University Star

While watching Evil Dead I:

1.) Screamed out loud twice (I don’t usually do that)

2.) Thought I was going to throw up all over the Paramount

3.) HAD SO MUCH FUN!

Evil Dead is about Mia, Eric, Olivia, David and Natalie— five friends who go to a cabin in the woods to help Mia kick her drug habit. They find a mysterious book in the cabin. Despite the fact that it’s wrapped in barbed wire and someone has scribbled warnings all over the book not to read it out loud, Eric clips off the barbed wire and freaking reads it out loud. He unwittingly unleashes a demon. The demon proceeds to possess everyone except David, who is very handsome.

There is a lot of blood. A LOT. Director Fede Alvarez said they had a 50,000 tanker truck of (prop) blood, and he STILL feared they would run low. At one point, it rains blood, and there is a girl bleeding from her bloody stump of an arm while she saws another person in half, so they both bleeding and covered in blood-rain and it is bloody bloody bloody. 

Besides the gross-out factor, the movie utilizes a lot of good camera work and sound effects to really freak the audience out, and somehow it manages to keep this up throughout the entire movie. There are no spots to take a breather; it’s constant action. If you have a heart condition, you should probably stay away.

Most of the time horror movies aren’t really my thing, but this seeing it on the big screen with a big group was actually a lot of fun. There were lots of parts where the majority of the theater would jump or scream, and then we’d immediately laugh at ourselves. It was a good time. It seemed to be exactly what the filmmakers were going for.

And speaking of the filmmakers, after the show, Bruce Campbell, who starred in the original and produced the remake, was hamming it up for the audience big time for the Q&A. It was fabulous. He said while making the original, one day some of the cast/crew went to buy bubblegum from a gas station and they didn’t even have money for gum. That’s how low-budget it was, but that’s also why it was so endeared to its fans. This movie is not like the original in that sense, but Fede’s script is still incredibly gross and outrageous, and made nods to the original without trying too hard.

Quotes + fun facts from the red carpet

"The crazy thing is Fede was found by all of Hollywood through a four minute short he did himself on YouTube. If you make something good, it's so easy to get a start nowadays because there are so many outlets. Within 48 hours of him posting that short, agents were calling him." - Rob Tapert, producer

"Working with Fede was really great. He's a visionary. He knew exactly what he wanted. I was in good hands. Evil Dead is legendary, so to be part of that legacy is awesome." - Shiloh Fernandez, actor

Fun fact: Shiloh had a black eye on the red carpet. He claims Bruce Campbell punched him in the face.

"Writing the script was really fun. Fede and I have been friends for 20 years. It was a dream come true." - Rodo Sayagues, writer

"Audiences are trained to CGI. They know what's real and what's not. You're not going to be scared watching a 3-D computer thingy, you know? We wanted to give the audience something real." - Rodo Sayagues 

Fun Fact: Shooting took about twice as long because of the lack of CGI

Fun Fact: Sayagues and Fede Alvarez used to be in a heavy metal band together.

"Most of the time horror movies are about a man with a machete, but in this movie the girls are beating the sh*t out of the boys." - Fede Alvarez, director