One Book of the Dead, Slightly Used

That little getaway in the woods sure would have been much less eventful if Ash Williams and his pals hadn’t decided to read passages out of that creepy old book someone left behind. But we’re so glad they did—thereby awakening the forces of darkness, sparking the events of The Evil Dead and its sequels, launching Bruce Campbell into the goofy action hero pantheon, and giving horror fans endless delights over the past 40-plus years. And now, you can own the actual prop that started it all!

Well, that is, if you have $25,000 (to start), with an estimated final price of $50,000-$100,000, according to Propstore. The auction house’s latest entertainment-centric memorabilia sale, which also includes Luke Skywalker’s Medal of Yavin, is offering a screen-matched Naturom Demonto, aka Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, aka Book of the Dead, complete with hand-illustrated pages by special effects artist Tom Sullivan. He created the prop and is selling it from his own collection, so you know it’s authentic. (That said, it also comes with a letter of authenticity.)

What’s not certain is whether or not the words contained within will do any actual Kandarian Demon conjuring—but whoever puts in the top bid can decide the fate of the world on their own time. Here’s a look at the interior pages:

According to Propstore, “The Book of the Dead was featured in all three films of the original Evil Dead trilogy. It was referred to as the Naturom Demonto in The Evil Dead, but later as the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. [Director Sam] Raimi changed the book’s name after Sullivan told him about the Necronomicon that famously appeared in horror and science-fiction’s writer H.P. Lovecraft’s works, starting with the 1924 short story The Hound. This Naturom Demonto is the only Book of the Dead from the very first Evil Dead film known to survive today, and the only hero book ever created.”

In total you get the cover (cardboard, not actually human skin), with 38 pages of hand-illustrated pages. Propstore notes “[Sullivan’s] main inspiration for the imagery [was] Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks on anatomy. For the ancient symbols, Sullivan devised his own alphabet that he humorously called ‘Bullscrit.’”

Bidding for this very cool and genuinely spooky piece of horror history ends Wednesday, March 28; you can visit Propstore to find out how to get in on the auction. Klaatu… barada… necktie!

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