The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise

by Ron Riekki (Editor), Jeffrey A Sartain (Editor)

One of the top-grossing independent films of all time, The Evil Dead (1981) sparked a worldwide cult following, resulting in sequels, remakes, musicals, comic books, conventions, video games and a television series. Examining the legacy of one of the all-time great horror films, this collection of new essays covers the franchise from a range of perspectives. Topics include The Evil Dead as punk rock cinema, the Deadites' (demon-possessed undead) place in the American zombie tradition, the powers and limitations of Deadites, evil as affect, and the films' satire of neoliberal individualism.

219 pages, Paperback

Published March 7, 2019

About the author

Ron Riekki’s books include U.P.: a novel (Ghost Road Press) and Posttraumatic: A Memoir (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle/Four Chambers Press), as well as the upcoming hybrid collection My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Loyola University Maryland’s Apprentice House Press, 2019) and the poetry book i have been warned not to write about this (Main Street Rag, 2020). Riekki co-edited Undocumented: Great Lakes Poets Laureate on Social Justice (Michigan State University Press) and The Many Lives of The Evil Dead: Essays on the Cult Film Franchise (McFarland), and edited And Here: 100 Years of Upper Peninsula Writing, 1917-2017 (MSU Press), Here: Women Writing on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (MSU Press, Independent Publisher Book Award), The Way North: Collected Upper Peninsula New Works (Wayne State University Press, Michigan Notable Book). He has anthologies upcoming with McFarland and WSU Press. His fiction has been published in The Threepenny Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Wigleaf, Prairie Schooner, Shenandoah, Akashic Books, Juked, New Ohio Review, Cleaver, Puerto del Sol, and many other literary journals. Riekki’s story “Accidents” received the 2016 Shenandoah Fiction Prize and “The Family Jewel” was selected for The Best Small Fictions 2015.

Reviews

[Horror DNA · Rating 3 out of 5]

The collection is separated into three primary sections; part one covers “The Films” with a series of ten essays from a variety of authors expanding on the study and criticism of the four pictures in the cinematic canon. Part two, “The Franchise and Adaptations”, includes ten additional essays that examine the reach of the series into the world of television, video games, stage musicals and even pornography. The third section, “Testimonials”, offers first-person accounts of The Evil Dead film production, featuring material written by three of those connected to the franchise, including actress Betsy Baker.

You can read ZigZag's complete review at Horror DNA by clicking here.