A Brilliantly Made Gore-Fest

Rating: 9/10 (27 November 2013)

The Evil Dead follows five college students driving out to a secluded cabin in an even more secluded forest. At first the five young adults have a fun time with one another until they explore the cellar in the cabin and find the Necronomicon Ex- Mortis, The Book of the Dead. They play a tape recording of the previous tenant of the cabin, Professor Knowby, who recites the incantation described in the book to unleash ancient Candarian demons from their slumber. Afterwards strange things begin to happen around them until a dark force begins to possess them one by one. Will any of them survive the night?
When I first saw The Evil Dead I liked it but didn't really give it much thought afterwards. However upon reevaluation and thinking of just how much work went into making it I've come to really appreciate it for its natural horror and have recognized it as one of my favorite horror films. The brilliant use of natural effects like fake blood, stop motion, realistic props really blend together masterfully and make this a truly disturbing experience.
The cast deserves major recognition for their work. Of course the one everyone remembers is Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams who in this movie isn't the snarky, one-liner spouting walking bag of awesome he becomes in the later movies but is still a great character here as he has to gain courage through the night and take charge against the Deadites that are trying their hardest to kill him. Another stand out cast member is Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl, Ash's sister, who at first is the common scared girl we see in most horror films. But when she becomes possessed she turns into an entirely different character. She threatens them all in a dark booming voice and spouts a few lines that are almost comedic in a dark way. It's a chilling performance and without it the movie wouldn't be half as effective.
The rest of the cast do a great job too. Betsy Baker plays Linda, Ash's girlfriend, who really shines as a Deadite. Her creepy smile combined with the brilliant makeup make her one of the scariest looking characters in any horror film. And then we have Richard DeManicor as Scotty and Theresa Tilly as his girlfriend Shelly, who were both credited with different names as the Screen Actors Guild wouldn't allow them to star in such a film as this. What's interesting is that Scotty is set up to be the hero for the first half of the film but by the halfway point we switch perspectives to Ash who is forced to watch all his friends suffer and die one by one.
Where this movie shines is in its effects. This movie was made on a very little budget by people with little to no experience filming professionally and yet they managed to pull it off exceedingly well. From the cuts and bruises the characters endure to the demonically possessed students almost nothing in this film looks fake. Although there are some noticeable instances where an obvious dummy was used and the stop motion might be considered dated by this time but still in a time where CGI was barely used if at all it's amazing to see this kind of practicality in a movie made by a bunch of college kids.
The Evil Dead series gets progressively campier as each film goes on but make no mistake, this film is straight up horror. There are a few unintentional humorous moments to be found in the dialog or a few visual gags here and there but if you're expecting the same kind of humor as its sequels you certainly won't find it here. And what's great about the horror in this movie is it's constantly building you up. You know something is going to happen. You know the movie is just biding its time leading up to the next scare and just when you think you know something is going to happen it doesn't, only to happen about a second later when you've let your guard down. There's a real atmosphere to the cabin and surrounding woods and you feel just as trapped and paranoid as Ash does.
The film lives on a diet of blood and gore so if you've got a weak constitution for that kind of stuff you may want to think twice before seeing this film. The standout scene that really scared me though comes in the first half hour where Cheryl goes to investigate mysterious voices coming from the woods and starts getting attacked by tree branches that proceed to rip her clothes to shreds, spread her legs apart and for the coup de grace a tree branch launches in between her legs. This happens for a good 2 to 3 minutes and you're forced to watch the entire thing play out. She manages to escape sure but it's still a terrifying scene and probably the only one that really disturbed me afterwards.
However as I said there is a lot to appreciate in terms of how this movie was crafted. This is the first theatrically released film of Sam Raimi, who would later go on to direct the Spider-Man Trilogy and the recently released Oz: The Great and Powerful. And after seeing this movie and looking back on those I can see just how much Evil Dead still influences his style.
All in all The Evil Dead is a classic horror film that will leave you guessing what's going to happen every minute. It may start out slow but once it gets going with the horror it doesn't stop until the credits roll. It's a great movie for horror enthusiasts, aspiring filmmakers, and anyone else looking for a good old fashioned gore flick. I definitely recommend it.