It’s easy to understand whyEvil Dead Riseis one of themost anticipated movies of 2023, considering it’s the next chapter in horror’s best franchise — yes, I said it, chainsaw-fight me!Evil Deadis so influential that even people who are not into horror can easily recognize the name as a staple in cinema history that should be revered and praised. However, as the franchise’s creatorSam Raimirecently revealed,Evil Deadalmost had a very different title. More surprisingly, the reason is connected to the price of printed newspaper ads.
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Raimi’s Original Title Was a Nod to H.P. Lovecraft’sNecronomicon
While Raimi is now a big-shot Hollywood filmmaker, having directed thebelovedSpider-Mantrilogy starringTobey Maguireand Marvel Studios’Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in the late 1970s, he was just broke. So, while Raimi wanted to develop a horror movie and take it to theaters, he didn’t have the money to do so. That’s why Raimi and his long-term friend and actorBruce Campbellshot a short film calledWithin the Woods, which served as a proof of concept for the movie they really wanted to make. WithWithin the Woodsas a prototype, Raimi and Campbell started a passionate campaign to raise funds for what would be known asThe Evil Dead.
Until the late stages of production, Raimi was determined to name his movieBook of the Dead, a direct nod toH.P. Lovecraft, the writer who came up with the idea of the Necronomicon. Inspired by Lovecraft’s work, Raimi wanted to explore the idea of an evil book capable of raising the dead and summoning demons, so the movie’s title was pretty much set in stone — until it wasn’t.In a recent interview with Empire, Raimi explained how the final title was chosen by a salesperson, not byThe Evil Dead’s creative team. According to the director:
“The original title of the movie was ‘The Book Of The Dead.‘But film sales agentIrvin Shapirosat Rob [producerRobert G. Tapert], Bruce and I down and said, ‘We’re changing the title, boys. Advertising space in the newspaper is paid for by the inch, kid. We’re not going to have a five-word title. ‘Dead’can stay. you may have one other word. You can call it ‘101% Dead’or ‘Evil Dead.'”
This bizarre behind-the-scenes story is a weird relic of a long-gone era. Some of the younger fans of the franchise might not even understand the concept of charging for newspaper ads by inch, which was reason enough to cut down the title of a movie. It’s also weird to realize someone who had nothing to do with the movie’s development could impose such a drastic creative change for monetary reasons. Fortunately, Raimi made the right choice, as there’s no way a movie called101% Deadcould have been taken seriously. As Raimi puts it, “‘101% Dead’? I thought, ‘I’ll die first.’ So I chose the lesser of the two horrible titles. But now I’ve started to like it. It’s pretty good.”
TheEvil Deadfranchise will rise from the grave once more whenEvil Dead Riseis summoned into theaters on April 21.
