‘We’ve saved up for six months to be at this convention…’
I’ve always been a massive horror fan since I first saw A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors at a bigger boy’s house when I was ten. In recent years, however, I’ve gone all in on the genre, branching out into podcasts, books and other various ephemera. What I’m saying is, I’m dangerously close to becoming the kind of guy who attends horror film conventions. Hail to the Deadites provides a fascinating insight into that world…
Following a number of superfans of The Evil Dead franchise, writer-director Steve Villeneuve delves deep into fandom. What makes people dress up as Ash Williams and attend conventions? What makes people name their kids Ash? Why do people spend thousands of dollars on Ash Williams merch? This film attempts to find out.
Fans of The Evil Dead will eat this up like a deadite eats souls. As well as interviews with lots of earnest devotees of the franchise, Villeneuve also provides interviews with many of the major cast from the first two Evil Dead movies as well as extensive interviews with The Chin himself – Bruce Campbell. As ever, Campbell is charismatic, funny and warm, and the fact that he agreed to appear in this low-budget documentary is a testament to his generosity and dedication to the franchise that he helped build.
Hail to the Deadites is a love letter to the Evil Dead franchise but also to super fandom itself. While this niche documentary is probably only for fellow devotees, it is well-made and an easy watch at just over 70 minutes.