Stephen King's Review Saved Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi was still a budding director when The Evil Dead struggled to find buyers at Cannes. “Well, nobody would touch Evil Dead with a ten-foot plague pole,” he said, until Stephen King happened to be in the theater, saw it, and gave the film a rave in Twilight Zone magazine — an endorsement Raimi called deeply honoring.

King’s line calling the film “The most ferociously original horror film of 1982” helped push the movie into the spotlight. By then King’s work on Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Shining had already made him an authority on horror, and his praise carried weight. He has continued to champion the franchise, citing The Evil Dead as a favorite and encouraging producers on Evil Dead II.

King also promoted 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, writing on X: “While I’m busy promoting, how about EVIL DEAD RISE? It’s gruesome, it’s bloody, it’s even got an elevator vomiting blood. Not to mention chainsaw-fu.” Two more entries — Evil Dead Burn and Evil Dead Wrath — are listed as coming up.