Bruce Campbell’s If
Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor is a surprisingly detailed
account of all aspects of his life that relate to movie-making. This started in
childhood, where he went beyond making G.I. Joes look wounded by burning them
to charging fees for a makeshift golf course to purloining construction
material to build a tree fortress.
Perhaps the most fascinating part describes how in high
school Campbell acted with friends in a number of super-8 movies, made for a
hundred dollars each that would actually play in theaters. By the time he was
college age, he had more practical experience than a lot of drama majors.
Like so many who have unorthodox careers, he pretty much
skipped college. But what steered him to horror movies? He had mostly done
comedy, but he and his friends noticed that a scary scene in a horror movie
always made an audience react. Campbell eventually made the lower than low
budget Evil Dead movies, and the rest
is history.
It’s hard to convey how uproariously funny If Chins Could Kill is. No matter how
serious the event or how rocky the road to movie-making was, Campbell will
describe it all with wry humor and exaggeration, as if his entire life has been
one grand wink at his audience.
Almost every page has a photo or a diagram on it, which I’ve
never seen in an autobiography before. This includes a diagram of how holes
were cut into a floor so actors could stick their arms and legs through, to be
filmed as disembodied limbs. (Remember: lower than low.)
He even goes into fundraising, which most books of this sort
don’t describe. It was a matter of approaching businessmen, relatives, friends,
and friends of friends, and trying to talk them into forking over money for a
share in whatever profits the movie will make. I think most books don’t cover
this because the process is so humiliating.
To stipulate: Chins
does not cover the current Evil Dead
series on Starz. But even if you’re not an Evil
Dead fan (and I’m not), you’ll find this book hilarious.
No comments:
Post a Comment