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One of the top-grossing independent films of all time, The Evil Dead (1981) sparked a worldwide cult following, resulting in sequels, remakes, musicals, comic books, conventions, video games and a television series.
Examining the legacy of one of the all-time great horror films, this collection of new essays covers the franchise from a range of perspectives. Topics include The Evil Dead as punk rock cinema, the Deadites' (demon-possessed undead) place in the American zombie tradition, the powers and limitations of Deadites, evil as affect, and the films' satire of neoliberal individualism.
List of contents
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I: The Films
Deadites and the American Zombie Tradition (Brandon Kempner)
"The Number One Nasty": How Britain's Most Popular
Eighties Horror Was Banned (Sarah Cleary)
Final Girl, Final Boy: Ash's Imperiled Masculinity (Dale Bailey)
Perceptions of Paranormal Plausibility: Method and Manipulation in The Evil Dead (Leon Lewis )
Naturom Demonto: How The Evil Dead Claims Evil for Both Literature and Cinema (John Semley)
Tracking Gaze, Possessing Perspective: Evil as Affect (Haerin Shin)
The Evil Dead and Punk Rock Cinema (Alex Pitofsky)
Horrid Addictions and Curious Cravings (Emily D. Edwards)
Dismembering, Repeating and Working-Through: Queer Disability and Neoliberal Crises of Deracination in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead Trilogy
(Clayton J. Plake)
The First Horror Film Shot in Michigan (Ron Riekki)
Part II: The Franchise and Adaptations
"Don't call me Ash!": Success, the Bruce Campbell Way (Michael Fuchs and Michael Phillips)
Ash vs. the Cult of Personality (Alex Liddell)
"For God's sake, how do you stop it?!": The Powers
and Limitations of the Deadites (Michael P. Jaros and Robert I. Lublin)
"Shoot first, think never": Ash's Satire of Neoliberal
Individualism (Jeffrey A. Sartain)
Franchising Fright from Film to Game (Stefan Hall)
Repulsion and Convulsion in "The Splatter Zone" (Rob Roznowski)
Stage Horrality: Evil Dead: The Musical and the Theatricality
of Embarrassment (André Loiselle)
Deadites vs. Adaptation (Valerie L. Guyant)
Deadite Porn (Olga Tchepikova-Treon)
Macduff vs. Army of Darkness (Erin Harrington)
Part III: Testimonials
Fake Shemping (Bill Vincent)
Do the Necronomicon: Evil Dead's Journey into the Realm
of Musical Theater (L. Michael Elliott)
Being Linda (Betsy Baker)
About the Contributors
Index
About the author
Writer and actor Ron Riekki has won several screenplay awards including best sci-fi/fantasy from the International Family Film Festival, best comedy from the Los Angeles Film Awards and the Nuclear Pen Award from the GenreBlast Film Festival.Jeffrey A. Sartain teaches literature and composition at the University of Houston-Victoria and is the managing editor for American Book Review. His studies include the culture of the digital age, posthumanism, horror films, genre fiction, contemporary authors, and literary minimalism.
