Director Davis Banta and producer Greg Roe led me backstage through a maze of construction projects and horror props. Banta tapped the weathered wooden siding planks being installed as the facade of the cabin in the woods. “We got real wood donated from local sources. There’s nothing like old wood. You can fake it with paint, but it’s so much better when you use the real stuff.” We climbed up a set of stairs and settled in beside a gigantic mounted moose head that will be featured in the musical.

Greg Roe is a self-professed Evil Dead franchise fanatic, but his drive to produce the musical at a local theater has more to do with his daughter’s interests. Speaking of Amauri, he says “she is 14 now and just started ninth grade and she’s been in every single production she could possibly be in since third grade.” Immersing himself in the world of theater to support his daughter, Greg first attended a production of “Evil Dead the Musical” in San Jose and later took his daughter to see one produced in Folsom, last year. He found himself thinking, “that was really fun — I wish there was one closer.”

He posted his idea on a Facebook community page to produce a version locally, and within hours he had found his director Davis Banta and his co-producer Miguel Reyna. It was a trio worthy of the task of bringing this gory comedy to the stage in convincing fashion. Reyna and Banta have collaborated extensively before, and both have a passion for putting horror on stage. Roe, new to the role of theater producer, is no stranger to weird and dark tales. He actually had his wedding vows read out of the Necronomicon, a fictional book of the dead with magical powers, invented by the writer H.P. Lovecraft and featured in the Evil Dead plotline.Ben Lomond’s Park Hall is a devilishly appropriate setting for this moribund musical. Banta said that he always likes there to be a connection between the script and the theater, and in this case the linkage is exquisite. As Roe says, “It’s a play that is set in a haunted old cabin in the woods that is being performed in a creepy old theater in the mountains.” For audience members who travel to the theater, the experience will begin as they wind their way through the redwoods. “People will see the trees differently as they leave,” Roe states.

They may also, if they are sitting in the splash zone (the first two rows of seats), be splattered with stage blood. Audience members who dare sit close to the action are encouraged to wear clothes they would garden in, as the blood level for this production is “decently high.” The musical runs from Sept. 20 through Oct. 20 with a special Halloween performance where they will use up the remaining fake blood, increasing the gore factor significantly. The production is rated R and intended for mature audiences only.

This musical has greater than average production challenges, as there are a series of special effects. With an interest and background in film, this creative team is making the most of this opportunity to do something different on stage. They are using backing tracks provided by the original production company that make the sound of the musical more like the movies. They have blood packs, more lights than any previous Mountain Community Theater production, and a bunch of Easter eggs that connect what happens on stage to moments in the movies. Fans of Evil Dead are sure to have a bloody fun time. Heck, even George Reinblatt, the writer of the musical, has followed Mountain Community Theater on Instagram. To get in the mood for the creepiest part of the year, this show is not to be missed.

Tickets are now on sale at mctshows.org/buy-tickets/.