The Crack of Dawn

Volume #182

12/8/22

Newsletter #182

The Crack of Dawn

We were in a gravel pit shooting Evil Dead 2 in 1986, and it was at least 110 degrees.  Myself and many other extras were attired in full armor that went over a black thermal full-body union suit.  This was the hottest I’d ever been in my entire life.  I spent most of the day, when not shooting, sitting beside a muddy little spit pond scooping out fetid water and pouring it over the back of my neck.  At the end of the first day the producer, Rob Tapert, who was also wearing armor, said to me, “Tomorrow will be a lot better.”  I looked up at him with the glaring North Carolina sun in my eyes, a cup of dirty water in my hand, and asked, “If we’re shooting here in the gravel pit again tomorrow, why would it be any better?”  Rob grinned and said, “Cause you know what you’re in for.”  And he was right.  It wasn’t much better, but it was a little better.

Bruce’s stunt man was a muscular guy named John Casino, who seemed game for anything.  There was a big stunt that day so John was there dressed as Ash.  The stunt was Ash falling down a steep, 50-foot cliff, which looked dangerous.  Our fearless leader Sam Raimi explained the stunt to John at length, which seemed silly since he was simply falling down a steep hill and he wasn’t going to be able to give much of a performance on the way down.  Still, John dutifully listened, nodding his head, obviously very interested in giving Sam exactly what he wanted.  But Sam could somehow not convey to John what he was looking for, and said, “Here, I’ll show you,” and headed over to the cliff.  We all looked at each other, thinking, “He’s not really going to do this, is he?”  Sam got to the top of the cliff and called out to all of us, “This is what I’m looking for,” and threw himself over the cliff.  Sam went ass-over-teakettle down this 50-foot cliff like a Raggedy Ann doll and looked like he had broken every bone in his body.  He landed at the bottom with a thump.  Very slowly, Sam rose to his feet and hobbled over to the rest of us.  He said to John, “Like that.”

John Casino, professional stuntman, fell down the same hill in a totally different way; one that looked like he didn’t break every bone in his body, which he didn’t, and that’s the stunt in the movie.  The next morning Sam was still hobbling.  Bruce told me later that Sam came up to him and confessed, “I pissed blood this morning.”  With all due respect to the great and powerful Oz, Sam Raimi, who on earth shows a stunt man how to do the stunt? 

Soon thereafter we shot the very last shot of the movie.  Ash is standing there in front of the castle.  He drops to his knees, looks to the heavens, and bellows, “Noooooo . . .” as the camera pulls back over the shoulders of knights raising their swords, chanting, “Hail he who fell from the sky.”  I was down on my knees, wearing a single glove, holding a sword, and my job was to raise the sword straight up in front of the lens.  Sam had put me in the position of potentially screwing up a big, complicated shot.  I got my positioning straight with the cameraman, and I nailed that sucker every time.  So, my hand is the last thing in Evil Dead 2.

I wasn’t sure that I still had it in me to have as much fun as I had yesterday, but I did.  I’m going to do the same thing today.