowling alleys about how he lost his hand.”

“This guy’s going nowhere fast and taking all day to get there. He’s an adult slacker.”

The trio has had a great time working together on Ash, the character they created. “I like working with Rob and Sam, my old cohorts. They provide the best environment for working on the set,” says Campbell. “I’m in it for the creativity. I’m in it to be able to do whatever we want on any given day, and that’s really a blast.

“If you like horror, check it out, and if you like comedy, check it out,” says Campbell. “Because if you like horror, you’ll tolerate the comedy, and if you like comedy, you’ll tolerate the horror. And if you like them both, put it on like a cheap suit and walk around town!”