A Brief History of Sam Raimi Torturing Bruce Campbell

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness features some of the most exciting cameos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. However, horror fans in particular may have found Bruce Campbell’s appearance as the multiversal “Pizza Poppa” to be one of the most rewarding. Even if Campbell hadn’t been teasing his appearance for a while on social media, it would have felt odd if he wasn’t in the film. Sam Raimi and Campbell have a recurring onscreen partnership that they’ve maintained for over four decades. Why wouldn’t Campbell pop up in Raimi’s first film project in almost a decade?

The-Evil-Dead-Bruce-Campbell — Image Via New Line Cinema

Raimi and Campbell first met back in 1975, and quickly bonded over their mutual love of horror, Marvel Comics, and all things popular culture. During Campbell and Raimis’ early days producing shorts together, they would often watch classic films together, which inspired their mutual interest in pursuing more ambitious projects. During the 42nd Anniversary Fathom Events screening for The Evil Dead, Campbell laughed that they “watched movies that you could never get made today, like Revenge of the Cheerleaders and Massacre at Central High."

Raimi would often ask his childhood friend to perform dangerous on screen. After their half-hour proof of concept short, Within the Woods, gained the attention of investors, Raimi and Campbell trekked out to the wilderness to start working on the original The Evil Dead. The result was an instant classic, which is still beloved to this day. However, the production process was not an easy one. Campbell revealed in his 2002 memoir, If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, that the entire cast and crew got lost on the first day of shooting.

Bruce Campbell holding an axe in The Evil Dead

Campbell in particular had a particularly rough go at it during the filming of The Evil Dead. He suffered a bloody leg wound while performing a dangerous stunt, but had to suffer through the rest of the shoot without any proper treatment. They were filming out in the middle of nowhere; traveling all the way to a medical professional's office was not easy. Campbell wasn’t the only one injured, but Raimi singled him in particular. In his memoir, Campbell remembers that his childhood friend would poke his wound with a stick in between takes.

Even if the cast and crew had to survive freezing temperatures, their efforts did not go unrewarded. The Evil Dead became an instant cult favorite. The entire subgenre of “splatter horror” emerged in its wake. The film’s growing popularity on the midnight film circuit allowed Raimi to craft his sequel, The Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn, in 1987. Although it was billed as a continuation, Evil Dead II is essentially a slapstick remake of the first film. Despite the wild antics on screen, the production process was actually a lot smoother; Raimi had more directorial experience under his belt, having helmed the anthology horror film Crimewave in between. It was actually Raimi’s younger brother Ted who bore most of the injuries; he collapsed due to overheating at one point.

bruce campbell darkman — Image via Universal Pictures

Even though Raimi became known for “torturing” his actors, he was sightly kinder to his favorite leading man and muse in their subsequent collaborations. Raimi cast Campbell in cameo roles in Darkman, The Quick and the Dead, all three Spider-Man films, and Oz: The Great and Powerful. However, Campbell couldn’t return to the role of Ash without suffering just a little bit. During a scene in 1992’s Army of Darkness, Ash is pelted with rocks. In order to get a genuine reaction, Raimi had Campbell literally pelted with potatoes. Campbell also suffered a serious cut during the climatic sword fight; when he was rushed to the hospital afterwards, it was difficult to differentiate his real wound from the prosthetic injuries.

However, Raimi had initially planned to give Campbell a much more extensive role in his famously canceled Spider-Man 4. Campbell was set to appear as the illusionist Mysterio (portrayed by Jake Gyllnahaal in Spider-Man: Far From Home) in the fourth installment of the Tobey Maguire film series. Raimi planned to explain the casting by revealing that Campbell’s characters in the previous films were all part of Mysterio’s deception. Although Spider-Man 4 never happened, Campbell finally makes his Marvel return in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He briefly appears as the vendor of the “Pizza Poppa” stand, who Strange curses to relentlessly pummel himself. Campbell tweeted that it finally gives audiences “a reason to see the movie.”

Fans who stuck around for the second post-credit scene (aka, anyone who's been following the history of the MCU) got to see more of Campbell punching himself. “I don’t know what’s entertaining about it, but it gives me a great deal of pleasure,” Raimi reflected on torturing his best friend during the Comic-Con promotional event for Ash vs. Evil Dead. “I find it to be a very healthy, productive, one-with-the universe-type thing to torment Bruce, and people love to watch his tormentation.”