A man who attended the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival on Wednesday sat through the entire premiere screening of Evil Dead Rise and ten minutes of the following Q&A session, before he bashed the movie and stormed out of the theater.
But not before the star of the Evil Dead franchise, Bruce Campbell told him to get the "eff" out of the theater.
According to Variety, the displeased audience member had fallen asleep with his legs propped up on the seat and was approached by a SXSW venue staff member then responded with an unintelligible utterance during the post-movie panel discussion.
When the room quieted to see what was going on, the man yelled, “This movie f'king sucks!” and chucked his popcorn over the side balcony where he was sitting.
The audience, many of whom seemed to enjoy the bloody spin-off of the iconic horror comedy franchise, booed the heckler as he stormed out of the theater.
Actor Bruce Campbell–the executive producer of the new movie who starred in the original trilogy of films starting with 1981's Evil Dead–had a few words for the heckler before he exited the auditorium.
Campbell yelled:
"What are you doing here? Get the f'k out of here!”
The crowd erupted in applause and cheers.
You can watch the moment in the clip below.
Producer Rob Tapert incited laughter when he added:
“I don’t get it. He waited all the way through the credits!”
The raucous crowd cheered even more when SXSW Film and TV programmer Peter Hall—who was attending the screening—commented:
“That a**hole aside, I think we can all agree that this movie actually really f'king rules.”
Twitter had negative reviews for said a-hole.
The popularity of Evil Dead was very evident that night.
Fans have been chomping at the bit for the long-awaited fifth installment in the franchise and based on audible reactions throughout the movie, the reception to Evil Dead Rise was overwhelmingly positive.
Prior to the heckling incident, Hall said:
"I’ve been doing South By for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of movies in this theater—I have never seen an audience that insane.”
The movie stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland playing estranged sisters who try to survive after one of them finds an ancient book hidden in their apartment and inadvertently unleashes flesh-possessing demons.
One thing that remains consistent in the franchise is the unapologetic gore and slapstick comedy element–which are writer/director Sam Raimi's trademark in many of his films inspired by comic strips.
The original trilogy included The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992)–all of which were written and directed by Raimi–who went on to direct the Spider-Man trilogy (2002–2007).
The three films were also produced by Robert G. Tapert and starred Campbell–who played the iconic protagonist, Ashley Joanna "Ash" Williams.
The trilogy was followed by a sequel and loose reboot in 2013 called Evil Dead.
The Evil Dead franchise also spawned a TV series called Ash vs Evil Dead which lasted three seasons after it premiered on Starz in 2015, which also starred Campbell.
Evil Dead Rise is scheduled for a U.S. wide release on April 21.
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