very well done!

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2000)

[WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!]
I'll admit that although I love halloween, scaring people, ghosts, and such related topics I generally hate horror films. why? very simple. they are, generally speaking, unoriginal, unscary, uninteresting garbage. and please don't misinterpret that statement as meaning I'm against gore, not at all, I will explain in due time.
the thing I love about The Evil Dead Series is that each film stands out from the others in it's own unique way. in The Evil Dead, the original low budget foray with Ash into the woods, that stand out feature is innovative mood and texture through camera work and creative special effects.
the most talked about feature of Evil Dead is this "force"... a series of takes where an unseen force races through the forest, over stumps and around trees, down inclines, banking left and right, shaking errily, from the force's perspective. this is a great mood setter. others include an entire tight-as-piano-wire sequence filmed nearly entirely at 45-degree angles, and a tracking shot above the character's head as he moves through the cabin, the rafters swishing by in the foreground. Sam Raimi KNOWS how to use his camera to build tension.
and, although visually a little cheesy looking, the "meltdown" sequence at the end was quite grotesque. note to Army Of Darkness fans: you actually see limbs, heads, so on being hacked off throughout this movie. very grotesque.
from start to finish the film has clever touches: the monsters spit a white puss into the air when wounded. a clock stops for nearly the entire movie, suddenly coming to life at one point running backwards, the pendulum smashing against the sides of the box violently. during a "dismemberment" sequence we see quick flashes of an axe brought into frame as blood sprays onto the wall behind it. blood is everywhere: dripping from pipes, the walls, and at one point actually running down the screen. "happy" 30's music plays on a victrola as one character goes insane. and, of course, the last shot, where the "force" jigsaws doors in half as it moves through the cabin. this isn't only brillantly scary stuff folks, this is a sick kind of art.
many people have previously stated that Campbell wasn't up to his usual standards in this movie, I for one would agree. BUT it's both his first movie and the character was written to be a wuss until he's forced to stand up for himself. no "groovy" in this picture folks. there is a bit of other humour, but it's very dark. some of the gore is so exessive it's funny in itself. don't mistake the bad dialouge for a bad script, that was very intentional.
want to see one of the coolest horror films ever made? there's Evil Dead. otherwise, you always have masterpeices like Urban Legends....