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Directed By
Sam Raimi
Written By:
Sam Raimi
Cast:
Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Theresa Tilly, Kurt Rauf, Ted Raimi, Ivan Raimi, Scott Spiegel, John Cameron, Richard DeManincor, Philip A. Gillis, Betsy Baker, Dorothy Tapert, Cheryl Guttridge, Barbara Carey, David Horton, Wendall Thomas, Don Long, Stu Smith, Bill Vincent, Mary Beth Tapert, Joanne Kruse, Gwen Cochanski, Debie Jarczewski
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The Evil Dead (1981)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
March 2nd, 2008
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'The Evil Dead' is one of the most beloved of all horror films, at least among genre fans, despite its rather lukewarm reception upon release in the early 80s. It developed an enormous cult following, and watching it again recently I realized (perhaps belatedly) that Eli Roth's Cabin Fever owes practically everything to it; I hated that movie, but have a deep affection for this one, primarily because it strikes a near-perfect balance between comedy and horror, some moments are legitimately scary, others are laughably absurd, and the whole feature itself is remarkably entertaining.
'The Evil Dead' is also sensationally, excessively gory, a no-holds barred bloodfest, buckets of blood pouring out of putrid undead creatures. Bruce Campbell probably showered for days afterwards, the goop he gets covered in. Campbell has become a cultural icon of sorts; his performance here made him a star, with the introduction of his iconic character Ash, who emerges as the only survivor after a particularly heinous and chaotic night of watching his friends turn into cannibalistic demons. Ash, his sister Cheryl, his girlfriend Linda, and additional companions Scott and Shelley decide to spend the night at a dilapidated old cabin deep in the woods. Something makes strange noises in the cellar, so Scott and Ash investigate, only to find a tape recorder that contains the rantings of an occultic researcher who discovered an incantation that raises the dead. And sure enough, they listen to said incantation, which promptly conjures up some kind of evil force. The tape scares Cheryl, who shortly thereafter hears a voice outside her window and decides to head out into the forest in the middle of the night, where she gets sexually molested by tree branches. So, she joins the traditions of the stupid female protagonists who mindlessly stumble into certain death by doing exactly what logic should tell them not to do. Boy, she sure is ugly and gross, but so too is Linda, who turns into a cackling maniac. Ash remains human, though I honestly don't know how, considering he repeatedly comes into contact with tainted blood and gets stabbed and bitten, which apparently has no effect on him.
The acting is deliberately bad, whether this indicates the inexperience of the cast, or was intended by Raimi with the type of dialogue he created. Campbell may actually be the most convincing, but Raimi makes sure to emphasize many of his reaction shots, the look of terror for instance when Scott takes an ax and hacks away at Shelley. Ash is not so willing to do that to Linda; he hesitates to dismember her with a chainsaw and settles for burying her physically intact. A few sudden jolts occur here and there, and the tree rape scene is very unsettling, and I really liked much of the camerawork, even those scenes where Ash is shot at weird angles, and the make-up effects, and the use of stop-motion animation to capture the decomposition of the demons, and the nasty stuff that oozes out of them. Admittedly, I probably like Army of Darkness better than this movie, and I may also like Evil Dead II slightly more, but all three films are wacky, goofy, zany fun.
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 | Chris
Mar 2, 2008 7:34 PM
also wrote a review of The Evil Dead 
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| Evil Dead II is actually better then the first one in my opinion, just because its more of a remake then it is a necessary sequel. This ranks as one of my favorite horror/comedies along with Shaun of The Dead. I really didnt enjoy Army of Darkness as much though, but it has more gore and certainly more pace. |
 | Zombie Boy
Mar 2, 2008 8:14 PM
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| If you watched as many low-budget horror stinkers as I do, you'd see that the acting in this film is actually quite good for the type of project it was. One of my all-time favorites, needless to say :) |
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Mar 2, 2008 8:13 PM