Last night's show at the Diesel Playhouse marked the end of the successful run of Evil Dead-The Musical, a campy comedy based on Sam Raimi's film Evil Dead, which, like the 1982 film, has become a bit of a cult classic among theatre goers in New York, Montreal, and Toronto.

Directed by Christopher Bond and Hinton Battle, the play's plot involves five horny college kids who unwisely head off to the woods and camp out in a secluded cabin, where they discover the Book of the Dead. From here the stage is set for a series of raunchy and hilarious songs, including "What the Fuck Was That?," "Look Who's Evil Now," and "Do The Necronomicon." The talented cast includes Ryan Ward (Ash), who as the protagonist perfects the stereotype of white male masculinity with corny clichés and the double-barrel shotgun he totes around. Sarah Cornell (Annie), is also great as Ash's annoying little sister, who turned into a demon early on, spends the bulk of the play delivering comic relief, popping out from the cabin's attic floor to spew her hilarious invective and ridicule the living. Mike "Nug" Nahrgang (Jake) is brilliant as the southern redneck who is suspect of the gang's "common sense" and "jibber-jabber."

When the gang unwittingly unleashes the forces of evil and the woods come alive, Ash learns that the only way to survive is by killing his sister, his girlfriend Linda (Carly Jones), and best friend Scott (Matt Olmstead). Armed with a chainsaw, the blood pours, gushes, and squirts, as demons are decapitated and deprived of their limbs.

Audience participation is a large part of the play's success. Audience members are allowed to drink beer and eat at their tables, something which the producers had to fight for when the show was in New York. Before the show and during the intermission rock music from the 80s considered camp-Motley Crue, Whitesnake, Poison, Skid Row-blared from the speakers. And those sitting in the designated "splatter zone" were treated with showers of fake blood once the demon-killing action began.

Evil Dead, like the film it is based on, is an over-the-top tongue-in-cheek tale of hormones, horror, and comedy. No clichés are spared, no stereotypes are left unturned. The film's sequels-Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness-are perhaps more parodies than the original, but the series spawned a collection of imitators in the late 1980s which continue to this day. Joss Whedon's television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer owes much to Raimi's film, and ironically, the 2001 Buffy episode "Once More, With Feeling," is reminiscent of the new play.

Evil Dead is able to eschew the traditional conventions of theatre because the audience is in on the joke. They get it, and like the nostalgic campiness of the music and movies of their youth, they love it. Long live the dead.