Evil Dead Fan Trip Of A Lifetime Blu-Ray
Completion Date:
Production Time:
Number Of Discs:
Language(s):
Production Time:
Number Of Discs:
Language(s):
February 18, 2018
3 Weeks
4
English
3 Weeks
4
English
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Source(s):
None
1080i M2TS Video Files
Pre-existing DVD MPEG-2 files
Pre-existing AVI & MP4 files
1080i M2TS Video Files
Pre-existing DVD MPEG-2 files
Pre-existing AVI & MP4 files
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Blu-ray cover artwork - 25mm spine (click to enlarge)
On Wednesday December 5, 2012 I flew out from London Heathrow Airport into Knoxville Airport in Tennessee arriving in the evening and going straight to a local hotel. Then the following day I took a hire car and drove out to former site of The Evil Dead cabin in Morristown around 60 miles away. I decided to break it up into two visits, I'd walk there first, check things out, collect a few souvenirs, then walk back to the car. Then I'd drive up and do the filming. That was because If I did get found by the owners while filming and asked to leave, all the items I'd taken earlier would be safe already in the car. Because I parked at a Gas station way down near the main road, I had to walk around two miles to get to the site. I really didn't know it would be as long a walk as that, it looked much shorter on Google Earth. First visit I took three big chimney rocks, some leaves, a bag of soil from the cellar and bag of soil round the chimney, a bag full of tin roof bits, some tree bark, some twigs, a few twisted vines, and put everything in my backpack and hiked back to the car which was very hard work! I finally got back, then drove up and parked just beyond the cabin entrance, which was out of site of all houses except for anyone driving directly past. I spent about an hour filming the walk down the path, around the cabin, different views up on the hillside, and never saw a soul. While the cabin is no longer there, there is still around half the chimney stack, as well as large sections of the roof and some foundations. I then drove the 30 miles to the Clinch River Road/Riverside Road location, used for the opening Oldsmobile driving shots, then another 20 miles to Old Highway 25E seen where Scott shouts at two waving fishermen, filming footage at each location, before heading to a local Morristown hotel for the evening.
On the Friday I headed back up to the cabin site to film further footage, before driving 30 miles down to the site of the destroyed bridge, some of the remains of which are still there. At around noon that day I finished up in Morristown and drove 260 miles over the Smokey Mountains arriving at the hotel in Wadesboro, North Carolina that evening.
On the Saturday in Wadesboro I toured various Evil Dead II filming locations including the The J. R. Faison Junior High School which was used to house the cabin & cellar interior sets and the crew & admin offices/workshops, the Bonsal Ballast Pits which was the location for the climactic medieval section of the movie and now looks very different, and most importantly the exterior Cabin set which still exists although in a very dilapidated state. It's worth adding that a visit to the cabin was only possible due to the fact that I had become friendly with the original owners of the site months beforehand, who in turn were friendly with the current owners of the site. While I won't mention their names here, I would just reiterate my thanks to them for making this trip so amazing! The cabin site isn't accessible from any public roads, it's not accessible at all actually, it's in the middle of a large privately owned section of working cattle farmland, and the whole site has an electric cattle fence around it. I was escorted from the entrance to the site by car, then driven back to the main road once I'd finished.
On the Saturday in Wadesboro I toured various Evil Dead II filming locations including the The J. R. Faison Junior High School which was used to house the cabin & cellar interior sets and the crew & admin offices/workshops, the Bonsal Ballast Pits which was the location for the climactic medieval section of the movie and now looks very different, and most importantly the exterior Cabin set which still exists although in a very dilapidated state. It's worth adding that a visit to the cabin was only possible due to the fact that I had become friendly with the original owners of the site months beforehand, who in turn were friendly with the current owners of the site. While I won't mention their names here, I would just reiterate my thanks to them for making this trip so amazing! The cabin site isn't accessible from any public roads, it's not accessible at all actually, it's in the middle of a large privately owned section of working cattle farmland, and the whole site has an electric cattle fence around it. I was escorted from the entrance to the site by car, then driven back to the main road once I'd finished.
On Sunday I drove up to the Anson County Airport (which was re-named 'Fairview, TN' on screen), before driving to Charlotte Airport to return the hire car and catch the first of several long flights back home. Due to the fact I'd picked up around 30kg of souvenirs (and even though I took a large virtually-empty suitcase exactly for that propose) I still had to pay extra to get everything on the plane. That extra charge still worked out cheaper than mailing that same weight to myself in the UK via USPS. I arrived back in the UK on Monday December 10. Including; flights, car hire, hotels, spending money & food, the UK tube & taxi fares, and the extra baggage fee, the grand total for this trip was £1318.29.
I shot over 4 hours of HD video over the various locations, which has since been edited and can now be viewed here on this page, on the respective BookOfTheDead.ws The Evil Dead - Locations & Evil Dead II - Locations pages, as well as being available for sale as a four disc set on the Online Store page. Below you can view the complete thirteen section edited single-disc version of Evil Dead - A Location Odyssey, with intro & end credits all in 1080p quality here via YouTube.
Here you can also watch all 3h 49m 56s of raw locations footage shot below in 480p, which is identical to the three of the four disc set detailed on this page and for sale on the BookOfTheDead.ws Online Store page, although this is in lower resolution.
Details of this Blu-ray set are as follows; Discs 1-3 of the set contain 3h 50m of 1080p raw The Evil Dead & Evil Dead II locations camcorder footage, running in chronological order as shot over three days in December 2012. The locations covered include The Evil Dead's Cabin site, Bluff Road Bridge, Clinch River Road /Riverside Road, & Old Highway 25E all around Morristown Tennessee, and Evil Dead II's Cabin, Production House, Bonsal Ballast Pits, J. R. Faison Junior High School, & Anson County Airport in North Carolina. These discs don't have menus, but have chapter stops for each location visited.
Disc 4 is the 2015 The Evil Dead: A Superfan's Odyssey Blu-ray release, with additions. This includes the edited 49m version of the Locations footage (basically what's shown on this website, with a few extra minutes, start & end credits, chapter stops and subtitle intros), along with the 58m documentary which chronicles my journey as a British Evil Dead superfan. How seeing it changed my life, sparking an interest in making my own short films & experimenting with gore effects, leading me onto a career in film & TV special effects. EvilDeadChainsaws.com & supplying Evil Dead: The Musical, creating BookOfTheDead.ws, making the Evil Dead - The Treasures Collection & Book Of The Dead DVDs, shooting footage at nine of The Evil Dead & Evil Dead II's locations, starting my huge Evil Dead collection, making a number of replica props, re-opening EvilDeadChainsaws.com & supplying Ash Vs Evil Dead, and much more.
