On Thursday evening, I saw the opening night of BGSU’s Department of Theatre and Film production of “Evil Dead: The Musical” and I have to say, I was met with a pleasant surprise. 

This story is formed in the comedy and horror genres and makes sure to lean into all the stereotypical tropes these genres are best known and loved for. 

I have to be honest, I love comedy in its many forms, it’s horror I always steer clear away from. I can never get why the often-pointless gore is thrilling or why people love to be scared. It’s why with this production I was skeptical at best and massively perplexed when I saw it was a musical. 

Shockingly though, I ended up liking it a lot! The set was built like a real cabin living room and kitchen area with just enough space on the side for some of the outside scenes and a sky full of stars. The comedy was peak campiness and there was enough blood and body parts shot at the first two rows of the audience in the splash zone to dance with the “horrifying.”

The story starts with a book that lights up and opens by talking about its history and how it was a portal to evil in the spiritual world. After this intro, music springs up and lights show a group of five college students driving into the woods to crash in a cabin over spring break singing their first song.

When they get there, they start making themselves at home and checking the rooms. Suddenly, the cellar door in the floor flings open and wind and lights come from it. This leads Scott and Ash to go down and see what’s there. 

They jokingly jump-scare the girls (Linda, Cheryl, and Shelly) and show them the gun, ancient dagger, tape recorder and the book they’ve found. As they play the tape (which goes into more detail about what the book said at the beginning) and start saying its lines of allowing evil to intrude on the living. 

Everyone tries to brush the creepiness off, but one by one, all of the characters (save Ash) fall prey to the demons that unleash themselves on the cabin and the group through the night.

After every musical number, the cast found themselves showered with applause and cheers and nobody could stop laughing at all the jokes. The jabs that Scott would make at Cheryl could create laughs of their own and Jake’s song about how reliable he is was a showstopper. The demons with their goggles were both comical and weird and the one-liners that demon Cheryl would spit at Ash would both make you roll your eyes while also stifling your smirk from becoming a laugh. 

Every time the cast and crew had to use the outside for scenes was always hilarious due to it just being large enough to hold the pile of a broken bridge or a grove of three trees set to terrify a screaming Cheryl. Even though it was a little hard to hear the lower notes sung by the cast (compared to the louder instruments), they all still did a wonderful job singing and performing throughout the night. 

“Evil Dead: The Musical” is truly in a unique category it can call its own and the cast and crew did a fabulous job of doing it justice.