We know it, we love it and it’s got one of the coolest sounding names in horror history but how did the movie that was shot as ‘Book of the Dead’ end up as ‘The Evil Dead’? The man behind the change was one Irvin Shapiro.

A legend in his own time, Shapiro had a life in film that spanned five decades. He was critical in establishing US releases for films such as ‘Battleship Potemkin’ and ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari’ to name but two. Out of all the studios that saw ‘Book of the Dead’ (‘Paramount‘ included) he was the only one that seemed to believe the boys could market the movie and, maybe more importantly, make a little money.

One of the things he suggested was a title change “you got ‘book’ in the title people are gonna think they gotta read for 90 minutes!”, Campbell has often quoted him as saying. Among the alternate titles suggested were:

• Blood Flood
• A Hundred and one percent Dead
• These Bitches are Witches
• Fe-Monsters (Rob Tapert’s early favourite)
• The Evil Dead Men and the Evil Dead Women (Shapiro’s suggestion)

Eventually the ideas boiled down to simply ‘The Evil Dead’ and thus a classic was born. With the new title the boys headed off to Europe and the European film festival circuit where the movie really began to find its audience.

An interesting point to mention is that there are versions of the movie that still have ‘Book Of The Dead’ as the title! The only one that I have come across is the Greek VHS version which is identical in every way bar the title sequence which features the same buzzing fly and watery titles but with the obvious name exception.

For full IRVIN SHAPIRO biography please click here