Filmmaker, writer, and The Evil Dead crew member Josh Becker has passed away
By the time I was 9 years old, I had already been a horror fan for several years. I would stock up on horror rentals from various local video stores, and they no longer fazed me. They were just good, fascinating entertainment, as far as I was concerned. Then I rented director Sam Raimi’s feature debut The Evil Dead – and it rocked my world. That film shook me to the core, and to this day I consider it to be the scariest movie I have ever seen. So, of course, it’s also one of my all-time favorites, and I’m a big fan of the franchise it spawned. That franchise is in a good place these days, with the rights holders so determined to pump out new entries on a regular basis that there are two new Evil Dead movies in the works right now, with one on track for a 2026 release. The future is bright… but, man, it’s also a rough time to be a fan of Evil Deads past and the “Evil Dead family.” We lost Raimi regular Dan Hicks, best known for playing Jake in Evil Dead II, back in 2020. Another Raimi regular, Timothy Patrick Quill, best known for playing the Blacksmith in Army of Darkness, passed away in 2021. Just a few months ago, I was devastated to hear that Evil Dead II co-writer Scott Spiegel (writer/director of the awesome slasher movie Intruder) had passed away. Now, we have to share the news that filmmaker and The Evil Dead crew member Josh Becker has passed away at the age of 67.
Raimi started directing Super 8 short films while he was growing up in Michigan, and Becker, Spiegel, and Quill were (along with actor Bruce Campbell) some of the classmates who collaborated with him. Becker acted in some of Raimi’s shorts and wrote and directed several of his own – so, when Raimi set out to make The Evil Dead, Becker was invited to participate. He was a production assistant and sound recordist on the film, and when most of the cast and crew left the production, he took over the lighting as well. He also conceived and set up the unforgettable final shot of the movie. You can read the journal he kept throughout the filming of The Evil Dead at THIS LINK.
Soon after principal photography on The Evil Dead was completed, Becker and Campbell teamed for a short film called Stryker’s War, which served as a proof-of-concept for Becker’s own feature debut, the 1985 film Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except, which he wrote with Spiegel, Campbell, and Sheldon Lettich (who went on to do a lot of work with Jean-Claude Van Damme). Described as “Marines vs. the Manson Family,” that movie stars Sam Raimi as the crazed cult leader. Unfortunately, Campbell couldn’t play the hero as intended because the movie was a non-union production, but it’s a lot of fun nonetheless. Around 2010, Becker and Campbell were talking about remaking Thou Shalt Not Kill… Except with Campbell back in the lead role, but they never got that remake into production.
After he and Spiegel did some uncredited writing on the William Lustig action thriller Hit List, Becker continued his directing career. His work includes the comedy Lunatics: A Love Story (starring Ted Raimi, Deborah Foreman, and Bruce Campbell); the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys TV movie Hercules in the Maze of the Minotaur; the crime thriller Running Time, which stars Campbell and is presented as if it were one unbroken take; the self-distributed indie drama If I Had a Hammer; episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess and the Campbell series Jack of All Trades; the sci-fi adventure Alien Apocalypse (starring Campbell); the sci-fi adventure Harpies; episodes of the web series Spine Chillers, which he also created; the comedy Morning, Noon & Night; and the Western Warpath (featuring Ted Raimi as a character called Dimwit).
Becker’s passing was announced on social media by multiple friends and family members, and seems to have been completely unexpected. He was said to be planning a new movie and even updated his newsletter on December 3rd, just two days before he passed away.
Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell led me to Josh Becker and helped me discover another filmmaker whose work I really enjoyed and respected. I had the chance to meet Becker at a convention in 2010 and had a really nice interaction with him, during which I bought some of his movies and his books. (He wrote The Complete Guide to Low-Budget Feature Filmmaking, Rushes, Going Hollywood, Hitler in the Madhouse, and The Gospel According to Judas, all of which are available on Amazon.)
Josh Becker was a cool, interesting guy who provided some great entertainment over the years, and I’m sad to see him go. Our sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and fans.
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