Evil Dead's brutal filming was too much for most actors to take

One of the central elements of "The Evil Dead" was its gallons and gallons of blood. Raimi has used so much blood in his films that star Campbell has recorded the best stage blood recipe several times. According to Campbell's measurement, blood requires light Karo syrup, non-dairy cream powered for opacity, lots of red food coloring, with a hint of blue to darken it to a good deep shade. Blood, according to Campbell, does not taste good.

During "The Evil Dead", blood was everywhere. It's a pretty bloody movie. Since Karo Syrup is so sticky, it coated everything and everyone. Raimi remembers having sticky hands and needing to wash frequently. The only problem was the lack of tap water. Raimi had to get creative – and withstand extreme circumstances – just to get his hands clean. He said:

"There was no running water, and it was in the 20s and 30s - we had no winter clothes. It was very cold. When you're in that cold for 16 hours, you start at - I started at There was no food and everything was covered in Karo syrup at this temperature, so I was running the camera, but my hands were covered in Karo syrup. .. The only water we had was in a water heater so you could make instant coffee. Boil some tap water on your hands; that's how you would wash them, to load the film into the camera."

Freezer room, boiling water, sticky, burnt hands, all to recharge cinematographer Tim Philo's Arriflex16S camera. Raimi could take the abuse, it seems. Many others, he revealed, could not.