Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Tenth Avenue Art Center’s Evil Dead: the Musical

Even badder badness

It’s the kind of bad that you have to actively work at. It is a cultivated bad.
It’s the kind of bad that you have to actively work at. It is a cultivated bad.

My wife and I saw Tenth Avenue Art Center’s Evil Dead: the Musical this year, because Halloween. We did not sit in the front row “splatter zone,” where spectators enjoy periodic soakings in fake blood and green goo. It turns out that The Thing to Do is wear all white, so one ends the night with a one-of-a-kind blood soaked souvenir outfit. You learn something new every day.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Anyways, at intermission, my wife turned to me and said, “Wow. This is bad, like, cheesy and bad,” which of course was absolutely correct. The play is so bad. It’s the kind of bad that you have to actively work at. It is a cultivated bad. The badness is subtle, like fine wine or expensive cheese. It’s the kind of badness that seems just kind-of-bad at first, and the you dig below the surface and find all the even badder badness that was waiting for you; like the endless stream of groan-inducing puns delivered by Possessed Cheryl during the play’s middle third, or the way Ash mugs for the stands and drops one-liners about Boomsticks and S-Mart to outsize rounds of applause.

I can confidently report that Evil Dead: the Musical was every bit as delightfully bad as the films upon which it is based.

Along that vein, are not the sensibilities of the B-Movie fan truly bizarre? I don’t think there’s a satisfactory reason why some horror/sci-fi flicks (and the satirical comedy farces based thereon) manage to click with ardent fans for the very reason of their self-effacing badness. Ordinary badness isn’t enough. Man of Steel and Transformer: the Last Knight are indescribably bad movies, but they could never ascend to cult-classic B-Movie greatness like The Evil Dead.

It probably has something to do with hipster irony. People enjoy stuff that is bad in just the right way, and they enjoy it enthusiastically, and unabashedly — even more than if it were good, which is the weirdest part. It’s as if it is somehow safer to like something because it’s bad than because it’s good. What a world we live in where being bad isn’t bad, but it’s not strictly good, either. That’s something to ponder till Halloween 2018.

Evil Dead closed October 29.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Escondido planners nix office building switch to apartments

Not enough open space, not enough closets for Hickory Street plans
Next Article

Now what can they do with Encinitas unstable cliffs?

Make the cliffs fall, put up more warnings, fine beachgoers?
It’s the kind of bad that you have to actively work at. It is a cultivated bad.
It’s the kind of bad that you have to actively work at. It is a cultivated bad.

My wife and I saw Tenth Avenue Art Center’s Evil Dead: the Musical this year, because Halloween. We did not sit in the front row “splatter zone,” where spectators enjoy periodic soakings in fake blood and green goo. It turns out that The Thing to Do is wear all white, so one ends the night with a one-of-a-kind blood soaked souvenir outfit. You learn something new every day.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Anyways, at intermission, my wife turned to me and said, “Wow. This is bad, like, cheesy and bad,” which of course was absolutely correct. The play is so bad. It’s the kind of bad that you have to actively work at. It is a cultivated bad. The badness is subtle, like fine wine or expensive cheese. It’s the kind of badness that seems just kind-of-bad at first, and the you dig below the surface and find all the even badder badness that was waiting for you; like the endless stream of groan-inducing puns delivered by Possessed Cheryl during the play’s middle third, or the way Ash mugs for the stands and drops one-liners about Boomsticks and S-Mart to outsize rounds of applause.

I can confidently report that Evil Dead: the Musical was every bit as delightfully bad as the films upon which it is based.

Along that vein, are not the sensibilities of the B-Movie fan truly bizarre? I don’t think there’s a satisfactory reason why some horror/sci-fi flicks (and the satirical comedy farces based thereon) manage to click with ardent fans for the very reason of their self-effacing badness. Ordinary badness isn’t enough. Man of Steel and Transformer: the Last Knight are indescribably bad movies, but they could never ascend to cult-classic B-Movie greatness like The Evil Dead.

It probably has something to do with hipster irony. People enjoy stuff that is bad in just the right way, and they enjoy it enthusiastically, and unabashedly — even more than if it were good, which is the weirdest part. It’s as if it is somehow safer to like something because it’s bad than because it’s good. What a world we live in where being bad isn’t bad, but it’s not strictly good, either. That’s something to ponder till Halloween 2018.

Evil Dead closed October 29.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Undocumented workers break for Trump in 2024

Illegals Vote for Felon
Next Article

Trump names local supporter new Border Czar

Another Brick (Suit) in the Wall
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader