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This is an interview conducted with Josh Becker over a number of emails on August 3, 2013, which concentrates specifically on his involvement with The Evil Dead. There is also an older Josh Becker Interview elsewhere on this site which covers his early Super-8 days.

Josh directed, and assisted with numerous Super-8 productions, along with writing & directing a list of feature films including Thou Shalt Not Kill... Except & Running Time. He was also a crew member on The Evil Dead managing a large portion of the lighting and sound, along with cameo roles in Evil Dead II & Army Of Darkness. Josh's new book Going Hollywood is now available in paperback Here from Amazon.com, and I would also highly recommend his previous book Rushes, which covers the Super-8 shorts period, and has an extended version of his Evil Dead journal which covers events before and after shooting in Tennessee.

Josh also sells excellent quality professional DVD transfers of a number of the Super-8 shorts. Currently there are five shorts discs available; disc one has Stryker's War, disc two has The Blind Waiter & Oedipus Rex, disc three has Holding It, disc four has Acting & Reacting & The Final Round, and disc five has Cleveland Smith Bounty Hunter, The Case of the Topanga Pearl, Super Student, and Public Enemy Revisited. Here is a direct link to the DVD purchase page on Josh's website, or you can keep up with all of Josh's latest projects on the main site; Beckerfilms.com




Left-To-Right; Rob Tapert, Steve 'The Dart' Frankel, Sam Raimi, Tim Philo, and Josh Becker during The Evil Dead (1980)



Especially in the earlier part of your Evil Dead Journal, the actual or perceived animosity between you and the rest of the group is obvious. You'd worked amicably with the others on a string of Super-8 Productions prior to this, so what had changed?  
 
For years when we made super-8 films there were two writer-directors, Sam and I. I shot and lit many of Sam's films; Sam acts in many of my films. Bruce co-produced all of them, and starred in most of them.

Anyway, I was living in L.A. when Sam, Bruce and Rob formed Renaissance Pictures and began raising money for the then titled Book of the Dead, so I wasn't part of the company. I moved back to Detroit a few months before we shot, and to my surprise and consternation, they asked me to be a production assistant, which I found deeply insulting. Nevertheless, not wanting to miss the first feature (Scott Spiegel, BTW, decided against it and didn't work on the film) I took the gig. But I was still seriously pissed off they hadn't offered me D.P. As fate would have it, as you already know, the "six-week shoot" ended up going eleven weeks in Tennessee, then many more weeks back in Michigan, and for all of that (which was way more footage than was shot in the first six weeks), I was D.P.

Scott Spiegel, Rob, Sam, Bruce & Josh Becker At MSU


You weren't involved in Within The Woods as you were in LA, but what were your thoughts upon first seeing it, and did you think that the idea of some sort of feature film version stood up?  
 
I first saw Within The Woods at a party and I thought it was terrific; the best super-8 film any of us had made. It scared the shit out of the audience. I was very impressed. I'd like to believe that Stryker's War was as good or better, but came the next year.


How far in advance were you brought on board? From your journal it appears as if you were roped into the production and off to Tennessee with in a few days simply as a 'helper' without any production input?  
 
I got back several weeks or a month before we went to Tennessee. Probably my only real input at that stage was that Sam pitched me the story.


Bruce Campbell with Joanne Kruse in Within The Woods (1979)
That began with a shot of the car approaching with a dead animal in the foreground, then the kids stopping at a gas station where a crazy man warned them about evil spirits. I informed Sam that he was completely ripping off the opening of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and he changed it.


Bart Piece recalls an earlier script draft of Book Of The Dead; about 40 pages long with a different opening, and far closer to Within The Woods. Did you ever see this?  
 
I think Bart's mistaken. As far as I know there never was an earlier draft of the script, and there was barely a script when we went to shoot. I think it was about 28-pages and had been typed by Bruce based scenes Sam had written on scraps of paper, placemats and matchbooks.


Had you even read the script such as it was, before you signed up (and if so what were your thoughts), or were you happy to be on board knowing all you guys had a decent track record on getting things made?  
 
I read it, all 28-pages or whatever. I wasn't particularly impressed, nor did I think it was very well-written. I still don't.


Was there ever a plan to use the whole of the Tapert family farmhouse for The Evil Dead, since it had worked quite effectively in Within The Woods?  
 
Since we started shooting in November, Renaissance Pictures in their infinite wisdom decided it would be warmer in the south. Indeed it would have been, too, if we'd gone further south. As it was, it was one of the coldest winters in Tennessee and a rather warm winter in MI.


Did you ever see the original cabin/house in Morristown, before that location fell through?  
 
I don't know what you're talking about. Gary Holt, our local location scout/manager, found several old cabins, which we looked at, and Sam chose the one where we shot.


Apparently, the Tennessee Film Commission found a location, which fell through just before or as everyone got there, and Gary Holt had to find another location, maybe that's incorrect? Was the final cabin location only decided upon on arrival?  
 
I believe that's correct, the Tennessee Film Commission did find a cabin that fell through before we arrived. Yes, the final cabin location was decided upon once we arrived.


Had anyone travelled down to Tennessee in advance to have a scout around, or was everyone travelling down there 'blind', and hoping the right locations would present themselves? Either way, was it Gray Holt who found all the shooting locations, or did some of you aimlessly drive around yourselves searching for possible locations?  
 
Bruce had gone down there once in advance and met Gary Holt. We didn't know where anything was so us driving around aimlessly would have been futile. Gary was local and knew where everything was. He found the locations and Sam chose them.

Gary Holt sitting next to the destroyed bridge (left-centre with the yellow shirt)


Can you just explain the process the production went through in preparing the final Cabin; decorating, furnishing & arranging things from a creative standpoint, as well as having no water?  
 
We got there the cabin was a complete wreck. So, Steve 'The Dart' Frankel, the construction supervisor, myself and Don Campbell, Bruce's brother, began making the cabin into what Sam envisioned. First off, I dug the hole under the trapdoor, Don built the fireplace and Dart shoring the place up. I dug and I dug and Dart and Don began building the swing in front of the cabin and making a new front door. And I dug and I dug. Then we three built the new back section where the bedrooms are. During this time everybody else was off shooting the car scenes. I was there for some of those, too, as was Don. At one point Sam, Tim Philo, the cameraman, and the cast were off driving around and Rob Tapert and I were wasting time when Don appeared at the top of about a 50- or 60-foot cliff. He happily yelled and waved to us, then promptly fell off the cliff. He plummeted into the wooded hillside. Rob and I were aghast. I immediately ran up the steep hill and Rob began running down the road, to what he didn't even know. I got to Don who was sitting on the ground in a total daze with white crusty shit all around his mouth. His first words were, "Where's my hat?" His baseball cap was stuck on a branch at the top of thin tree which I shook and it fell down. Anyway, I helped Don down the hill, then Rob and I helped him up to the road where the cars were, which was a long way, and he was taken to the hospital and he was fine.



The Evil Dead's cabin location in Morristown Tennessee, with Sam Raimi standing in the doorway (1979)


So just to clarify you guys built the back rooms and the hallway from scratch and the original cabin was just main room? Was the design for that extension made up on the spot according to the materials you had to work with, or did some thought go into what was needed to best achieve the production?  
 
Sam told Dart what he wanted and Dart, Don and I built it. Dart was a very basic carpenter and didn't draw any plans or anything.


Did you ever have the owners of the cabin ever come down to see what you were doing, complain about the modifications, or did you get any comebacks on the condition that the cabin was left in (even though as has been mentioned, you left it in a better state than when you arrived)?  
 
I don't know who owned the cabin and I don't believe they ever came by. I'm sure they were just happy getting some money for the rental.



Ellen Sandwiess & Bruce filming in the cabin (1979)

Rich in make-up with Bruce filming in the cabin (1979)


How much thought went into the design of the look of the cabin, was it designed to be a 'homesy' cosy place, in contrast the horrific by the events which would happen there, or were certain colours or design decisions taken to accentuate the horror aspect? I think I recall Sam writing something on the cabin wall in a slightly different shade of paint like a subliminal message, although I can't remember what it was, and that's probably not true?  
 
Not a lot of thought went into production design and art direction. Sam did have a color scheme for the bedrooms, each of which was painted in a different color. Mostly, though, we were just trying to stop the cabin from falling down on top of us during shooting.


The 'fake' bathroom, created in the cabin by Dart (1979)  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sam's hand doubling for Rich de Manincor's in the bathroom scene (1980)
Sam did know where he wanted the trapdoor to be and where the fireplace was. Beyond that it was simply cheap used furniture.


Was the cabin renovation/decoration/dressing 100% complete before the production started shooting in there, or were you still finishing bits off while the shooting was taking place in another room?  
 
Everything was still going on. There was no bathroom. Dart built that in one of the bedrooms when it was needed, but it had no plumbing. As Rich (Hal to you) was reaching for the shower curtain, that's Sam's pudgy hand in the close-up.


Did the lack of running water at the cabin mean having to bring it by car from your production hose in containers, or could you get it nearby?  
 
We brought water from the house in milk jugs, but mainly we drank soda pop. Late in the shoot we all switched to water and discovered that it was very refreshing.


You detail your gripes about the cabin location that was finally used, but upon you first seeing it, did you also see it's fantastic merits as a shooting location?  
 
Sure. It seemed perfect. Thank god Dart was there.


Shooting the first version of the scene in which the group sat around the fireplace smoking dope had to be abandoned, what do you remember about this?  
 
It was real weed and Bruce was a complete lightweight who never smoked pot. So when he got stoned he forgot how to act, which was extremely funny to watch from a this-will-never-be-used standpoint, and indeed it was never used.


On the 5th of December 1979, A Knoxville TV station came out to the cabin to film a spot on the production, do you remember anything about this?  
 
Sure. They were just like any other TV film crew in the whole world. It was your everyday, run-of-the-mill piece about kids shooting a horror movie, a novelty for Morristown, Tennessee.


Just about everyone on the production has had their two-cents about David Goodman's cooking skills, or lack thereof, was it really that bad?  
 
It was. Goody was most famous for his "pizza cake". Due to mixing up baking powder and baking soda the crust was four inches thick and tasted like utter shit. Another entrée of Goody's was "Tavern Soup," a foul concoction made with canned tomato soup and beer. The worst however came in the final five weeks when it was just the five of us. Late one night Sam, Bruce, Rob and I returned from the cabin to the house where we all stayed (during the first six weeks there had been as many as 20 people camped out all over the place) and Goody had made his own special version of chilli that was very, very spicy. One by one we all--except Goody, that is--slid out of our chairs and collapsed to the floor. We then later all decided that Goody had drugged us and was now going to sexually take advantage of us. Luckily, he didn't.


The location shoot was somewhat of an emotional roller-coaster for you, at any point did you consider simply leaving and returning to Michigan?  
 
Every day for the first six weeks. I was watching a shoot run by three idiots. It was driving me crazy.


At any point did you think the production would just fall apart with everyone having to return without even so much as a partially completed film?  
 
We started shooting the car scenes the first day, so there was certainly going to be a partially completed film right from the outset. Regarding the production falling apart, I expected that to happen every single day for the first six weeks.

Josh Becker filming in Cleveland Smith Bounty Hunter (1981)


Sam has mentioned he was one of the people who had to sleep at the cabin overnight to guard the production's equipment, and wasn't sure whether to be more scared of "crooks or ghosts", did you have to stay there alone overnight at any point?  
 
Way more times than Sam. I stayed there many times alone and several times with Sam, Don, Dart or Rob. I don't recall Bruce ever staying there. Then again, he did have the toughest job on the film.



The final page in the Book Of The Dead premiere program (1981)
Ever get scared staying there on your own, or are you not that sort of person? Sam had mentioned in the past that he once woke up and found a hill-billy sitting near him, so he started sleeping in the graveyard hillside after that, was that true?  
 
Probably not. Sam's been bullshitting everybody about everything since before the film came out. Just read that last page in premiere program, it's all made up nonsense. As for me, no, I wasn't the least bit scared, but then again, I'd done a lot more funky shit than any of the other cast and crew members at that point. I'd already lived on my own in L.A. twice, I'd hitchhiked to Alaska, as well as back and forth across America five or six times. I have no problem being alone.


Was that whole story about Clara 'the girl lost in the woods' made up, or was at least some of it true?  
 
Complete bullshit.


Can you elaborate on the theft from the cabin of the skill-saw, saber-saw, drill and chainsaw, did you involve the police? I'm assuming that left the production scrabbling round to find replacements, especially the chainsaw?  
 
I believe the police were called, but they didn't find out who it was or get anything back. We went to a rental place and rented the tools we needed. Since those were Dart's tools he was pretty pissed about the whole thing.


Did the production have any other involvement with the police, other than you being pulled over by a traffic officer as detailed in your journal?  
 
A lot of us got speeding tickets going back and forth to the Knoxville airport picking up or dropping off film. Otherwise, there was no police involvement that I recall.


Rob Tapert has mentioned that the cabin was so cold because all the windows were removed to prevent reflections, do you remember this and at what stage was this done?  
 
Once again, nonsense. Windows were put in and taken out regularly by Dart. It took him ten minutes to put in a window. The cabin was so goddamned cold because it was 100 years old, made of thin wood and had no heat. The fireplace produced almost no heat at all and we had a big kerosene heater that warmed about a five-foot diameter around the front of it. At one point Bruce was completely covered in Karo syrup fake blood, then stood in front of the heater and his shirt calcified into candy and cracked off of him.


Sam has mentioned that all the investors were sent a bi-weekly newsletter which detailed the production progress. Did any of The Evil Dead's investors ever travel down there to see what/how you were doing  
 
No.


Having been there myself, I know that there are now houses out on the main road (at the entrance to the trail to the cabin) just a few hundred yards from the cabin itself. How remote was the cabin when you were there?  
 
There were no houses around it for about a mile. It was pretty damn remote. And the long, long driveway was nearly impassable for most of the shoot due to thick mud. Cars were getting stuck almost daily.

Bruce Campbell's cabin site to Knoxville Airport driving directions (1979)


Having been there personally, I know Morristown now looks like most small modern carbon-copy southern towns, but from your Journal that while hospitable, you give the impression of it being far more archaic & backward?  
 
It was, but everybody was very friendly. We saw many examples of southern hospitality. As we shot those last five weeks, young, redneck, hicks would just wander up to the cabin in the middle of the night and say, "Hey, wanna smoke some whacky-tabbacy?" and we would always take them up on it, except Bruce, of course. One time some hicks showed up in the middle of the night and one of the guys asked, "Can we be in the movie?" Sam said, "Of course you can." He turned to Rob, Bruce and I and said, "Aim the camera and the lights at him," which we did. Sam said to him, "OK, you live here in this cabin, I'm the landlord and I've come to evict you." Sam grabbed a piece of paper. "This is the eviction notice. I'll knock on the door, you answer, I'll give you the notice and you say something like, ‘I won't accept this.' OK, are you ready?" This all took two minutes and this backwoods peckerwood didn't know what was happening to him. We then proceeded to shoot the scene. Sam went outside, knocked on the door, the guy answered, Sam handed him the eviction notice and the guy said, "I won't take this damn shit!" Sam said, "OK, good to see you. We have to get back to work" and the guy split.


Have you been back to Morristown since?  
 
No.


Josh Becker, with Dart, Sam & Tim filming the opening scene (1980)
Josh Becker, with Tim, Sam & Dart (1980)


The screen-used opening shot in Lansing was your idea, and I think, the fourth version. Were the first three attempts at shooting the opening basically the same idea, which didn't work for one reason or another, or were there other opening-ideas shot?  
 
It wasn't in Lansing, it was on my father's vacant property in Hartland Township. The first three attempts at shooting the opening were supposed to be what it finally became, but we didn't get anywhere close to achieving it. That's because Sam kept dragging our asses way the hell out into swamps where we had no control over anything and only the equipment we could carry. I had already shot Stryker's War on my dad's property, so we'd all been there quite a few times. I dragged Sam, Bruce and Rob out to the location, which has a lake on it called Bullard Lake.


The opening scene of The Evil Dead shot at Bullard Lake in Hartland Township, Michigan (1980)
The edge of the lake is rather swampy and there's a dirt road that runs right up to it. I explained to my cohorts that if we shot there, instead of the middle of a bloody swamp, we could drive all the equipment and personnel right up to the lake, then have total control over what we were doing. That's when Sam came up with putting the front end of an old car in the swamp, which we could never have done otherwise. As an aside, the front end of that car sat in that lake for years until my dad got so mad at me that I demanded that Renaissance Pictures remove it, and they did. Because we finally had control of that shoot, that also allowed us to bring big blocks of dry ice and throw them in the water to create the bubbling steaming effect. That was my job, BTW.


Rob has mentioned in the past that the idea of the logging truck/car swerve, was that the truck's chains would break and the logs fall off the back. Was this true, and if so what went wrong on the day to quash that idea?  
 
That was the idea, but it was a much bigger stunt than we were prepared to shoot. Nobody knew how to pull it off, get the chains to break at the right moment or anything, on top of which the guy with truck didn't want to do it.


Obviously there were budgetary concessions, such as using real glass rather than sugar glass, but was there anything shot over the period of the location filming which looking back, was probably dangerous, ill advised and should not have been done? And was there anything that went really wrong resulting in injury (other than Don's fall, and you impaling yourself)  
 
Shit, people were being carted off to the hospital all the time. Goody ran over Dart's foot with his pickup truck. As I said, Bruce had the toughest job acting in the film, and Sam did everything within his means to make sure Bruce got hurt. He'd constantly ask him to do crazier and crazier shit, and of course there was no stunt man. Completely burying Betsy seemed like an asinine idea. And Sam demanded that the chain remain on the chainsaw when Bruce brings it to Betsy's throat, which I found insane.



Betsy Baker just inches from a real running Homelite XL-12 chainsaw held by Bruce, in The Evil Dead (1979)


Was the idea of Burning the book with the necklace ever shot?  
 
Never heard of it. I shot the book going into the fire and being pulled out by the necklace, most of which was gotten in Marshall, Michigan at Rob Tapert's parents' cottage.


The old style hand-held oil foggers are notorious for setting fire to things, did you ever have any mishaps in that direction?  
 
Yes, frequently. Also, that oil-based fog was toxic and we shot a lot in the garage of the house faking Bruce and Ellen driving in the car and it was sickening and gave everybody headaches.


How much of what was shot each day was worked out in advance (even though it might have taken many takes to get right!), or was Sam just making shots up as he went?  
 
That was the giant bone of contention on Evil Dead.

Rob Tapert holding their Jungle oil-based fog machine, with Dart, Sam & Bruce (1979)

Sam seemed to know what he wanted but was unwilling to share it with anyone. I drew storyboards for Sam a couple of times, but he couldn't get with that program. Not to mention that Sam is the slowest director on the planet Earth. We spent one entire night shooting one single shot that was never achieved. Bruce and I were just recently discussing it in regard to Oz that took Sam six months or something to shoot (as did all the Spiderman movies). As Bruce and I noted, Sam didn't become a slow director as his budgets increased, he was always a slow director.


You mention a number of times in your Journal, watching through & logging the rushes. Were you happy enough with the footage, or was it full of mistakes & errors that were just bugging the hell out of you as a film-maker in your own right?  
 
I thought all of the footage was shit, looked like shit, and would never cut together. Goes to show what I know. I did, however, like a number of Sam's whacky angles, and of course when I finally took over the lighting I liked what I did, which actually has some style. When they offered me the job of lighting, six weeks into the shoot, my one stipulation was that nobody else got to touch a light. Up until then, as hard as Tim Philo tried, Rob would set up two or three more lights and blast them into the actor's faces, saying, "They have to be able to see it at the drive-in." I lit with as few lights as possible, often just one, and always got a consistent 5.6 exposure. At that point I was the entire camera, lighting and sound department. Sam operated the camera, I loaded, handled the film, put on the lenses, etc.



The final POV force shot of The Evil Dead, in which you can see the barn behind the cabin (1979)
In the last 'force' POV shot of the film, you can see a wooden building a 100 yards or so behind the cabin, was this just an empty barn, or used for something, and were there any other such buildings in the immediate area?  
 
There were two old sheds, that one and the one beside the cabin where we shot the scene with Bruce, Betsy and the chainsaw. We didn't use the shed in back for anything except maybe storage.


I recall Dart saying he'd used some of the wood taken from the rear barn, maybe I'm wrong on that?  
 
Yes, that's true. Dart was very good at making use of what was there, beside, it already looked old.


That ending was your idea, did Sam ever elaborate on how he had envisioned shooting his own ending?  
 
Not well enough so that we could ever shoot anything. They rented a cherry-picker so Sam could get the high shots on the graveyard, then everytime Rob said he wanted to return it Sam would say, "I need it for the ending". We never shot any kind of ending from the cherry-picker.


Once Tom left the location, how were the special effects handled, and were there ideas which Sam couldn't shoot due to that limitation?  
 
We simply did the best we could, most of which, I think, looks like shit.


How did things change as you and the others were evicted from the production house, and forced to live in the cabin for the last few days?  
 
We were always cold, and since I had stepped on a nail I was in acute misery.


When the remaining crew packed up to leave Tennessee, a shotgun was used to blow up every prop left in the cabin, then the remains burned in a huge bonfire, what do you remember of this?  
 
The shotgun, the one and only. Then we built an enormous fire behind the cabin, put almost everything in it (except for the crap we dumped into the hole under the trapdoor, which I nailed up and Sam has since facetiously referred to as a "time capsule"), including sheets of glass.

Then the fire went out of control on us and began to spread into the forest. We then spent the next hour running around crazily in a panic putting out the blazing fire while the glass shattered and shot pieces into the air.


Once location shooting was complete, what was your input on the production thereafter?  
 
As I've mentioned, I became and stayed the D.P. I lit all the pick-up shooting, and there was a lot of it.

Bruce touching up Ellen's possession make-up (1979)


With the re-shoots, did you become more involved with the mechanics of the production, or were you simply called in when you were needed for each of the re-shoots?  
 
I was never part of the production team, I was simply a crew member. When they put a pick-up shoot together I was informed and I showed up. We did two weeks in Marshall, Michigan, a week in Gladwin, MI, a day at Bullard Lake, then a number of weeks, on and off, at Sam's parents' house, around the block from my parents' house.


What proportion of the finished film was made up of Tennessee location footage, and how much re-shoots back in Detroit?  
 
I don't know, it's all mixed together.


I have some vague information on the various re-shoots but it's all a bit patchy. Are you able to add in any further detail to what's there (Maybe rough shooting dates/months, other things that were shot at each location, anything that went wrong, or anything interesting that happened), or add in any other shooting locations?;  
 

Ellen in costume being wrapped in vines for her attack scene (1979)
The vine/rape scene was shot partially in Tennessee, partially in Gladwin, and partially at the Raimi's house. I could go into specific detail about all of the pick-up shooting, but that sounds like a pain in the ass.


Did you think the vine scene would be such a source of contention when it was being shot?  
 
I'm not sure what you mean. The fact that Ellen wasn't happy about it? Often actors aren't happy about what they're shooting, so what?


Ah, what I meant was in censorship terms, upon the film's release, but also was Ellen happy to be taking the scene as far as it went?  
 
Ellen was not happy, and became increasingly more unhappy each time we went back and did more pick-ups. Regarding censorship, that was a British thing that meant little to nothing here in the states.


You worked on both The Blind Waiter & Stryker's War over 1980 to 1981; The Evil Dead re-shoot period, were there any of The Evil Dead re-shoots you couldn't work on due to this, or was that all done and dusted by the time The Blind Waiter & Stryker's War came along?  
 
They happened simultaneously. Keep in mind that the pick-up shooting went on sporadically for most of 1980 and into 1981. The Blind Waiter took two days to shoot, and Stryker's War took eight days. Since Sam, Bruce and Rob were all involved with those films, if I couldn't make it to the pick-up shoot, they wouldn't have been there, either.


Was the 1981 Première the first point at which you saw a complete version of the film, or had you seen various edits before that, and if so, was there footage removed from the film early on which you thought worked better, than the finished edit?  
 
I saw the film many, many times before the premiere. I was in the same office as Renaissance Pictures. Initially, the film was cut in NYC by Edna Paul (whose assistant was Joel Coen). Edna did an utterly awful job and finally Sam and I drove my postal jeep (that broke down several times) to New York to try and get her on track, which never occurred. She was a very fat, pushy, unfriendly woman who wouldn't listen to anything Sam said. She had cut the whole film incorrectly, then wouldn't fix it. She had every bedroom in the wrong order. Sam would point this out and Edna would swing her obesity around in her chair and say, "Just because you shot it that way doesn't mean it has to be cut that way. Keep an open mind." I would have pitched a hairy fit if it were my movie, but Sam remained calm throughout. Edna finally turned in her final cut that came to two hours. Sam then spent months and months recutting the film at our offices in Ferndale and got it down to its final length.


Josh working with Rich during the re-shoots (1980)
The Rennaissance Offices in Ferndale, Michigan (1981)


How much did the 2 hour workprint edited by Edna differ from the finished film, did it just have lots of extraneous shots over and above the final cut, or were there new scenes and plot points in there too?  
 
I don't know about plot points, but there was a ton of extra footage. The kids singing the song in the car went on for a week and a half.


What was your take on the whole set-up's mythology, with the Book Of The Dead being read aloud to awaken the demons? In 2013 that sounds pretty standard fare, but did you find the idea interesting back then?  
 
No, I didn't. I thought it was silly, stupid, poorly-conceived idea.
 
 
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