Bruce Campbell can still feel the oppressive cling of fake blood pulling at his skin after shooting the particularly gory scenes in his first movie, 1981s The Evil Dead. Id walk into a hot shower with my clothes on after a shoot because they were stuck to my body, he says. The blood would pull all my hair off. The film was so over-the-top in its gruesome depiction of twentysomethings becoming possessed by evil spirits after fiddling with an ancient Sumerian text (bound in human flesh, of course) that theyd found in the basement of a creepy cabin that first-time filmmaker Sam Raimi didnt flinch when dubbing the low-budget flick the ultimate experience in grueling horror. Ultimately, it became a cult hit; Stephen King called it ferociously original and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson later said he found it inspiring.
Now Campbell, a 57-year-old, square-jawed, self-described B-movie actor is returning to the world of Evil Dead. The blood is still stickier than hell and its horrible, horrible, horrible, he says, affecting a matter-of-fact snark thats not unlike his characters. Following two sequels and a reboot, the franchise will get a fifth life on Halloween, when Starz debuts the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead.
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The show, which kicks off with a Raimi-directed premiere, finds Campbell resuming the saga of Ash Williams,Deads beleaguered deadbeat who once again accidentally (read: while high) summons the Deadites those sinister spirits who turn unwitting people and inanimate objects into wise-cracking killing machines. Williams must find a way to put the genie back in the bottle, as Campbell puts it, or face world destruction. The cast also features franchise newbies Lucy Lawless, Mimi Rogers and Jill Marie Jones, among others, while retaining the series hilarious, Three Stoogesinspired splat-tick humor making for a viewing experience thats less Walking Dead and more mocking dead.
The way the actor tells it, fans have been relentlessly clamoring for a new Evil Dead film ever since the release of the series second sequel, 1992s Army of Darkness. Im always surprised by the demand, because the first Evil Dead was financed by dentists and doctors, he says. It wasnt even an indie darling. It clawed its way from nowhere to where it is today, which is still a mom-and-pop operation. Were just glad that, after all this hard work, people want more.
Campbell, who regularly attends horror conventions, has seen first-hand how the film series became a cult hit. By his own estimation, hes autographed around 50 chainsaws (They have to make sure theyre not working before entering, he says) and a lot of shotguns, and he has witnessed first-hand just how far fans will go to show their love. I saw an Iraq war veteran who had the entire poster of Army of Darkness [tattooed] on his back in color, Campbell says. It must have taken 40-plus hours. Another guy had my initials on his stomach. Try to explain that to your girlfriend.
Trying to meet the demand, Campbell and Raimi produced a generally well-received 2013 reboot of the original, directed by Fede Alvarez, but while fans dug it, they told Campbell they didnt like it as much as the real thing. After doing seven seasons of USA Networks spy show Burn Notice, he felt TV might be an interesting way to raise the Dead, so he and producer Rob Tapert dragged Sam into it, figuring out a way to pick up the plot close to a quarter of a century after Ashs last adventure. They chose Starz as the series home since it was the only network to allow them to do anything they wanted a necessity, given that our chainsaw-handed hero experiences gore galore in his befuddled attempt to salvage humanity.
This guys going to save the world? Campbell says with a laugh. This guy wasnt qualified 25 years ago when we did Army of Darkness. What makes you think hes going to be qualified now?
For the actor, the biggest challenge of reentering the land of the Dead is the physicality. Im not as limber as I used to be, he says. So its getting up in the morning, putting Bengay on, lots of Icy Hot, hot rubs, hot baths. To carry the characters chainsaw, Campbell does lots of stretching and isometrics, and he holds weights out in front of his body with both arms because, as he realized, a shotgun is about just as heavy as a chainsaw.
He achieves Williams mindset a little easier. Since the character is still content being a stock boy at an electronics store at the beginning of the season, decades after battling demons in the original films cabin in the woods, he lives a largely Dionysian lifestyle. I just appeal to my lowest base instincts, Campbell says, then proceeds with a hypothetical. You wake up in the morning and go, Should I drink at 10 oclock in the morning? Your normal instinct would go, Nah, thats probably not a good idea. Ash would go, Have a beer for breakfast. Whats the big deal? Hes a bad employee, a bad boyfriend a very, very flawed hero.
This show has reminded me how much I hate fake blood.
So, considering the shows plot sidesteps the Medieval mayhem of Army of Darkness, has the Williams character changed much at all in the three decades since the events in Evil Dead 2? Not at all, Campbell says resoundingly. Thats the awesome part. Everything is basically thrust upon this socially inept guy.
But while Williams is incompetent, Campbell must keep it together especially on set when doing battle with his own personal mortal enemy: imitation bodily fluids. This show has reminded me how much I hate fake blood, he says bluntly. I forgot. I havent really been covered in blood in years.
When he was filming a scene a few days before speaking with Rolling Stone, Campbell says he went blind because one of the blood delivery systems got him right in the eye. They were using a seed spreader with a hand crank and a bucket, with this little blade runner on it that would toss seeds out as if youre going to reseed your lawn, and we just put blood in there, he says. It made the greatest old-school spray and it blinded me. I had to say lines of dialogue, and I could not see because my eyes were so full of blood. (As far as modern blood-delivery systems go, Campbell extols the invention of a blood mortar, for if we really need to pump blood, based on an air mortar, and a modified beer keg for spray.)
In another fight sequence, he continues, I basically cut a guys head off with a broken bottle dont do that at home and my mouth was full of blood. I basically had to spit it out and keep going with the take, because I was gagging.
Campbells biggest disappointment, regarding the pseudo-plasma, is just how little its changed since he and Raimi made the first movie. The real blood that we use for close-up work is still sticky and it has a sweet base, he says. Im not sure why. I need to develop and patent my own blood.
Another thing that remains virtually the same is the prop Necronomicon the Sumerian book of the dead that Williams uses to summon the Deadites. Even though hes made several movies with them, Campbell wont hang onto the prop as a souvenir. They smell like a locker room, he says. Theyre all made out of weird rubber, strange fiberglass material. They dont age well either. Theyre not designed to last 100 years. Even the ones you can get, those DVDs the special editions of Evil Dead come in, theyre all falling apart because they were made in Malaysia.
Despite the slippery drawbacks of returning to such a viscous world, Campbell says he had fun filming the series and working again with Raimi and Lawless the latter of whom he knew from guest-starring on Xena: The Warrior Princess, and refers to them as the devils that I do know. Regarding Raimi in particular, the actor calls the director even more dangerous and more experienced than when he last worked with him. He is a much more professional director and Im a much more professional actor, Campbell says. Its great that we can do the same thing again and nothing has changed. The actor also has enjoyed having a say in the role of Ash Williams. This is the only show where I can now take full control over what my character says, he exclaims. Thats important. Ill listen to Sam but nobody else.
The first season of the show will feature 10 half-hour episodes of events getting worse and worse for Williams as he tries to contain the evil Deadites. Well see where it takes up beyond that, Campbell says, teasing a continuation of the plot into a second season. I think fans are gonna get their moneys worth, he says. Were not pushing our way through this. Were taking it very seriously. We know what the fans demand and were giving them exactly what they demand.
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