Bruce Campbell: A B-Moviestar’s Biography

Posted on 7 oktober 2023 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

For every George Clooney and Steven Spielberg, there are thousands of working class slobs in Tinsel Town. Bruce Campbell’s biography ‘If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor’ is a homage to this B-crowd. Bruce who? That’s the point exactly. For those of us who grew up on a diet of classy horror movies in the eighties and nineties, he is a household name, for he was the star of one of the greatest horror series of that era: the holy Evil Dead trilogy (consisting of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness).

‘If Chins Could Kill’ tells Bruce’s story. It was first published in 2001, so it doesn’t include the television adaptation of Evil Dead called Ash Vs. Evil Dead, but that’s no problem; there are plenty of great stories preceding that terrific cult show. In chapter 1, Campbell describes his childhood in Detroit, Michigan, with his parents and two older brothers. They did their fair share of monkeying around, and then good old Bruce became interested in girls. It became a lifelong obsession.

As he grew older, he had to find a way to keep on having fun. He discovered that his father Charles was an actor in a local theater. At age 14, Bruce joined the group and he soon played his first roles on stage. In the years that followed, he met various would-be actors and filmmakers, including one who would make it really big: Sam Raimi. After shooting a bunch of pretty cool 8 MM amateur films, Campbell, Raimi and another guy called Robert Tapert wondered: can we make a profession out of this?

The junior film crew decided to focus on the horror genre, because of the low budget required. For inspiration, they watched many horror shows at the drive-in theater and got a good sense of what audiences liked (when do they laugh? When do they scream?). Then they shot Within the Woods, the short predecessor of The Evil Dead. Their next challenge was a considerable one; they had to raise 150.000 dollars to be able to shoot their first feature length horror movie on 16 MM film (which they would afterwards blow up to 35 MM for cinema screenings) and to cover all other expenses. This seemed impossible, but they bought suits, went to work, and eventually raised the money.

After a grueling 12-week shoot in a run-down cabin in the woods of Tennessee, they canned the film, and luckily for the private investors, they delivered a genre classic. It turned out that its director was a genuine talent in visual storytelling, and Campbell undeniably a true horror star. True to the aim of his book, Campbell describes all the collaborators and the challenges they had to overcome to get this movie made. None of the other actors continued acting after The Evil Dead and all pursued other occupations.

If you’re serious about shooting a low budget movie, you should definitely read this book. It contains many tips on raising money, and then actually shooting it with hardly any resources. After that come the reshoots, the editing and sound editing, and then comes an even tougher part: marketing and selling the damn thing. Luckily for the crew, Stephen King saw their film at a movie event and wrote positively about it. His recommendation did miracles for the marketing of what was originally known as Book of the Dead, an unmarketable title; people might think they’d have to do reading at the screening. The investors of the retitled The Evil Dead made their money back, but the boys didn’t make anything. Yet, they now had a film under their belt.

What followed was the major flop Crimewave, co-written by The Coen Brothers. Campbell didn’t get a whole lot of work after that. He was in a soap series where he met his wife to be (a fragment from this show can be seen in Fargo, in the scene in which sociopath Gaear is watching television in the cabin). Crimewave could have been a career ender in Hollywood, but they had a fallback project: doing a sequel to the successful Evil Dead. Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn (1987) became a legendary sequel and it is still considered to be among the greatest horror films ever made (it’s second on my top 10 horror list).

Still, Campbell – despite having played a lead role in a popular film – was no mainstream star and had to work as a security guard to make ends meet (“hey, you’re that guy from Evil Death, say that groovy line”). He also got divorced and met his new wife (a make-up artist) at a movie set. Campbell’s career would be closely tied to Raimi’s and in 1993, they would complete the trilogy with Army of Darkness. If you’ve ever wondered how much Bruce made with starring in the lead role in this movie ( I did!), the answer is in this book. It’s 500 K. This seems like an okay sum, but you have to subtract 25 percent for agents and managers leaving 375.000. Then deduct taxes (federal and state at the highest level) and you’re left with 187.500. Because he was recently divorced, his wife got half leaving Bruce with 93.750. This is still a lot of money, but considering it was two years work, he made just 46.875 a year, which is not what you’d expect a movie star (even a B-movie star) to make.

Still, Campbell continued to find work and most importantly: have fun. Especially when he went to New Zealand to work as actor and director on the tv-show Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and spin-of Xena: The Warrior Princess. In Campbell’s words: “shooting this show in New Zealand, away from studio interference, brought me back to the fun of filmmaking, like when we were shooting 8 MM movies back in Michigan.”

Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3: Final Goodbyes

Posted on 31 oktober 2018 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

After the terrific second season, I thought it was over for the chainsaw wielding Ash and his compadres. But my favorite show of the last couple of years returned for one final round of evil ass kicking. April this year, Starz announced it was now cancelled due to a drop in viewers. Bruce Campbell had this to tweet about it:

So now it’s over for real. But with a legacy this good – three movies (not counting the inferior remake) and three TV-seasons, who’s complaining?

Season 3 starts off with a brilliant commercial in which Ash, retired as a demon-killer, now slashes prices instead of zombies in his new hardware store. Off course, it doesn’t take long for evil to return. And if that isn’t enough, he finds out he is a dad. Will his daughter Brandy turn out to be an evil asskicker, just like her daddy ‘Ashy Slashy’?

The usual ingredients are all here: slapstick humor, buckets of gore and dazzling camera moves. A definite highlight is the battle in a sperm bank (in episode 2), where Ash has been donating his superior seed for quite a while. It is in over-the-top scenes like this when the formula of laugh out loud humor and gory horror shocks is at its most effective.

Like in the previous season, Ash gets excellent support from Pablo and Kelly (Ray Santiago & Dana DeLorenzo) who really managed to become essential characters in the revived Evil Dead Universe. Lucy Lawless makes a strong main villain as Ruby, one of the original Dark Ones who wrote the Necronomicon and thus started all this deadite trouble. We meet the other Dark Ones as well this season for the first time! And does Ash get to fight that big ass monster that’s on the awesome cover above? Find out for yourself. This show is not to be missed.

I wish Bruce Campbell a happy retirement. Ash – a guy with a chainsaw as hand – has been the role of his lifetime. As King of the B-actors, he couldn’t get a more suitable legacy. This is the stuff of true legends.

Ash can finally lock away his chainsaw and boomstick.

Ash vs Evil Dead 2 Kicks Evil’s Ass Literally

Posted on 10 januari 2018 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

After the magnificent season 1 I thought it couldn’t get any better, but I was DEAD wrong. The sequel to the glorious return of director Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell (B-movie star and author “If Chins Could Kill”) contains even more inventive humour, massive amounts of gore and ultra stylish visuals. Groovy!!

After the heroic, but self-serving Ash made the completely selfish deal with half-demon Ruby the Dark One – original author of Necronomicon aka Book of the Dead that has awoken evil on earth once AGAIN – he and his dear friends Kelly and Pablo have been enjoying life in Jacksonville. Ash no longer uses his chainsaw to dismember deadites, but to open new vats of beer and to impress hot girls (“What a pleasure for you to meet me”). But when evil shows up anyway, this is a dealbreaker. They gave peace a chance, now it’s time for war.

The trio head towards Ash’s hometown in Michigan, where Ash’s dad still lives, like his son a lady killer. Once there, they attempt to retrieve the necronomicon before Ruby’s evil spawn can use it to make earth a living hell. This is the start of a whole series of outrageous challenges. First Ash has to fight a possessed anus in a morgue (“There is only one asshole in this town, and that asshole is me!” BLEM!) Next is a battle against Ash’s beloved car and his resurrected sister Cheryl (awesome return of Ellen Sandweiss).

Finally, after escaping from a loony asylum and slaying many deadites, Ash and Kelly (Pablo is temporarily dead) return to the 1980’s, so they can obtain the book from the cabin before Ash will ever find it as young man. And guess who still lives in the fruit cellar of the old shack? That’s right:

Sweet Henrietta

Ash will need all of his superior wits and tools to get out of this one. But no need to worry. This is Ash we’re talking about after all, perhaps the greatest hero who ever lived. Season 2 does seem to be the end of the Evil Dead revival, but even if it is; this is one hell of a glorious return. Like the movies, this show is already a classic. So if you she-bitches are ready, then let’s go!

Ash vs Evil Dead: 5 Greatest Moments

Posted on 11 december 2016 by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Ash is back in Ash vs Evil Dead

Ash: man, I missed this guy! Bruce Campbell is back in the role that made him King of the B-actors. And he looks as good as ever and his humour is still as dry as a bucket of Sahara sand. In 23 years (since ‘Army of Darkness’), he hasn’t changed much. He still has a lousy job in a store as stock boy, he is still picking up chicks, and he still has his chainsaw and boomstick lying around for emergencies. And they’re needed, because it takes only 10 minutes before Evil shows up. Bigtime…

So what are the best moments in this epic first season? (spoilers obviously)

5. Shoot First, Think Never

Ash has looked deep inside himself with a guided ayahuasca tour and found the core of his being: whatever you do, don’t think. Ash is most effective when he doesn’t think at all and that’s how he defeats the horrible demon Eligos.

4. Two of Us

When Ash goes back to the cabin, the place where it all began, the series goes back to its roots also: nerve wrecking terror. He faces several evil entities including some evil kid (‘someone needs to wash your mouth kid and that someone is me’). But equally great is his fight against another Evil Ash. He is often his own worst enemy. Luckily Good Ash always has some tricks up his sleeve.

3. Trailer Trash

Ash takes on the possessed Vivian – his trailer park neighbour. It is in this classic battle that Ash is reattached to his beloved chainsaw plus he gets to use his BOOMSTICK! “Yo granny, hope you took your Geritol. Because it’s time to dance”.

2. Summoning up a Total Nerd

Ashley Williams is at his best when he’s acting like a complete idiot. Like the time he purposefully wants to summon a weak demon to get rid of evil.
Ash: Lionel, have you found a wimpy demon yet?
Lionel: I have found a minor demon named ‘Eligos’. Possesses knowledge of hidden things. A demon of the mindscape.
Ash: Well perfect. Sounds like a total nerd. Okay, get him out.

When Eligos appears it doesn’t look much like a wimp. Classic Ash.

1. Calling up Spirits

Ash messed up things before, but how he manages to summon up demons this time must be his greatest (and funniest) fuck-up. Ash is getting high with a hooker and she tells him she finds poetry so damn sexy. Ash says he has something lying around. It may not be French, but Necronomicon Ex Mortis (which he keeps in his house because…?) will have to do. Soon they’re citing passages and laughing their asses off. Superb comedy.