Bruce Campbell Shut Down A Rowdy, Popcorn Bucket-Throwing Heckler At The ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Premiere

Evil Dead Rise had its world premiere at the South by Southwest film festival on Wednesday. The reviews so far have been generally positive, including Bloody Disgusting calling it a “gnarly crowd pleaser [that] forges new ground for the franchise.” But not everyone (a loud jerk) was so giddy about the gore.

Variety reports that a heckler “was approached by South by Southwest venue staff after falling asleep with his legs propped up and yelled something unintelligible in response. When the room went silent to hear him out, he shouted, ‘This movie f*cking sucks!’ and threw an empty bucket of popcorn into the air.” The guy was met with boos from the crowd — and a message from groovy Evil Dead icon Bruce Campbell. From Variety:

“What are you doing here Get the f*ck out of here!” he said, inciting raucous cheers that almost rivaled the crowd’s reaction to the film itself. Added producer Rob Tapert, “I don’t get it. He waited all the way through the credits!” to wide laughter.

“I’ve been doing South By for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of movies in this theater — I have never seen an audience that insane,” SXSW film and TV programmer Peter Hall said about the Austin crowd, even before the heckling.

Could it have been staged Possible, but unlikely. Even P.T. Barnum would think it’s too high risk to hire someone to say that your movie “f*cking sucks” — but good thing it f*cking rules. Here’s the moment: