Evil Dead 2: Ash-bashing!

This is the affectionate term given by Sam Raimi to the torturous exploits that Bruce Campbell endured during the shooting of Evil Dead 2 and later in Army of Darkness.

Special effects supervisor Verne Hyde was brought in to consult and work on Raimi's movie. Part of his work was constructing a series of camera techniques in order to achieve the style that Raimi wanted. His work also included the supervising of the Blood Flood scene where 880 gallons of technicolour 'goop' was dropped over Campbell. Soon Raimi's fetish for 'Ash-bashing!' wildly became known as 'Bruce-bashing!' by the crew.

	Being strapped into a rig made of steel mounted on a Chapman crane, then being hurled backwards through the woods at 15 rpm while productoin assistants held up tree branches for him to hurl through. What was Campbell's reaction after his first ride? "That was damned uncomfortable!". The rig that the camera was mounted on was known as 'Samma-cam'.
	During the Blood Flood scene, 880 gallons of various fluids were pumped out onto Campbell in 44 seconds. During post-production the scene was completed by Gary Jones and his Acme Effects company. Interior f/x shots were filmed for the opening shot of the sequence. Campbell was strapped on a slant board with the camera positioned on its side to give the impression he was standing. Next a combination of water, wallpaper paste and paint was dropped on him from a position out of shot. "We just added the wallpaper paste to make sure everything would stick to Bruce, making him really uncomfortable!", laughed Tom Hitchcock of Illuminations Effects.
	For an early scene in the film where Campbell lands head first in a puddle of water, Campbell climbed on top of two mounted crates and actually jumped headfirst into the puddle himself. "I just stood on some boxes and did a face flop. It stings a little but the footage was good!", explained Campbell.
	The Evil Dead: For the closing scene where the 'evil' races through the cabin then smashes into Ash, Campbell had to have his two front teeth capped after the camera lens broke his teeth. Ouch!

Raimi loves to put his main character through the wars especially a character like Ash who lacks humility. "The long scene in which the hand that once fed him does some terrible, terrible things to Campbell is typical of Raimi's slapstick horror.", wrote Richard Harrington in the April 30 1987 edition of The Washington Post.

"We tried to play it straight,", explained Campbell in a 1992 interview, "If you read the script, breaking plates over your head and a possessed hand are really not funny. I played the role as is it was horror - losing control of your hand is horrible. If you play it straight, though, the warped idea will make the audience laugh. For comedy effect after I cut off my hand and place it under a bucket, I put a book on top of it titled Farewell to Arms."

Scenes like this made the film so appealing and seek to prove that it was the best, and most inspirational, comic-horror film of the eighties - without ED2 would we have had films like From Dusk 'Til Dawn?

The torture would continue for Campbell however in Army of Darkness where it was to become decidedly more slapstick.