Dead Leaves

Swofty

Swofty

Unseen Force
Staff member
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Elise41 has posted news about a new slant on Evil Dead fandom book called 'Dead Leaves' ... I'm particularly excited about this one because it seems to be about a bunch of kids trying to score The Evil Dead on VHS in '83 in Derbyshire ... I WAS a kid trying to score ED on VHS in '83 in Derbyshire! ... I might even know the author! ..

We used to skip school, rent the tape, run across a few fields to my parent's house to watch it and although the store owner refused to sell me the cassette, we made a bootleg of it anyway. That store was also where I saw my first win a ton of red meat card given away with the tape. They're almost impossible to find now.

http://www.liveforfilms.com/2015/08/11/dead-leaves-new-novella-chronicles-the-search-for-the-evil-dead/
 
That looks really cool!  And it's a unique idea for a novella.
 
I'll probably read it. I remember searching video rental stores for copies of the Evil Dead VHS when I was in high school. Luckily it wasn't soon after Anchorbay re-released the movie on VHS.
 
I had my copy delivered a couple of days ago but only had a chance to start reading it last night, it's signed and numbered by the author and ....

This is only a half review (because I'm only half way through the book!) but I'm enjoying it so far ... I'm not sure how well it would 'translate' to an audience that it wasn't specifically written for (the rest of the world who didn't grow up in Derby in the early 80's) there's a lot of word play and time specific non politically correct terms that are very specific to the area it happened in and the areas I grew up around. People are called gays, people get into fights etc etc .. it was 1983 though and the author spends a lot of time taking you back there, describing what pop songs were playing on transistors, the colour of the teeth of the video store owner, the makes of the cars and the kind of people hanging around outside ..

The police shop raid story is great .. I was present at one shop raid and one home bust .. we were treated as though we were selling drugs or child porn back them for having video nasties .. there's talk of hiding your stash before the police got there (I was involved in that as well .. and you're welcome!), people were threatened with arrest just for answering back ... over VHS fantasy horror films.

Our hero in this book will stop at nothing to get hold of a copy of The Evil Dead on Palace Pictures VHS ..

.. his mate nicked £65 from his big brothers bedroom with the grand scheme of making bootleg copies to get the money back in time before getting caught for the crime, so far .. I don't know what's going to happen next .. my first ever copy of The Evil Dead was a bootleg copy that myself and a mate learned how to hook up two VHS players to make, we had an insanely laid back video store owner renting it to us who couldn't give a shit how old we were but wanted £80 for a copy. I was about 12 years old so was just happy we could rent it.

The book feels very authentic so far although the author has admitted he's romanticised it a bit or added timeline details in places that are obviously added, I've had a couple of laughs out of it. I can't review it properly yet because, again, I haven't finished it ... I know this won't be everyone's 'how did you first get into The Evil Dead?' experience remembered but it's the closest to mine so far ..
 
If anyone's curious about my opinion, my review is up on the front page.
 
MaidOfKandar said:
If anyone's curious about my opinion, my review is up on the front page.
Click to expand...

That was an ace opinion IMO MaidOfKandar .. are you sure you're not actually English ? :P  .. you've just put more pressure on me to get my act together with the BOTD write up now!

I remember a bloke called Paul .. we used to all trade through a horror magazine called Samhain .. the sellers got a bit cocky though and started actually naming the banned films they were selling including Paul doing the same thing which was how the police traced them. I'd already been around to his house in roughly the same area as the Dead Leaves book's setting ... he had tons of 'nastys' but to rub salt in the wounds, he had THREE mint copies of The Evil Dead Palace Pictures videos ..... I tried to get him to sell me one but he wouldn't budge.

A week or two later, my mate Richard called to tell me Paul had been raided and the police had taken everything and Richard explained he was probably next! Richard explained how hand written lists in biro ink were mailed to each other and I arrived at his house to find him burning them on a barbeque ... I helped him pack all of his videos into a tea chest .. and ... I sort of feel bad for Paul but it wouldn't have killed him to sell me one of his Palace originals so the spiteful side of me sniggered a little when he lost them all ... sorry but it's the truth ...

When we hid The Evil Dead in a famous persons secretary's house to save it .. The MP and the tea chest of nasties ...

http://www.bookofthedead.ws/website/features_readers_tales.html

edit: .. So I've finished the book and it was accurate to my own experiences around those times ... I can't find the spoiler alert function for some reason so .... for anyone who doesn't want to buy this book:

***************Spoilers***************



The trio of teens, through a lot of ducking and diving, eventually get there hands on a copy of The Evil Dead. For some strange reason though (and it's noted but not explained in the story telling), one guy suddenly decides to visit his girlfriend over some unresolved argument at 3am ! ... so the VHS still isn't safe. Obviously, she's not to thrilled about being woken up at 3am but eventually relents and lets the lad in. Hell breaks loose after she decides to tell him that she'd recently got off with one of his mates standing outside.

After a chase and scrap outside, the VHS tape is written as suddenly flying through the air then heroically caught by the cheater. :D

The angry lad forgives his girlfriend but won't go back with his 'friends' to watch The Evil Dead. His friends stay up until 7am after watching it. A post note says the angry lad married his girlfriend in 1985, I felt like I was watching Animal House or Fast Times At Ridgemount High again ... angry lad is written as still not having seen The Evil Dead LOL ..

I'm still wondering if it was my old best mate who wrote this book for several reasons. The Rock House and Rock City were two nightclubs in Derby where the story is set and roughly where we lived, The Rock House being mentioned as well as The Dial, a bar I still have a ticket stub from in a scrap book ... we visited all of those places. The cheating friend getting off with your girlfriend was what he did to me and we were never really the same after that. Also, the language and scrapes we got into mirror this book very closely although they're slightly different. Being chased by skin heads, dodging the police raids ... my mate posted here about 15 years ago under the user name Cactus Jack so if you're reading get back in touch, even if you didn't write this book. I forgot to mention, he was also a keen wannabe author ;)
 
Heh, not only am I not English, I was only around three during the video nasty controversy, so this one was a little FOW for me.
 
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