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Henrietta Knowby's (Lou Hancock) stop-motion boots from the production of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II. Henrietta wore her boots when she was attacked by a Kandarian demon unleashed by her husband, Raymond Knowby (John Peaks). After she was buried in the cellar, Henrietta awoke and proceeded to attack Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) as the incantation played again. The character was brought to live with a combination of live-action photography and stop-motion animation.
These foam rubber boots, from the personal collection of special effects artist Tom Sullivan, were cast for the stop-motion sequence in which Henrietta's head popped up from the ground, but were ultimately unseen in the final cut. Both boots were hollowed out and cut up along their backs by production. They exhibit discoloration from use and age. Dimensions: (each) 6" x 2.5" x 5" (15.25 cm x 6.5 cm x 12.75 cm)
Estimate: $800 - 1,600
Special effects maestro Tom Sullivan first met director Sam Raimi in the mid-1970s, forming an immediate bond over their mutual love of practical effects in filmmaking. Soon after, Raimi asked Sullivan to create special effects for his 1978 horror short Within the Woods, starring a young Bruce Campbell. It was through this acclaimed short film that funding was secured to create a feature-length adaptation, The Evil Dead, for which Sullivan again played a vital role in the special effects and art direction. His most celebrated contribution to the horror classic was the iconic Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, the Book of the Dead, for which Sullivan was not only essential in the design and construction, but also in the hand-illustration of all the intricate artwork and symbols written throughout its internal pages. The symbols used in the Necronomicon - an alphabet Sullivan humorously referred to as "Bullscrit" - were of the artist's own creation. After the franchise-birthing success of the film, Sullivan continued to collaborate with Raimi on its sequels, Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness, and worked on other horror films such as Chris Walas' The Fly II and Michael Spence's The Dread. Propstore is pleased to present select artifacts from Sullivan's personal collection, reflecting decades of work on the productions of the extraordinary Evil Dead films, including rare surviving pieces from the Within the Woods short that started it all, hand-drawn Necronomicon pages, original Deadite make-up appliances, a Kandarian dagger, and the only Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (then called the Naturom Demonto) from the first Evil Dead film known to exist today.