20 Things You Didn't Know About Your Favourite Horror Movies
7. Stephen King Was Instrumental In Getting Evil Dead II Made
Then-21-year-old filmmaker Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead isn’t simply a rollercoaster ride of a movie – it’s that flying-off-the-rails coaster from the beginning of Final Destination 3. Out of control from beginning to end, the future Spider-Man franchise director’s low-budget first effort is the purveyor of horror’s “cabin in the woods” template.
Early on, one of the film's biggest fans was none other than Stephen King. In fact, the author was so blown away by his first time seeing The Evil Dead at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival that he wrote a glowing review of the film in the November '82 issue of Twilight Zone magazine.
Some time later and Raimi wasn’t able to secure the money to make a sequel. Insert King who had a multi-movie deal with producer Dino De Laurentiis (who was producing King's dreadful/awesome directorial debut Maximum Overdrive at the time). When he found out that Raimi wasn't able to finance the sequel, King told De Laurentiis that he should get into the Evil Dead business. The rest, as they say, is history.