Evil Dead Rise: Bruce Campbell's Reaction To A Heckler At SXSW Is A Sign Of Good Things To Come
Film festivals are usually an opportunity for aspiring or accomplished directors and creators to show their creative endeavors. South by Southwest is an annual film festival that takes place in Austin, Texas, and this year, the famous assembly featured a special screening of the highly anticipated "Evil Dead Rise," followed by a question and answer segment with those involved in the movie. The red band trailer for "Evil Dead Rise" on YouTube is filled to the absolute brim with gruesome imagery, gore, terrifying special effects, and a languid version of "Que Sera, Sera." In other words, plenty of what fans love about the "Evil Dead" franchise.
As reported by Variety, after playing the entire movie and around 10 minutes into the Q&A session, one audience member loudly proclaimed, "This movie f****** sucks," and tossed their empty popcorn container. This silence-shattering comment immediately caused other audience members to jeer the heckler loudly, but long-time "Evil Dead" actor Bruce Campbell probably had the best response and said, "What are you doing here? Get the f*** out of here!" This statement from the "Evil Dead Rise" executive producer immediately caused an outburst of laughter, and producer Rob Tapert also joked, "I don't get it. He waited all the way through the credits!"
The crowd went wild for Evil Dead Rise and loved the heckler getting admonished
At this point, South by Southwest panel moderator Peter Hall said, "That a****** aside, I think we can all agree that this movie actually really f****** rules." Again, this statement elicited more cheers from the crowd, which highlights just how much hype and excitement surrounds the movie. The sequel to 2013's "Evil Dead" had long been in development, with the very first hints of the movie alluded to back during the original premiere of "Evil Dead" at South by Southwest. This means that "Evil Dead Rise" has been in limbo for almost ten years, and it was originally supposed to be released directly on streaming. However, due to Warner Bros. restructuring, "Evil Dead Rise" was instead retooled as an official theatrical release, set to be released to the general public on April 21, 2023.
Hall later added, "I've been doing South By for a long time, and I've seen a lot of movies in this theater — I have never seen an audience that insane." This definitely sounds like great news for "Evil Dead Rise," with a long-time South by Southwest TV and film programmer believing that the audience for this movie was entirely unique. That's something any horror film creator would love to see — an audience that wholeheartedly enjoyed a blood-covered horror romp.
Evil Dead Rise follows the most profitable Evil Dead movie so far
The "Evil Dead" franchise has long been a part of pop culture, with popular phrases from the movie becoming part of the modern-day lexicon, like referring to a shotgun as a "boomstick." Besides phrases and quotes from the movie, the "Evil Dead" franchise also put star and future executive producer Bruce Campbell in the general public's eye. Campbell must have had quite an impact on the original director of Sam Raimi, as Raimi often has Campbell cameo in his movies — just think of Pizza Poppa in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness."
Oddly enough, even though Campbell isn't one of the movie's main stars, he is still in there somewhere, with director Lee Cronin offering $50 for anybody who can spot Campbell. Cronin explained to Empire Magazine, "It felt like in order to move the franchise somewhere new and to unlock the potential of the universe to tell more stories, it needed to break free [of Ash]. But Bruce is hidden in the movie somewhere. Bruce has a small presence in the movie. The first person to figure it out and send me a tweet, I'll give them 50 bucks." In addition, 2013's Evil Dead was the most profitable of the franchise thus far, with the movie being created for $17 million and earning $99 million. Considering the growing tide of excitement for "Evil Dead Rise," the financial upward trend of the franchise, and the rowdy crowd at South by Southwest, it seems like the future is looking bright for "Evil Dead Rise."