Editorials
“Bruce-O-Rama” Event Recap – Watching ‘Evil Dead II’ with Ash, a Rowdy Crowd, and My Mom
I watched Ash vs. Evil Dead with my parents when it aired, not because they had any interest in it — they had never seen an Evil Dead movie — but because they had Starz and I’m cheap. Although they’ve always been supportive of my interest in the genre, neither of them watch horror movies. My mother is particularly averse to being scared, despite having read every Stephen King book.
Through the violence and bloodshed, however, she found herself enjoying the show and, like so many, fell in love with Bruce Campbell as antihero Ash Williams. I was pleasantly surprised that my sainted mom, at age 66, agreed to join me at Bruce-O-Rama when it came through Beverly, MA at the Cabot Theatre on April 16.
The tour finds Campbell visiting 22 cities across the country for an evening of hybrid entertainment that includes hosting the pop culture game show Last Fan Standing before hosting a screening of one of his beloved films. VIP upgrades make it possible for fans to attend a meet and greet with the B-movie icon as well.
Last Fan Standing was originally created by Steve Sellery as a military trivia show before Campbell suggested a pop culture version. It pits knowledgeable nerds against one another with trivia questions about movies, TV, comics, and video games, ranging from classic to current. Sellery accompanied Campbell on stage for the game show, serving as the Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson.
Beyond seeing Campbell in the flesh — dapper as ever in floral print suit coat paired with a pink pocket square — the most exciting part of the event is that everyone in attendance has the chance to make it on stage to play. Campbell begins by asking 12 qualifying questions for the crowd to answer via their cell phone. The top four players among the hundreds in attendance with the most correct answers in the fastest time are invited to join him on stage.
Although the gameplay is similar to Jeopardy, Last Fan Standing is anything but stodgy under Campbell’s tutelage. Questions regularly launch him into humorous anecdotes about his career, from a dissertation on his Marvel legacy and Bill Clinton telling him Burn Notice is his favorite show, to his vendetta against Peter Jackson and being asked to say “work shed” (in reference to Evil Dead 2‘s glaring dub) upon meeting Kurt Russell.
Mike, Sabrina, Derek, and Kyle were the contestants that made it to the podiums in Beverly. Campbell briefly chatted with them before getting into the fast-paced trivia. Players were eliminated one by one until the intense final round left Sabrina as the Last Fan Standing. In addition to a signed “Doctorate of Useless Knowledge” certificate, she took home a Necronomicon-shaped box full of Evil Dead Rise swag.
After a brief intermission to strike the colorful game show set, Campbell returned to introduce the feature presentation: Evil Dead 2. He did some crowd work, including a fun exchange with a middle-aged man who had never seen the film in attendance with his wife. He also answered audience questions, several of which led to stories about the film’s arduous special effects.
The Evil Dead franchise is unique in that each entry is tonally different, and fans’ ranking of the installments are all over the place as a result. While the first Evil Dead is my personal favorite, it’s hard to argue with anyone who cites Evil Dead 2 as a rare sequel that’s superior to the original — even more so after seeing it on the big screen with a rowdy audience.
While the crowd was respectful during the game show portion, the movie was as uproarious as a Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight screening. There was hooting and hollering, cheering and jeering, and crude commentary from viewers as they bore witness to Campbell going through hell and back in Sam Raimi’s madcap sequel.
With a fresh installment in the form of Evil Dead Rise arriving this weekend, the Evil Dead saga continues to have cross-generational appeal. Fans who saw the original Evil Dead upon its release in the early ’80s are now old enough to have children and even grandchildren of their own to whom they ceremoniously pass along their love for the cult classic.
Thanks to Bruce-O-Rama, I was able to share a similar familial bonding experience, albeit in reverse, with my mother. As the Evil Dead 2 credits rolled and applause thundered throughout the historic movie palace, she turned to me and asked, “Are all horror movies like that?” If only, Mom.
Don’t miss the remaining Bruce-O-Rama tour dates:
April 19: Pittsburgh, PA (Stage AE)
April 20: Cleveland, OH (Agora Theater & Ballroom)
April 21: Columbus, OH (KEMBA Live!)
April 23: Royal Oak, MI (Royal Oak Music Theatre)
April 24: Indianapolis, IN (Clowes Memorial Hall)
April 25: Chicago (The Vic Theatre)
April 26: Des Moines, IA (Hoyt Sherman Place)
April 27: Kansas City, MO (Uptown Theatre)
April 29: Oklahoma City, OK (Tower Theatre)
April 30: Dallas, TX (Texas Theatre)
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.