Here's Where You Can Find Evil Dead Rise's Sneakiest Cameo
This article contains spoilers for "Evil Dead Rise."
"Evil Dead Rise" contains a ton of Easter eggs to please the fans of the "Evil Dead" franchise, yet for most fans, there's only one Easter egg they want to know about: will Bruce Campbell, the man who brought Ashley J. Williams to life, make an appearance?
Well, back in March of this year, "Evil Dead Rise" writer/director Lee Cronin confirmed that Campbell would make some sort of appearance, but that it wouldn't be super easy to spot, with the filmmaker even laying down a cash reward for those who could find Campbell in the film. That's a marked difference from 2013's "Evil Dead," which featured Ash (or was it simply Campbell as himself?) appearing in a brief close-up shot post-credits and saying his trademark line of "Groovy."
While Campbell's appearance in "Evil Dead Rise" is indeed sneaky, it not only has already been found, but according to Cronin, may not merely be an appearance by Campbell but by Ash himself ... and it's only one of two aural cameos that Campbell makes.
Campbell gives Evil Dead Rise a priest of his mind
In "Evil Dead Rise," the Naturom Demonto, aka "Book of the Dead," is found by Danny (Morgan Davies) buried within an old bank vault that lies beneath his family's apartment building. The vault was uncovered by an ominously large earthquake. In addition to retrieving the Book, Danny also grabs a few vinyl records that were stored along with it, and his aspiring DJ-self is intrigued enough to ignore his sister's warnings and play the records on his system.
Turns out that what's on those records is a recording of a priest in the early 20th century who headed up a rogue sect of his church, intending to translate the Book in hopes of potentially discovering ways to understand and possibly combat Evil. As one might expect, this idea did not go down well with the man's fellow priests, and the first record contains the audio of a speech the priest gives to other priests he hopes will support him. They do not, and are quite vocal about it, with one voice rising in protest above the others in particular. Sure enough, this voice belongs to Campbell.
However, as Cronin hinted during SXSW and made more explicit following the film's Beyond Fest screening earlier this week, this voice may not merely be Campbell's, but Ash's. As Cronin postulated, Ash has been known to travel through time on multiple occasions, so it's highly possible that this recording is proof that Ash was attempting to stop the priest's translations before they happened — and, as is often the case with Ash and dispelling evil, was remarkably unsuccessful.
An apple for an eye
While the intriguing possibilities of Campbell's main cameo in the film are the most attractive, let's not overlook the fact that Campbell turns up in another aural cameo, one that's decidedly not Ash-related but is deliciously grislier. As Cronin told Digital Spy recently, the cameo by Campbell on the priest's record was discovered as soon as the movie premiered, but this second cameo is much harder to spot if you don't know where to listen:
"But there's another Bruce moment in the movie as well. He did some foley work for me as well. There's a scene around an eye where there's some munching and Bruce created that sound by eating an apple furiously for me."
Yes, in the grand tradition of Paul McCartney being recorded chewing celery for both The Beach Boys and Super Furry Animals, Bruce Campbell's glorious, furious apple-chewing sounds can be heard during a key moment in "Evil Dead Rise." Hopefully, for us fans of Ash, Campbell will be seen chewing scenery in a future "Evil Dead" film instead of fruit.