This weekend, there will be two sects of moviegoers anxiously buying tickets to see the new balls-out horror flick Evil Dead. On one side, you'll have the hardcore genre fans who pledge allegiance to all things Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell, the writer-director and star, respectively, of the 1982 cult classic The Evil Dead. In addition to spawning a pair of similarly cherished sequels (Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness), Raimi's feature-length directorial debut revolutionized the way unknown, horror-loving filmmakers could make professionally staged and endlessly inventive films with little to no money.
As for the other crew of Evil Dead viewers, which promises to be around 21 and under, mentions of "Ash," "Deadites," and "Naturon Demonto" mean nothing—after all, it's been over 20 years since the last part of Raimi's original trilogy, Army of Darkness, opened in theaters. For them, first-time writer-director Fede Alvarez's take on the film's age-old conceit—five kids encounters all kinds of nightmarish mayhem while spending time inside a cabin in the woods—will be their first time seeing someone get raped by a tree or hearing passages from the flesh-strewn "Book of the Dead."
Thus, the following list of 30 things you didn't know about the Evil Dead franchise serves a twofold purpose: to provide the initiated with a thorough refresher course and give a primer to everyone who's about to have his or her cherry demonically popped.
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Compiled by Matt Barone (@MBarone)