The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ franchise has several inside jokes and secrets thrown into the films, and one of the most iconic is the various credited “Fake Shemp” actors in the end credits. Sam Raimi created the Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ franchise in 1981 when he made the original on a tiny budget of under $400,000 with local college students, including his close friend Bruce Campbell as the lead actor Ashley Williams, and Robert Tapert as the producer.

The film was a huge success thanks to word-of-mouth, a nice referral by horror author Stephen King, and a reputation of being a small horror movie that pulled out a lot of great moments from nothing but a determined film crew with a camera and a dream. This resulted in a sequel that served as a larger-budgeted remake, but Raimi still got as much as he could with the money he had. This included creating “Fake Shemps” to finish his movie and save some money in the long run.

The Origin Of The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ’s “Fake Shemps” Explained

Fake Shemp Refers To The Three Stooges

One thing that happened when Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell began making their second movie was that they added more comedy to the franchise. The first film was a straight horror movie and deserves its spot on the infamous video nasties list thanks to several shocking moments that pushed the boundaries of decency. It is also one reason horror fans love The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ as much as they do. However, adding comedy made the sequels just as beloved, if not more so.

It is no surprise that Raimi so easily added humor to his horror movies. Raimi and Campbell have both said comedy films hugely inspired them, and they list The Three Stooges as personal favorites. According to Campbell, it was he and Raimi who created the term “splatstick” as a mixture of splatter horror and comedy, which ended up coined by many horror-comedies from the ’80s:

“We coined the phrase Splatstick from Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2. It’s horror and comedy, but it’s a tricky dance. We only got into comedy, adding it to horror films, because we were tired of seeing people faint at the first Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. I mean, there’s some nasty stuff in that. It’s an unrated movie.”

The idea of adding comedy, and especially referencing The Three Stooges, explains the idea of a “Fake Shemp.” Raimi used Fake Shemps before he ever made the first Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ movie. One of Raimi’s earliest movies was called Its Murder, a mystery film. They sH๏τ it over the summer, but when the cast left for school in the fall, they had to finish it. That is when they came up with the idea.

Bruce Campbell explained it in the Bill Warren book, The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Companion:

“During that summer, we did most of the shooting of It’s Murder, but then everybody had to go back to school that fall. So Scott [Spiegel] and I wound up running around grabbing sH๏τs on weekends and sending them to Sam so he could cut them in. I wore other guys’ outfits all the time, and did a lot of Fake Shemping.”

While they were making The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, they had only a certain amount of money, and it wasn’t unlimited. When they started running out of money, members of the cast and crew quit on them. According to Campbell, Scott Spiegel was the co-writer on Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ 2, and he served as a Fake Shemp in both movies to replace these cast members. This term refers to someone on the crew, or another cast member, pretending to be another character, or even a ᴅᴇᴀᴅitte in the movie.

The term refers to Shemp Howard, one of the founding members of The Three Stooges. His brother Moe Howard was also a founding member, but Shemp left the group before they hit it big for personal reasons and had a movie career of his own. His other brother, Curly Howard, replaced him in the lineup and for most of the group’s early movies. Shemp then returned in 1946 after Curly suffered a stroke and had to step down. Shemp stuck with them for nine more years.

However, when Curly died in 1952 and Shemp died in 1955, The Three Stooges still had four movies on their contracts. The last movies were mostly about Moe and Larry, and when they needed Shemp, they had a stand-in replace him, where viewers couldn’t see his face. This stand-in was a Fake Shemp, a term that Sam Raimi brought into his movies, especially concerning The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. It is simply a way to use anyone in any role, as long as you can’t see their face. In the credits, the word Fake Shemp replaces the replacement actor’s character name.

Where To Spot Some Of The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ’s Best “Fake Shemps”

Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Has Several Fake Shemp Moments

There were several scenes in the first Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ movie that were full of Fake Shemps. This is because the movie still had three weeks to film and the cast left before completion because Sam Raimi couldn’t pay them any more than $30 a week. This meant that Raimi ended up alone with Bruce Campbell, Rob Tapert, Betsy Becker, and Scott Spiegel. Becker explained in The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Companion what happened:

“I was sitting on the steps in the house, and upstairs were Sam, Bruce, and Rob. They were discussing how they can take this tiny amount of money they have and somehow spread it out so they can shoot for another couple of weeks… They come downstairs, pᴀssing me on the step, and present their proposition. ‘You’ll get the rest of profits, because we need to shoot for three more weeks.’ Everybody said ‘What? We’re leaving tomorrow morning.’ And they did.”

The filming took five more weeks as a result, and the remaining people took on roles as Fake Shemps throughout the rest of the shoot. There is even a scene where the camera is on Shelley (Theresa Tilly)’s character from behind, and it’s actually Rob Tapert in a wig. Interestingly, every ᴅᴇᴀᴅitte used until Army of Darkness was always credited as Fake Shemps instead of ᴅᴇᴀᴅittes.

As for the first Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ movie, there were several notable Fake Shemp moments. When the vines wrap around Cheryl’s legs, it is actually an actress named Joanne Kruse. When Shelly, as a ᴅᴇᴀᴅitte, tried to strangle Scott, it was Dorothy Tapert, Rob Tapert’s sister, and sH๏τ later in a garage. When Ash buried Linda, Barbara Carey was the Fake Shemp for Linda. This allowed Raimi to finish his movies and the Fake Shemps became a part of horror history.

Sources: The Evil ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Companion