A $350,000 masterpiece of American horror.

Rating: 10/10 (25 March 2013)

Around the time John Carpenter's "Halloween" was spawning an avalanche of blood-soaked imitators, a motley crew of Detroit filmmakers ventured into the isolated woods of Tennessee. With a $350,000 budget and eye-popping make-up effects from Tom Sullivan, director Sam Raimi unleashed a film that would change modern American horror forever. And that film I'm talking about is "The Evil Dead".
Five college-age friends spend the weekend at a deserted mountain cabin. In the dark basement they find and play recordings of mystical incantations, which elevate an angry group of hell demons intent on devouring their souls. One by one the luckless students are controlled by the demons except the mild-mannered and deviant Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell). Thus, Ash has no other choice but to mutilate the living corpses of his sister (Ellen Sandweiss), girlfriend (Betsy Baker) and two of his friends (Sarah York & Hal Delrich).
While overcoming the problematic shoot for the cast and crew, Raimi unwittingly made horror film history in making the final survivor a male instead of the typical female victim in most '80s slashers. And Bruce Campbell is seemingly perfect for the role of Ash Williams. With his blue work shirt and all-American looks, Campbell played Ash as the average Joe who is not a jock or a ladies man but as someone whom we can root for. Stylistically, Raimi balances slow-moving suspense with his signature brand of humor more understated than the over-the-top aesthetic of the later sequels. Unfortunately, the filmmakers would soon find themselves in hot water.
When "The Evil Dead" hit movie screens in the United Kingdom, the film received an X rating and being named as a video nasty mainly because of the notorious "tree-rape" scene. I found the whole video nasty controversy to be ridiculous because Sam Raimi was out to create a horror film he wanted to make without executive interference and egotistical actors. And it doesn't deserve to be categorized along with the exploitative likes of "Faces of Death".
"The Evil Dead" is a $350,000 masterpiece of American horror that must be seen to believe.