Bruce Campbell landed a verbal smackdown on a spoilsport who went out of his way to ruin everyone else’s good time at the Evil Dead Rise premiere at SXSW.Evil Dead Rise bowed at SXSW before hitting general release to build up word of mouth amongst a fanbase eager for more hijinks in the world of Deadites and chainsaws. First popularized in a gonzo 1981 gore flick that Stephen King called “The most ferociously original horror film of the year,” the first Evil Dead launched the careers of all involved, including writer and director Sam Raimi and beloved Hollywood icon Campbell. However, not everyone was pleased with Evil Dead Rise, the newest and most recent entry in the franchise since 2013’s Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead film. After falling asleep with his legs propped up, a person was approached by SXSW venue staff and yelled something unintelligible. The person shouted that the movie “f***ing sucked!” As he was led from the theater. Campbell responded, “What are you doing here? Get the f*ck out of here,” to massive cheers.
Long-time Evil Dead series producer Robert Tapert (a Raimi collaborator from way back who met his wife Lucy Lawless on the pair’s Hercules: The Legendary Journeys spinoff, Xena: Warrior Princess) was present during the event. He didn’t understand the encounter since the heckler sat through the film before really laying into it. It’s almost difficult to call the person involved a fan since fandom implies liking a thing when this is so clearly a case of the opposite: a spoilsport trying to ruin everyone else’s good time until series star and Evil Dead Rise producer Campbell had enough of his antics.
Evil Dead Rise is exactly what the title promises: Set in an apartment in a Los Angeles high-rise, two sisters, Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and Beth (Lily Sullivan), go toe-to-toe after one sister gets possessed by the series’ Necronomicon Ex Mortis, a gateway for all sorts of Kandarian demons to take over a person’s home and body, reanimating them as a vicious Deadite. To deal with the threat, nothing less than total bodily dismemberment is needed, often leading to inventive and gory methods of execution of the series’ monsters. Based on everything shown so far, Evil Dead Rise is keeping up the long-running gore and wickedly dark comedy the franchise is famous for.
Evil Dead Rise opens in theaters on April 21, 2023.
Source: Deadline