Evil Dead is a great movie title, mostly because Evil Dead is a great movie. But it’s also short, memorable, and ominous sounding. Horror movies director Sam Raimi probably appreciates it now, but maybe didn’t always.
It’s not unusual for a movie to go through different titles before landing on one. A title has a large effect on demographics, box office, and marketing, so they have to get it right.
The road to this 80s movie‘s final name was a bit of a struggle, especially when Raimi had to shut down an alternative title he thought was horrible.
“The original title of the [original] movie was ‘The Book Of The Dead’,” Raimi told Empire. “But film-sales agent Irvin Shapiro sat Rob, 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 can have one other word. You can call it ‘101% Dead’, or ‘Evil Dead’.'”
“‘101% Dead’? I thought, ‘I’ll die first’,” Raimi recalls. “So I chose the lesser of the two horrible titles. But now I’ve started to like it. It’s pretty good.”
101% Dead Sounds like a copycat B-movie someone definitely should make.
Grab a weapon and get ready for the new movies coming soon, or check out the Evil Dead Rise release date and our best zombie movies.