Let There Be Demons. And Dancing.

Peggy and I hit up the traveling tour of Evil Dead: The Musical tonight at the Vogue Theatre. We missed the original production of this show when it was played in New York when I lived there, so we were all sorts of excited when it was announced the show was coming to Vancouver.

We arrived at the theatre early to check out the souvenirs being sold and our great orchestra seats: row 13, seats 25 & 26. Surprisingly (or not) the 1030pm was not close to being sold out. But then again, it was a Saturday night in Vancouver, on “club” row, so there was a million other things people were doing instead of taking in musical theatre.

The grungy, sticky floored, ripped seats of the Vogue theatre did not curtail us in our enthusiasm as Peggy and I spied the large book of the Necronomican on the stage and the blood nozzles hung up on the ceiling trusses.

Another awesome? The 7 seats in the row in front of us remained empty the whole time so we had an unobstructed view. (no “trees” to block our view)

We joked about certain friends of ours who are under 30 and did not have the slightest inkling of what Evil Dead was to begin with.

I remember watching Evil Dead I & II & Army of Darkness when I was in high school. I didn’t realize until years later that the movie was suppose to be a send up. That it was over the top for the very reason to evoke laughs.

I on the other hand, took the movie very seriously. I even thought just by having it on the tv, that the incantations from the movie would really conjure up something bad in real life. Only me.

But could you blame me? I grew up watching horror movies like The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. And they were far from being a laugh riot.

The theatre went dark and the evil began. The first act brought on the laugh out louds with sight gags and over-acting. Don’t you wish that we could just break out in song and dance in real life? There were even obvious ninja-like people swarthed in head to toe black, holding up or walking ridiculous props across the stage. Very well done.

I couldn’t help but laugh at songs such as Cabin in the Woods, Look Who’s Evil Now, Ode to an Accidental Stabbing, Blew That Bitch Away and my favourite, What the Fuck Was That?

After the first act, there was an intermission, which we both thought wasn’t necessary as the whole musical ran only 1 1/2 hour long. But we suppose it was a way for the theatre to ring in more bar sales.

The intermission broke the roll we were on, for the first act was definitely more enjoyable than the second.

Being that the second act was only 1/2 hour, it felt like the show wrapped up pretty quickly. Everyone, especially those deadites sitting in the first 6 rows (the splatter zone) were waiting for the Carrie bloodbath to be rained down on them. It was delivered in spades at the end by the specially made blood delivery system on stage, spurting blood out onto the audience, the nozzles overhead and the Candarian demons running in the aisles to squirt blood onto the splatterees.

Some splatterees opted to wear the clear plastic garbage bags provided beforehand but many chose to leave the show in clothes that they worn, basking in the glory of looking like they’ve escaped a bloody massacre.

Not that Peggy and I were to girly to sit in the splatter zone. In fact, we’ll be sitting in the front row splatter zone at the local Vancouver version of Evil Dead on Halloween night. AND we’ll be in costume.

Photos courtesy of Peggy