Morsoth's Necronomicon Prop!

[Morsoth]

*** See below for my Evil Dead Necronomicon Replica project! ***

Hey guys! Just a quick pop-up because I know some of you might be interested!

I made my own replica or prop book of the Necronomicon (also known as Al Azif) based on the writings by H.P. Lovecraft.

The book was made from scratch: I collected the information, edited and designed the document, printed the pages, bound them in an hardcover book and made the cover in leather.

You can read and see pictures of the Making of in 7 parts, on my blog: https://druidcraftblog.wordpress.com/category/necronomicon/

You can also pause the video to look at 3 specific pages:

• Lovecraft mentions the page 751 in “The Dunwich Horror”, a page that contains a long chant capable of summoning Yog-Sothoth if used at the right time. I knew very well about this one, and so I knew my book was to be at least 760 pages.
• Author Brian Lumley mentioned the page 224 in “The Horror at Oakdeene”, which contains the Hoy-Dhin Chant.
• Then, Lovecraft mentions the page 984 (Selected Letters of H.P. Lovecraft IV) that contains a passage in the Naacal, but no translation is given.

I decided to end the book at page 999 for two reasons. With 999 pages, I obtain the number ‘666’ reversed, the number of the beast — even if the Catholic Devil doesn’t have any connection with the Necronomicon, I think it’s a funny trivia! A note worth mention is that Lovecraft and others refers to the Necronomicon not as one unique book, but by various copies, versions and different translations hidden around the world. Not all the books have the same content and the same number of pages. My version of the Necronomicon is in English, and contain absolutely everything known to exist in any of the books from the Mythos stories. Let’s call it the "Complete Necronomicon"! For that reason, I wanted my pages 224, 751 and 984 to fit what was known from the stories, even if originally, they are pages picked from diverse editions. Only a hardcore fan would know that anyway!

I hope you enjoy the flip-through!

 

[MaidOfKandar]

Cool!

 

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

Great to see you're still around and making replicas Patrick! You were making Evil Dead bits and pieces years before I'd even thought of running BookOfTheDead.ws

 

[Morsoth]

Yes, I'm always there! My next project will be a Evil Dead Necronomicon replica. I want to do it for years, but now I feel that I can make it right!

 

[Morsoth]

The moment has come!!! Today begins the making of my Evil Dead Necronomicon replica! This is far from the end, but I'll posts updates on my blog! If you click on this link, you'll see more steps and details about my version of the book.

For now, all the pages from The Evil Dead are made and printed, and I'm currently working on the 8 Lost Pages (that will be re-integrated in the book):

It's a fun (overdue) project and I'll keep you updated here!

 

[Deadite_Scholar]

I love that you included the elder sign on the back of the Lovecraft Necronomicon. I'm also pleased to hear of your inclusion of page 751. "The Dunwich horror is one of my top three Lovecraft stories.

On your Evil Dead Necronomicon, which version are you basing it on? One of the movies, or the show? Maybe a composite of them all?

 

[Morsoth]

Thank you!!! The Dunwich Horror is also in my top fav, can't wait wait to see the new adaptation coming in 2021, by Richard Stanley.

For Evil Dead, I decided that it'll be a a composite of them all. Most of the order is from The Evil Dead, but in-between pages 35-36 I'll add the pages from Evil Dead 2 and Ash vs Evil Dead. If two versions of the pages exist, I'll use the oldest one. By example, I just finished the page of "The Prophecy" AKA "He Who Delivers Us", and my version is based on Evil Dead 2, even if a version in Ash vs Evil Dead exist:

The book will have 132 pages (or 66 double-sided sheets) and I finally decided to use the Ash vs Evil Dead cover. I'll sculpt the design in clay, but everything will be covered in real thin leather.

 

[Elise41]

I really enjoy seeing all of the renditions of the same page side by side. Very cool! Great post.

 

[Morsoth]

I love doing comparisons! That page will be tweaked again to match the Evil Dead 2 version even better. I'm still unhappy with the look of the rocks behind Ash. I just spent hours doing the Kandar Castle page, so I think I can handle it better now!

 

[Morsoth]

The Kandar Castle page is done! That one was really a challenge... I needed 3 (terrible low-res) pictures to complete the image. So, it's not entirely 100% exact, but it is pretty similar. I never really saw fans making this one in their Necronomicon, and it's not on ElderProps either. I consider uploading the Lost Pages in Hi-Res after I'm done, but I'm not sure if it goes against Tom Sullivan's copyrights. I'll have to ask before doing it.

Now, I'll correct the "Prophecy/Hero from the Sky" page tonight, and all the Lost pages will be done!

 

[Morsoth]

The 8 original “Lost Pages” of the Necronomicon from Evil Dead 2 are finished! Now I’m working on the new pages inside the Necronomicon from Evil Dead 2.

 

[Morsoth]

I finished the Evil Dead 2 pages from the opening sequence! That was a great challenge! 14 new pages needed to be made, but with a better analysis of the frames, they are not completely the same as I though in my first post. To make them, I used Photoshop to generate all the images from the video sequence, sourced from my Blu-ray edition, so I could work with pictures having a ratio of 1920 x 1038 pixels. Here they are:

Now, you’ll see that I have another “Screaming Book” page in there. There is one very obvious in The Evil Dead, when Ash flip the pages of the book in the cellar, but the one in Evil Dead 2 is slightly different — but different enough that I wanted it in my replica. It seems that the one from The Evil Dead is an angry Necronomicon, while the one in Evil Dead 2 is burning (like the end of The Evil Dead). That page is really hard to make out in Evil Dead 2, but when you see all the frames individually, and adjust the contrast/brightness, you can see that it is there. Also, Tom Sullivan himself remade that page for the DVD “Book of the Dead” edition in 2002. The screen capture is so dark that I could not make out the writings on the page, below the screaming book illustration. It’s pretty rare because I could make out all of the other pages. Anyway, because I don’t want the coded message from the “Book of the Dead” DVD Edition (“Help me I’m burning what a world. Anybody?”) I decided to use a page made by ElderProps and use the symbols:

Next: The Ash vs Evil Dead pages!

 

[EvilDeadChainsaws]

Great to see you're still working hard on Evil Dead projects after all these years Patrick!

 

[Morsoth]

Hey guys, would you like some Necronomicon trivia?!

Yesterday, I revised the complete introduction sequence of Evil Dead 2 as a quality check, and found out that I missed two pages – however, these two pages are incomplete because they are hidden by other pages flipping on them. When previous pages were obscured by shadows, I could work with Photoshop in adjusting the contrast/lightning but this time, it is impossible to find what the symbols looks like. I’ll add them in my replica, but I’ll need to use my imagination (or something from ElderProps) to complete them. So, here they are:

THE ‘MISTAKES’ OF TOM SULLIVAN:

Now, this is interesting! During the double-check of the scene, I found two ‘mistakes’ made by Tom! Now be assured, Tom is an absolutely amazing artist, and he probably made those ‘mistakes’ because he wanted to! Let’s see the first one:

When I fist re-traced the symbol on that page, at first, I was sure it was only random spots, and my version came out like this:

Obviously, I wasn’t happy with it, but judging by how the page is dark and slightly out of focus, it was the best I could do with it. But then, I looked at the page again, and then I saw it!!! That page is in The Evil Dead book! However, that page has been flipped from top to bottom for Evil Dead 2. Now, I only say it,s a ‘mistake’ because the “Skull Symbol” that start the text is now reversed and at the very end of the page, upside-down!

The second one is, again, not a true mistake, but I found out that Tom used the same page twice in Evil Dead 2! Here the locations of the page:

They are the exact same symbol, but Tom re-draw them as they have slightly little changes in spacing and thickness. When I made my re-tracing, I blind-fully did that page twice, and I just saw it yesterday! My symbols are pretty much the same, but they differ a little when the shadows are too dark. For my replica, I’ll only use of them, but I’ll combine the two version and make a ‘best’ version.

It’s so fun to study that Necronomicon in the details, now I feel like I’m Raymond Knowby…

 

[camerondouglaswood@gmail.]

Hi, I know this thread is a few years old, but I've been looking for a good quality version of this page and your version is just incredible.

Unfortunately a lot of the photos on this thread seem to be dead links, how could I go about getting a file of the page from you?

For Evil Dead, I decided that it'll be a a composite of them all. Most of the order is from The Evil Dead, but in-between pages 35-36 I'll add the pages from Evil Dead 2 and Ash vs Evil Dead. If two versions of the pages exist, I'll use the oldest one. By example, I just finished the page of "The Prophecy" AKA "He Who Delivers Us", and my version is based on Evil Dead 2, even if a version in Ash vs Evil Dead exist: