[Butcher Block] Still Raining Blood 5 Years Later in ‘Evil Dead’
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Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Director Fede Alvarez made one strong feature debut with 2013’s Evil Dead, made even more impressive by it being a remake of a film with an ardent, vocal fanbase. While producer Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi were interested in modernizing The Evil Dead, giving it updated effects and bringing in a new generation of fans, hardcore fans weren’t thrilled with the news at all. Alvarez’ viral short Panic Attack, about a full GC robot invasion, caught Tapert’s attention. As a huge fan of the original films Alvarez was very interested in the job, but against Tapert’s initial concept for the remake, the first-time feature defied his background in CG and wanted to go straight practical effects. Also recognizing there could be no other Ash but Bruce Campbell, Alvarez wasn’t interested in trying to fill his shoes either, which meant Bruce Campbell was now very much on board. So, with a practical effect driven reboot that pays homage to its predecessor at every turn while still creating its own identity, Evil Dead became a big box office success upon release on April 5, 2013. It also managed to exceed the gore and violence in every way.
The initial cut received an NC-17 rating, just like it’s 1981 counterpart, due to the gore and blood.
Realizing that this meant no wide theatrical release, it was trimmed enough to earn an R-rating, and yet it still doesn’t diminish the sheer volume of blood in the final cut. Early reports around the film’s release have stated the film used around 70,000 gallons of blood. The final scene alone, a torrential downpour of blood, used roughly 50,000 gallons of blood. For comparison sake, the original film used around 300 gallons of blood.
Because of the time-consuming process of the practical effects, and the metric ton of gore, Alvarez shot the film in chronological order. The violence, deaths, and viscera got worse as the film progressed, so it was the only way to allow the freedom of letting the blood splatter everywhere and not have to worry about continuity of shots. Though there are innumerous talents involved with this remake, from cinematography to score composer, Roger Murray and Jane O’Kane deserve special mention for their amazing work on prosthetics and makeup design.
Murray, more recently responsible for prosthetic work on Ash vs Evil Dead and prop supervisor work on the upcoming shark film The Meg, had his work cut out for him on Evil Dead. Between a lot of dead cats in the basement, a ton of self-mutilation, and a couple of hacked off limbs, Murray and his team’s work on realistic prosthetics and special effects work is utterly breathtaking.
O’Kane, who also worked on Ash vs Evil Dead and the upcoming The Meg, not only created the demonic Deadite look, but had to layer on the injuries as the film progressed. From Mia’s initial attack in the woods to her severe scalding burns, to her various demonic evolutions, O’Kane had to retain a sense of realism before the makeup veered too far into over-the-top gags. Between O’Kane and Murray’s combined work, grisly scenes like Natalie cutting off her own infected arm with an electric kitchen knife becomes so ridiculously cringe-worthy in the best possible way.
In terms of the amount gore and blood, not much beats Evil Dead. Alvarez’ choice to go practical, and the lack of technology in the film, means this remake will hold up well for decades to come. It’s only been five years, and it’s still as exhilarating as it was then. The loving nods to The Evil Dead are endless, from the dialogue to the cards to the visual cues, but it’s the extreme gore that convinced fans that they want to see Mia team up with Ash someday.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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