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My Name Is Bruce

My Name Is Bruce is an American comedy-horror film in which the B-movie actor Bruce Campbell plays a fictionalized version of himself, kidnapped by a teenage fan to fight a real monster in an Oregon mining town. Campbell also directed the film, which was written by Mark Verheiden and produced by Campbell and Mike Richardson for Dark Horse Entertainment, with distribution by Image Entertainment.1

Key factDetail
Director / starBruce Campbell, playing himself1
Writer / producersMark Verheiden (writer); Bruce Campbell and Mike Richardson (producers)1
Production / distributionDark Horse Entertainment; distributed by Image Entertainment1
ReleaseNew York opening 31 October 2008; Los Angeles opening the week of 19 December 2008; Dark Horse lists the film as 20071 • 2
Format86 minutes, color, sound, rated R, United States, English1
Reception41% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (39 reviews); Metascore 36 on Metacritic3 • 4

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in Gold Lick, Oregon, a small mining town. Teenagers who desecrate a cemetery awaken Guan-di (played by James J. Peck), the Chinese god of war and protector of the dead, whose task is to guard the graves of Chinese miners lost in a deadly cave-in years earlier. The demon sets out to kill everyone who transgressed against the tomb, relatives included, which amounts to virtually the entire population of the town.5

Jeff (Taylor Sharpe), the sole survivor of an encounter with Guan-di, kidnaps his idol, Bruce Campbell, star of countless B-movie horror films, believing the Evil Dead hero can defeat the monster in real life. Campbell, assuming the whole scenario is a publicity prank, is distracted along the way by a pretty mother and adoring fans before he has to face a dark force the film's synopsis calls more fearsome than a Hollywood agent.5 • 2 The Rotten Tomatoes synopsis adds that Campbell finds himself battling a dragon and trying to make a good impression on the teenager's mother.3

Cast and crew

Campbell heads a cast drawn largely from his circle of collaborators. Ted Raimi plays Campbell's agent Mills Toddner and also the character Wing; Grace Thorsen plays Kelly; Taylor Sharpe plays Jeff; Ellen Sandweiss plays his ex-wife Cheryl; and Danny Hicks plays the Dirt Farmer. Ben McCain appears as the Mayor and Tim Quill as Frank.2 • 5

Behind the camera, Kurt Rauf was director of photography, Scott Smith edited the film, Joseph LoDuca composed the music, and George Costello was production designer.1 In an interview, Campbell said many of the people in the film came from his hometown, and that publisher Mike Richardson, his co-producer, had long been involved in film production.6

Release

The film opened in New York on 31 October 2008 and in Los Angeles the week of 19 December 2008, per the American Film Institute catalog, which dates the film to 2008; Dark Horse Entertainment's own project page dates it 2007.1 • 2 Image Entertainment handled distribution, and the Australian Classification Board rated the DVD M (violence, sexual references and coarse language) on 20 January 2009.1 • 7

Reception

Critical response was mixed to negative. The film holds a 41% Tomatometer score from 39 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critics consensus that it succeeds or fails based entirely on the viewer's opinion of Bruce Campbell.3 On Metacritic it scored 36, labeled generally unfavorable, with 1 positive, 6 mixed, and 7 negative reviews among the 14 counted.4

Reviewers divided largely along lines of fan familiarity. Roger Ebert advised readers who did not already know Campbell to start with Evil Dead II and Bubba Ho-Tep before this film, calling it low midrange in the director's output.4 Variety described it as Campbell cheerfully embracing his cult B-movie status even as he sends it up, a big in-joke of definite if limited appeal.4 The Washington Post titled its review "Classic Campbell Camp," noting his fanbase rests on the Evil Dead films and Bubba Ho-tep.8 Slant Magazine found the self-deprecating references to Campbell's canon dominating the 86-minute runtime but judged them lethargic and more congratulatory than critical.9

Place in Campbell's career

The film is a self-parody built on Campbell's cult standing: the premise turns on fans mistaking the actor for his screen characters, particularly Ash from the Evil Dead trilogy.10 Reviewers grouped it with Bubba Ho-Tep as part of Campbell's strand of meta horror-comedy, and it remained his most recent feature as a director for years; his next directing effort, Ernie & Emma, was announced as the first film he had directed since 2007's My Name Is Bruce.11

References

  1. My Name Is Bruce (2008), AFI Catalog
  2. My Name is Bruce (2007), Dark Horse Entertainment
  3. My Name Is Bruce, Rotten Tomatoes
  4. My Name Is Bruce critic reviews, Metacritic
  5. My Name Is Bruce, Apple TV
  6. Bruce Campbell Interview, ART INTERVIEWS
  7. MY NAME IS BRUCE, Australian Classification
  8. 'My Name Is Bruce': Classic Campbell Camp, The Washington Post
  9. Review: My Name Is Bruce, Slant Magazine
  10. My Name Is Bruce, Cinegraph
  11. Evil Dead Star Bruce Campbell Has Revealed A Cancer Diagnosis, CinemaBlend

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Comedy horror films › 2000s and 2010s comedy horror films

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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My Name Is Bruce

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