Thank you to Mark Dutton, for his generosity and willingness to share his views on The Evil Dead and its cult appeal with me, and to Nathan Hunt (for lending me his Book of the Dead DVD).
Various friends, colleagues and family members offered support and kept me focused and positive during the production of this book, so thank you to Kerstin Leder, Russ Hunter, Martin Barker, Paul Newland, Sarah Thomas, Ed Payne, Rhys Fowler, Steph Jones, Lisa Richards, Sarah and Alex Martindale, Lauren Anderson, Paul and Amy Binnion, Gaz Bailey, Karen Parkhouse-Pirti, Tom O’Malley and, most importantly, my mum Susan Ellis and my much-loved ‘better half’ Tim Noble for their encouragement and support.
Finally, my largest thanks must go to the two fantastic editors of the ‘Cultographies’ series – Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton – for their patience when faced with an incredibly slow producer of chapters. I was lucky to be working with two such encouraging and supportive editors. Particular thanks, also, to Tim and Jamie for their amazing ability to put up with my whinging, worrying and non-stop chatter about The Evil Dead!