Evil Dead: The Musical

Year: 2004
Director: George Reinblatt
Writer: George Reinblatt
Genre: Horror: Possession, Musical

The Evil Dead is a fantastic movie. Originally released in 1981 it was just a tiny, cheap production but people fell for it. Because of the success of that one, they basically remade and added onto the film for Evil Dead II. Finally after that they did Army of Darkness which is one of the most rollicking and awesome horror films made alongside Peter Jackson's Braindead/Dead Alive. 


Evil Dead: The Musical isn't a film but a stage musical. I have yet to have the opportunity to ever see it performed live before my eyes but I was able to get my hands on a copy. While the video quality wasn't the highest I was able to see what was going on. Picked up the official soundtrack CD too!

When it first started I felt that the humor was a bit too modern and the whole thing was too goofy. But then I thought back to the source material and it is all very silly. Once I got over some of the slight changing of comedic pace, I realized this was a great labor of love. The music isn't incredibly catchy, but it's not bad either. The dance segments were pretty fun as well even if they were mostly lifting various dance moves from popular dances.

It tells the story of Evil Dead 1 and II relatively well. I'm not sure which production I watched, but the Ash in it was dorky but oh so adorable. He fit into the Ash role perfectly and even though he was no Bruce Campbell he was a fairly accurate simulation. I'd watch it again in a heartbeat if I could see it live. Otherwise, it was a nice one time experience kind of akin to the absurdity of the Reefer Madness musical.

Apparently the live showings even featured a "splatter zone". If you were up close to the stage you would have a good chance of some of the on-screen blood spurting out at you. I, for one, would dig that.