Everyone knows (and loves) Bruce Campbell for his unforgettable role of Ash Williams from the horror splatstick Evil Dead trilogy. But despite what you might think, Campbell has been in a handful of other good horror-themed films. Read on as OMGHorror celebrates the 7 movies every Bruce Campbell fan should watch that aren't Evil Dead!
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#7: My Name is Bruce
Though My Name is Bruce, which was directed by the big-chinned B movie actor himself, didn’t quite capture the magic and appeal of the Evil Dead films as it intended to, Bruce Campbell is nothing short of hilarious in it. And after 15 years without a sequel to the trilogy that made him such a cult movie icon, this movie is the next best thing. In My Name in Bruce, Campbell plays an exaggerated version of himself who lives in a rundown trailer and is forced to be in crappy Sci-Fi Channel-esque movies because he's desperate for any kind of work.
Without spoiling too many of the funny parts in MNIB, in one scene Bruce is approached by a fan of his in a wheelchair who wants an autograph. After the guy expresses his dissatisfaction with the half-assed autograph he gets, Bruce asks him if he’s ever seen the movie Raw Hide and when the fan says "yes," he replies with “well, then you should know to keep those doggies rolling” and then pushes the disabled fan hard with his leg who rolls backwards down the street.
#6: Mindwarp
Mindwarp, known by the much cooler title "Brain Slasher" in every country outside the United States, takes place in a world ravaged by a nuclear apocalypse where everyone deals with how shitty things are by spending their time inside a high-tech virtual reality program called Inworld… so yeah, sort of like Total Recall only with more incentive to partake in a virtual reality existence. Sprinkle some The Road Warrior into the mix and you have a good idea of what Mindwarp is like. Bruce plays Stover, a guy who thinks he’s he the last man alive until he meets Judy and eventually saves her from the mutated cannibals that live on the outskirts of this hellish world. If you like Campbell and love corny sci-fi movies where everything “futuristic” in them shows how retardedly off the vision of the future was in the 80s, you should see this at once.
#5: Maniac Cop
William Lustig’ late 80s crime-horror flick, Maniac Cop, may be hammy and crusty, sure, but it’s premise, which answers the question of what would happen if a NYPD cop went berserk and began a murderous rampage, is nothing short of terrifying. Think about it—if a police officer woke up one morning and decided to become a serial killer, there wouldn’t be a whole lot standing in his way before the bodies started to pile up. And that’s essentially the story in Maniac Cop, which is by far one of the best leading roles Bruce Cambell has got since starring in the legendary Evil Dead horror trilogy. It's got action, carnage, and a surprisingly well-crafted story.
#4: Crimewave
Other than the three Spider-man movies (which qualify more as cameos than “Bruce Campbell movies”), Crimewave is the only film to reunite director Sam Raimi and Campbell after working together on Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness. Not only is Crimewave an over-the-top, horror-themed (sort of) comedy just like the Evil Dead movies, Campbell plays a characters that is also quite similar to his beloved Ash Williams character. In Crimewave, he plays Renaldo “The Heel,” a lovably arrogant and womanizing sleazeball, who like Ask also spouts cheesy one-liners such as one where a woman approaches him in a bar. When the girl reveals to Campbell that she thinks he’s cute, he responds with “keep talking baby, maybe you’ll tell me something I don’t already know.” Classic Bruce all the way.
#3: The Woods
While Bruce is absent throughout the entire middle chunk of Lucky Mckee’s The Woods, he does appear at the beginning and end of the film as the father of the female protagonist Heather. His character sends her to an all girls school in the middle of the woods where she’s soon tormented by bullies who call her “fire-crotch.” Oh yeah, and the school also happens to be run by psychotic witches who feed the female students milk laced with their own mind-altering witch blood. The Woods is one of those movies where you don’t really know what the hell’s going on until almost the end of the thing, but it’s a unique and well-done horror film by the same director who did the immensely disturbing horror flick May and the more recent critically acclaimed Red which is based on a book by the great Jack Ketchum. Bruce Campbell’s role may not be huge, but he does save the day at the end of the picture, getting revenge on his daughter’s witch teachers (who turn out to be some sort of mutant tree-abominations) by brutally slaughtering them with an axe.
#2: Maniac Cop 2
A horror sequel that actually surpasses the original film? I know--it’s pretty hard to believe, and while not everyone will agree that Maniac Cop 2 is a stronger movie than the first, they’ll at least agree it’s just as good. Our very own grotesquely deformed contributor Frog Baby recently included MC2 as his Underrated Pick, commending it for its “unflinching grue of 29 person body count” and for feeling like a genuine sequel all around. Hell, he practically wrote a damn essay on Maniac Cop 2, so rather than regurgitate his thoughts check out all of the good things he has to say on the second chapter in the film series about disgruntled, maniacal New York City police officer who uses a sword to hack people to death who have pissed him off in the past.
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#1: Bubba-Ho-tep
Don Coscarelli may be known more to horror buffs for directing the cult-favorite Phantasm film series, but he’s also responsible for the best horror-comedy Mr. Campbell has starred in since Army of Darkness, and that’s 2002’s Bubbo-Ho-tep. In the movie, Bruce Campbell plays a geriatric Elvis Presley who resides in a retirement home along with his friend, a black man who claims to be JFK (and explains the reason he looks the way he does is because he was dyed black after surviving his assassination). Doesn’t sound too much like the plot of a horror film until an Ancient Egyptian mummy shows up and both JFK and Elvis must combine senior citizen powers to overcome the monster. The movie’s a lot of fun, a must-see for Bruce Campbell fans, and also has an amusing underlying message about how no one really listens to old people.
