History Trivia / TheEvilDead1981

* FollowTheLeader: The creative team preferred making comedies in their amateur Super-8 days, and in fact, Sam Raimi didn't even like horror movies; they chose to make one anyway after doing some research and determining that the most commercially successful low-budget independent films had been horror, like ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft1972'', ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre1974'', and ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes1977''.

* NoBudget: This led to [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19901_5-great-movie-scenes-made-possible-by-reckless-endangerment_p2.html a lot of]] EnforcedMethodActing)

** The blood running down the screen of the projector is a nod to the filmmakers' friend Andy Grainger who said "keep the blood running down the screen" as advice.

** All the way up until filming began, the ending of the script called for Ash to simply walk out of the cabin and triumphantly reenter the woods. It wasn't until they started shooting that Sam Raimi decided to add the final scare.

* CoversAlwaysLie: Much of the promotional material for the film originates from a photoshoot (see images 326-341 [[http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/the_evil_dead_photo_gallery.html here]]) from early 1982 - several years after actual shooting wrapped - in which Bruce Campbell participated but none of the other actors did, resulting in an Ash who is visibly older with different haircut, a female lead (actress Bridget Hoffman) who is clearly ''not'' in the movie, and situations which never occur- such as [[https://www.movieposter.com/poster/MPW-65432/Evil_Dead.html Ash fending off a Deadite with a chainsaw while his co-star cowers behind him]], or most famously, [[https://www.movieposter.com/poster/A70-2168/Evil_Dead.html the woman being dragged underground by a demonic hand]].

* CoversAlwaysLie: Much of the promotional material for the film originates from a 1982 photoshoot (see images 326-341 [[http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/the_evil_dead_photo_gallery.html here]]) in which Bruce Campbell participated, but none of the other actors did, resulting in an Ash who is visibly several years older and has a different haircut, a female lead (actress Bridget Hoffman) who is clearly ''not'' in the movie, and situations which never occur- such as Ash fending off a Deadite with a chainsaw while his co-star cowers behind him, or most famously, [[https://www.movieposter.com/poster/A70-2168/Evil_Dead.html the woman being dragged underground by a demonic hand]].

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The movie was a very modest hit in the United States, only making around $2 million, which is only really impressive in comparison to its $500,000 budget. In Europe, it was ''huge'', resulting in it ultimately earning more than $29 million dollars worldwide. It was largely on the back of its European success that Dino De Laurentiis agreed to fund the sequel.

** The film itself is an example of a group of friends, fresh out of film school, going out and making a movie together [[NoBudget with little to no money,]] [[TroubledProduction and a completely hectic filming experience]]. [[TropesAreNotBad Their efforts paid off]].

* DoingItForTheArt: Bruce Campbell put his family's property up as collateral so that Sam Raimi could finish the film.

* {{Tuckerization}}: Scotty is named after Creator/SamRaimi's long-time friend Scott Spiegel, and Cheryl is named after Cheryl Guttridge, the star of Raimi's short film ''Clockwork'' (1978).

** The characters were supposed to be high while listening to the tape. They tried this for real, but the entire scene had to be re-shot due to their uncontrollable behaviour.

* NoBudget: The first movie (which also led to [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19901_5-great-movie-scenes-made-possible-by-reckless-endangerment_p2.html a lot of]] EnforcedMethodActing)

* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The characters were killed off in the order in which the actors were available. Creator/BruceCampbell was the one with the most time, so Ash became the survivor.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda: It's rumored that the Finnish cut of the movie - dropping nearly twelve minutes of footage - was done by Renny Harlin.

** Originally, Linda's [[ChekhovsGun magnifying glass pendant]] was supposed to reveal the Book's weakness to fire by inadvertently burning it with a beam of sunlight. They couldn't get the effect to look right, so they rewrote the scene to instead have Ash simply use it as a tiny grapnel to snag the book; by this point in filming, switching the prop into something more logical for this purpose was out of the question.

** Originally, Linda's [[ChekhovsGun magnifying glass pendant]] was supposed to reveal the Book's weakness to fire by inadvertently burning it with a beam of sunlight. They couldn't get the effect to look right, so they rewrote the scene to instead have Ash simply use it as a tiny grapnel to snag the book; by this point in filming, switching the prop into something more logical for this purpose was out of the question.

** Ash and Scotty were meant to be drinking moonshine in the car scene - which is why Ash makes a funny face (his reaction to the drink).

** [[spoiler:Ash was intended to die at the end when the surviving demon attacks him. This was later changed when Creator/SamRami and Creator/BruceCampbell returned to make ''Film/EvilDeadII''.]]

** [[spoiler:Ash was intended to die at the end when the surviving demon attacks him. This was later changed when Creator/SamRami and Creator/BruceCampbell returned to make ''Film/EvilDeadII''.

* FakeShemp: As the other four actors had left by the time the film was only half-done, the rest had to be shot using Bruce Campbell and stand-ins.

** This also led to Sam Raimi going to England to defend the film's content in court. This experience also caused him to express OldShame through explaining the tree rape scene...

* OldShame: Raimi has expressed shame over the tree rape scene. Doesn't seem to have stopped it from reappearing in the remake though.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: The characters were killed off in the order in which the actors were available. Bruce Campbell was the one with the most time, so Ash became the survivor.
* TroubledProduction: Bruce Campbell's autobiography goes into quite nauseating detail about the problems caused by the low budget. Most notably, the cabin completely lacked insulation and got incredibly cold at night.

* BannedInChina: The first film was one of Britain's "VideoNasties" that got Mary Whitehouse's knickers in a twist. It was more to do with the title than the content; titles with stuff like "Evil" and "Dead" were banned in a knee-jerk reaction (although the [[CrossesTheLineTwice tree rape scene]] didn't do it any favors).