By ANDREA SUBISSATI
You’ve seen the movies. You’ve watched the show. You might even have attended the long-running musical and emerged splattered in blood! But this fall, Black Ink Presents takes Sam Raimi’s beloved franchise to new heights with EVIL DEAD IN CONCERT, launching September 22 and touring 50 U.S .cities – including a special, three-night weekend event in Los Angeles for Halloween. Having given the film-with-symphony-accompaniment treatment to such properties as Labyrinth, Batman and The Nightmare Before Christmas in the past, producer John Kinsner, CEO of Black Ink Presents, is poised to provide hungry Deadites with an immersive (and truly groovy) experience.
RUE MORGUE Executive Editor Andrea Subissati recently sat down with Kinsner to discuss merging indie splatstick horror with an elegant string orchestra.
For starters, we have to ask the obvious: Why Evil Dead?
First of all, I’m a huge fan of the franchise. I know Bruce Campbell; he’s a buddy of mine, and [film composer] Joe Loduca is a big friend of the company, and we’re huge supporters of him and the idea. There are so many other film concerts we work on, whether it’s Batman, Ghostbusters, Goonies – they all had these big orchestral ensembles and these really large treatments. That was cool, but I’m also a huge lover of smaller synth scores and smaller ensembles, and there are a lot of films that don’t have that huge orchestral treatment to them that I honestly felt deserved to be celebrated. The first film that I produced a concert experience for in that vein was Jim Henson’s Labyrinth in Concert, which is just like all synth and rock. It was so wonderful to be in the room and celebrating it. Evil Dead was Joe’s first score, and it has strings and synth and percussion in it, but it’s not a huge ensemble.
It’s also a very different kind of film from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Was an indie horror splatter film with orchestral accompaniment a tough sell?
Producer and CEO of Black Ink Presents John Kinsner
Being a fan of horror content the way that I am, I recognize that there’s not going to be a lot of symphonies that want to book this, and I don’t want to say that they’re not supportive of a film like this, but, you know, it’s a little bit of a harder sell. 1981’s Evil Dead embodies these punk rock sensibilities from the ’70s and ’80s. It carries an NC-17 rating, which, by today’s standards, is kind of a joke. But there’s also a little bit of a badge of honor with that for those of us who are old enough to remember having lived through the Satanic Panic of the ’80s. It definitely hearkens back to that era. And so, with all of that and also being a huge fan of acts like Alice Cooper or GWAR, I was just like, this is so dope, and it feels so right to tour around in smaller theaters and punk rock venues that, in a way, feel democratized. So, Evil Dead really checked a lot of boxes for me.
Has promoting a horror show been a different beast for you in terms of marketing and promotion?
Oh, for sure. It’s totally different. In fact, when we were working with our agent to put together the tour, because of the content and its rating, there were actually a handful of cities that were like, “We can’t do this.” But I actually wear that with pride because that’s the journey that this film and this scene and this genre have been on in its entirety – being banned from theaters. And so, we get to participate in that fabric. But it is a totally different beast. While you and I are big fans of the genre – I would go to a horror experience any month, any day of the year – a lot of our partners distinctly said, “We need this to land between September and November, because that’s when we believe our ticket buyers are in the market for this type of content.”
I’m assuming you’re familiar with Evil Dead: the Musical?
Oh, absolutely yes. Splash zone attendee, right here!
What can fans expect from EVIL DEAD IN CONCERT that they haven’t seen before?
We really are trying to just elevate the actual content of the film and the actual story of the film and all of the elements that are a little bit underappreciated. Where Evil Dead: the Musical tried to take that palette and create something campy and fun and a little bit more “theater,” what we are doing is [different]. So many people who are fans of this franchise have never had the opportunity to see this film in a large screen format, and outside of a handful of people who maybe bought Joe’s score with his reissues of it on vinyl, have never heard any of this music on anything except their TV speakers. The opportunity to elevate Joe’s music in these scenes really enhances the psychological tension that you’re feeling as these scenes go by, and it really hits you in a much more profound way than watching it at home, on streaming or on VHS as so many of us did when we first discovered this film. And being in a room of people that are just intently watching it and experiencing it and maybe also dressed up as Ash or as Deadites and having a cocktail or a pretzel and some popcorn… It really makes for just this awesome communal, family experience.
So guests are encouraged to dress up?
Totally! We actually run a costume contest before each show where we pick out the best costumes or the best cosplayers that have arrived, and we bring them up on stage, and [the crowd] collectively votes on who’s got the best fit, and we’ll give them a merch package as a prize with ultimate bragging rights.
You mentioned that LoDuca’s score has been re-imagined. Can you tell us more about that?
Joe has gone back over the years, and he’s expanded some of the cues, so what we have is a more lush and more musical representation of this score. I think he was just out of high school or maybe just in his first years of college when he put this original score together, and I believe it was his first score, so it’s very personal to him.
What does a VIP ticket include?
A VIP ticket [includes] a merch capsule that we’ve specially designed that’s not available at the merch booth. In some venues where we can provide it, those people get in early, and they get early access to merch. It’s just a small acknowledgement and an opportunity to come away with some goodies that aren’t publicly available.
I have to admit that when I heard about EVIL DEAD IN CONCERT, I couldn’t really recall what the score was like because the onscreen antics really take over. Am I correct that the score isn’t constant throughout? What is happening onstage between the musical numbers?
There are very few films in existence that have constant musical accompaniment, so there are always breaks between the cues and moments between the cues. What we do is, you have the screen experience, and we extend that palette with complementary lighting that enhances the scenes or highlights the players, but in those moments between musical cues, where we’re not extending that palette, we’ll just bring it back into the screen experience.
You mentioned that this is a rare opportunity for a younger generation of fans to get to see this classic on the big screen, but what about those horror fans who have seen this film a million times? What’s new and novel in store for them?
Just that communal aspect of coming together with like-minded people. I gotta tell you, at any one of these shows, when you’ve seen [the film] a hundred times, but you look across the aisle and there are some kids there experiencing it for the first time, it just warms your heart, and you’re like, Wow! It really makes you reminisce upon that moment when you first discovered this content or you first discovered that you liked [horror]. You see people going through this emotional journey when they come out to these types of experiences, being transported back to a very specific moment in their life.
Yes, that first viewing of The Evil Dead is a very special moment. Is there a reason you’re starting with the first film of the franchise?
We’re very passionate about this particular one, even though we love all the films in the franchise. Army of Darkness is phenomenal; I think a lot of Evil Dead fans hang their caps on that one. But in partnering with Sam Raimi and Ghost House Pictures and Joe, we felt that if we’re gonna come out and tell this story and we’re going to do this in the Evil Dead universe, let’s start at the beginning.
One last question: Just to confirm, there’s no splatter zone at EVIL DEAD IN CONCERT?
No splatter zone. Well, okay – no production-provided splatter zone. What people do and what people bring… that’s on them.
Visit evildeadinconcert.com for the full tour schedule and tickets. Use code ASH20 for 20% off! Groovy!
