Bruce Campbell Recalls How Stephen King Got 'Evil Dead 2' Made

The original The Evil Dead scored a healthy dose of publicity when horror author Stephen King offered a quote about his experience of watching the movie, ensuring all of his fans would seek the film out. Star Bruce Campbell also recently shared that King helped the film's follow-up get made, placing a phone call to a producer to ensure the sequel had the funds to come to life.

"He's responsible for two of The Evil Dead movies, not just one. The second one is much more obscure," Campbell revealed to Consequence of Sound. "He's obviously quoted for the first Evil Dead, he saw it at Cannes and allowed us to use that quote, which was really cool of him and we've been using it ever since. On the second movie, Evil Dead 2, we were having trouble getting financing. We were prepping it and trying to get it going. We had a woman who was kind of like doing scheduling stuff, and we had to let her go. So she was a crew member, and she took off down to North Carolina and started making all these movies."

Luckily for the Evil Dead team, King was also in North Carolina for his sole directing project.

"[Producer] Dino De Laurentiis is making movies down there. Who does she run into? She gets on the crew of Maximum Overdrive, directed by Stephen King," Campbell revealed. "Stephen was like, 'What are you up to?' And she was like, 'I just came from working with these guys trying to get money for Evil Dead 2.' He goes, 'Evil Dead 2? They can't get the money for that?' She goes 'No.' He calls Dino De Laurentiis and goes, 'You should make this movie.' I think we had a deal … we met with Dino and I think we had a deal in about half an hour, and a basic understanding."

In the famous quote, King called the film, "The most ferociously original horror film of the year." Understandably, a ringing endorsement like that from King made The Evil Dead become a must-see movie for horror fans.

Bruce Campbell can be seen when Ash vs. Evil Dead returns for Season 3 on Starz this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.

Do you prefer The Evil Dead or Evil Dead II? Let us know in the comments!

[H/T Consequence of Sound]