Bruce Campbell is best known for kick-starting the Evil Dead franchise alongside his friend and collaborator Sam Raimi in 1981, when they were both in their early 20s. Since then, Campbell has played Elvis, Richard Nixon and more – but Campbell will always be known as Ash to legions of horror movie fans. Campbell turned 65 on June 22, 2023 and posted a joke (we hope) tweet announcing his retirement.
Campbell’s tweet said; “Okay, so I’m 65 today. Time to retire, I guess. Thanks for watching!” Some people took his statement at face value and started responding with “enjoy your retirement” etc. Horror maestro Stephen King, though, refused to accept such a tragic occurrence and quickly tweeted; “DON’T YOU DARE!”
While 1981’s The Evil Dead is still considered a great cult horror film, it was 1987’s Evil Dead II that really launched the franchise into the stratosphere – with its brilliant gore, practical effects, and most importantly the slapstick humor that would come to define the series. Campbell has reprised the role of Ash several times since, and all of the films in the series have been positively received.
Stephen King was instrumental in the initial success of the Evil Dead franchise – he gave a rave review of the first film, which resulted in New Line Cinema acquiring its distribution rights. Having endorsed the original film, King brought the sequel Evil Dead II to the attention of producer Dino De Laurentiis, with whom he had been making his directorial debut Maximum Overdrive (1986). De Laurentiis agreed to provide financial backing, and assigned Raimi a considerably larger budget than he’d had on the first film.
The franchise continued with Evil Dead Rise, which was released in April 2023 to over $145 million at the box office. The franchise sure has come a long way since its humble beginnings.
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